We all know how big a step moving into halls is. It’s your first time living away from home AND you are living with people that you’ve never met before. Sometimes though, that happiness is short lived after you realise something…the differences between your roommates and yourself! How do you deal with it; lie low and bear with it, or let your frustration get the better of you and confront the problem head on? At HC, all of us have had experiences first hand with neighbours who got on our last nerve. So here’s a guide to the five infuriating factors which will cause your happy life in halls to turn ugly.
1. Lack of Hygiene
Living with someone whose cleanliness can be put to question is not a nice situation. In fact, it can be hard, even unbearable. From odours to left spillages in the kitchen, we’ve all got that person who thinks someone else will clean up for them. It is irritating when you are bombarded with unpleasant smells when you step out your room.
What should you do? What would be the right way to rid yourself (and your fellow roommates) without pin-pointing out one of them? Surely not leaving sticky notes, that would be mean; I don’t think keeping quiet will cut it either. I’ve currently got this problem in my hallway, and I’m personally considering purchasing cheap gel air fresheners and lining them at different point of the hall. Of course you will have to invest money and there’s the risk of people stealing them for their own room but at least the air fresheners would cover up the smell which has been haunting you…
2. Laziness
This relates to the previous point of people who are too lazy to do their dishes. Here at HC, most of the girls have stories of how they dealt with the oh-so-annoying lazy person in their hall that never cleaned. No one has the intention to cause awkwardness among the group, so the more preferred way would be to comically put across the message for them to wash up. For example, one of the girls had a roommate who drew a puppy with a gun on a post it and addressed the roommate to clean her dishes or “the puppy gets it”. Obviously an empty threat but the message is clear: we’re annoyed and you need to do your dishes.
3. “Sharing” your stuff in the fridge
From what I’ve learned living in halls, if you have written your room number/name on your stuff then the majority of room-mates will avoid using them. There is, of course, the person who ignores the sign regardless. Last week I was a victim of this, and I felt violated. I will admit that I felt like I had PTSD and in the time of recovery I wrote a not-so-nice letter addressing the tenants of my hall. Being honest, it appeared to be more of a humorous advertisement for the Key Store…no one really had a reaction. So what’s my advice? Let your anger fester in your being and it will mellow out over time. You’ll get over it soon enough.
4. Sexism
Talking of the kitchen, sexism seems to also be a problem in halls. You’d think that as it is the 21st century then there’d be no issues between mixed sex room-mates. Another HC member told me that one of the guys in her flat implied that she should do the dishes as she is a woman!
If I was in this situation I would mentally scold him, but in reality I would rant about him to my friends or to anyone. I think in this case, speaking up about your opinion on the matter would cause friction between the guy and yourself but it would show that you weren’t going to take that sort of treatment. Talking to the people in your flat may or may not help because it could stop the sexist comments, but it could also cause the guy to feel awkward because it would be mean.
5. Loud Sex
As young adults, the majority of us are sexually active,*cue the Juno reference* but should you have sex in halls when you’re knowingly putting your roommates through hell? Having to listen to noisy sex must truly be disturbing and you can’t exactly say something to the person as it would be cringey for both parties. In this case I’d suggest keeping quiet and turning your iPod up!
No matter how much anger you may feel towards your room-mates remember that they could have problems with your habits. You don’t want to be that girl, the one whose passive-aggressiveness caused her room-mates to be awkward around her. So be careful with your decisions, you never know what the repercussions will be. On the plus side, you have unlimited heating and hot water, so take advantage of this year in halls!