Issue 151

(Flat)mates for life

29th January 2007

Choosing the people you want to live with can be a daunting task, but it's an important decision.

Students leaving the halls accomodation and going into the second year where they have to choose their own flatmates seem to usually fall into two groups; either you can't decide which of your best buddies you want to bunk up with most or you can't work out which of these idiots you can stand long enough to live with. Either way, who you end up living with can affect your time at university considerably.

How to choose? Well you could choose them on the fact you all like the same drink, or perhaps wear the same size clothes (communal wardrobe anyone? Maybe not), or are on the same course.

Or you could leave it until the last minute and grab whatever and whoever's left; don't, the sooner you sort things out the better!

The first things you need to consider is how you like to live. If you like staying out late and are generally pretty nocturnal, you might not enjoy early birds being loud, bright and breezy first thing in the morning.

On the other hand, you might need someone like that to get you out of bed to a lecture! And having lazy slug-a-bed flatmates when you're capable of getting up before midday could work out advantageous when you discover that until 3pm the house is all your own and free of distractions so you can actually get some work done (if you wanted).

When you're in the first year there's often a lot of time for socialising, but bear in mind that your course is likely to get busier and demand more of your time and attention as it progresses, so living with the party crowd is probably not great if you're serious about getting a good degree; remember you don't have to live with people to remain friends with them.

Remembering that you don't need to have exactly the same habits to get on when living together will help; in fact having different interests, lectures and routines sometimes makes all the difference in how well you get on as a house. Living in each other's pockets is definitely not healthy, and narrows your experience. It might seem like a good idea to live in a house where you all do the same course but having friends of your own outside the house is very important too.

Apart from sleeping habits and personalities there are other things to consider, such as how well are they going to manage looking after themselves and the house? It makes your life a lot easier if you don't end up mothering a whole house full of clueless messy people who have never had to pick up for themselves before.

It's also important to think about how many people you want to live with; it doesn't have to be 5 or 6, 4 or 3 people are perfectly reasonable group sizes, but remember it can be lonely if there's not many of you and some of you go home often or see friends and stay over at boy and girlfriends houses regularly.

You need to decide what's important to you to have in a house. Do you need a communal sitting area where you can chill out together or host gatherings, or are you happy and tidy enough to just invade each other's space? How much cooking do you do as a group; how big a kitchen is needed? What about bathrooms? What about broadband? What about bills? Bills can be a problem; they're something you need to be on top of for a start but always make sure you know what you're doing and which bills you have to pay; it will vary depending on what kind of what kind of accommodation you're in.

When you've got your flatmates together and are house-hunting, have a list of must haves, as well as things you're willing to compromise on and talk about it together.

Look around, and be sure to get in as early as you can; there is very nice reasonably-priced accommodation in Swansea; one tip is to not take the first thing you see unless you're completely happy!

With a bit of planning and serious thinking, you'll have a happy and fun place to live with people who will hopefully enhance your time at university and probably your life beyond it.

After all, there's nothing like living with someone to get to know them!

Charlie Duff