Sharing accommodation is one way of coping with your cost of living. However, in addition to the financial and economic benefits, having housemates can also offer a way of meeting new people and making new friends, a way of learning about different cultures and a way of developing your own independence and creating a support network.

To make this sharing experience a success, you need to follow a few simple but very important rules and guidelines before deciding on living with other housemates.

It can be a good idea to agree in advance how things like cleaning, buying household supplies and cooking are going to work before agreeing to move in.

Sounds trivial? It’s not.

You may be afraid of appearing petty when you discuss, with perfectly nice people, or worse, your close, good friends about mundane things like who’s going to tidy up, who’s going to clean the bathroom and who will do the groceries once you start sharing a house. You take it for granted that everyone will automatically do their bit without being reminded. If you are extremely lucky, it may happen. But more often than not, the opposite happens and the resulting scenario is one of frustration and confusion.

Things such as preparing meals, shopping, bills, cleaning and social rules should all be talked about.

Many people ignore these potential time bombs as being too trivial and unimportant and regret it later when things take a turn for the worse, leaving good friends angry, bitter, hurt and feeling used and/or abused.

So how does one tackle this problem?

No matter who your housemates are going to be – friends, perfect strangers or acquaintances, the same underlying principle applies:

        o   Setting up house rules is the only way of eliminating a situation where one person is left to do everything. Sit down in advance and chalk out everyone’s duties, taking into account work timings, classes and availability. Do not feel that it is unnecessary or petty. Even amongst adults, a sense of duty may be conspicuously lacking.

        o   A roster system is probably the best and simplest way of allocating work. It should include things like shopping, dusting and vacuuming, cleaning the toilet and bathroom, taking out the trash, paying utilities bills, cooking and dishwashing duties, and routine jobs such as cleaning the windows, stove, fridge, and maintaining the garden.

        o   Each housemate should be responsible for their own laundry and bedroom. It is important to work out how often each chore is to be done. What is to be done with people who do not do their share of work is up to those who share the house.

However, as with all things, the roster should be open to suggestions and changes.

If you are considerate and set firm boundaries you should all get on well. As long as you communicate and go over these ground rules every now and again you should be able to live peacefully with your housemates.