Thursday 13 October 2011

Flat-mate Etiquette

2 days ago I came back from my class to my flat and walked passed our kitchen, took a quick glance in and saw one of my flat mates in a towel in there - obviously just out of the shower. I kept walking and went into my room, I then began to wonder if I should have stopped to say hello or if it would've been weird considering she was in her towel and I was fully clothed. After some careful consideration I decided that going to my room was the best decision, after all, I wouldn't want someone having a conversation with me if I was wrapped in a towel.

So, I thought I need to write something about flat etiquette. Are there general rules that everyone already knows? 

Obviously everyone knows that they should clean up after themselves, but is there also a rule that says if the cleaning isn't done immediately someone else in the flat is allowed to complain like an old lady? I understand that if someone's dirty dishes are in the sink for over a week you have a right to be annoyed, but sometimes, people just don't want to wash all their shite right away. And that's fine! There's no need to put a sign up in the kitchen chastising us over some dirty dishes. 

What about noise? Is there a rule that states that the noise coming from your room must be a certain level? If there is, no one is paying attention to it. I know in my flat that we don't really socialise much together so it can be a bit awkward to tell someone that their music is too loud or their dirty pan has attracted a hoard of violent bugs. 

There are 6 people all together in my flat and I can pretty much categorise them like this;
  1. In room 1 - the foreign guy who likes his own mates and stays in his room all night. Like cooking at wtf o'clock in the morning.
  2. Room 2 - the girl from back home, who lives up to the Irish stereotype - drunk all the time. Misses lectures and spends most of her time in the flat upstairs with all the other alco's
  3. Room 3 - the gay guy that I made friends with straight away. Likes a drink but does his work first. Is actually a very nice bloke and has the same idea of uni as I do
  4. Room 4 - the angry cleaner. Leaves notes complaining that the kitchen is dirty and steals your dishes. Likes to have strawberries and cream with her boyfriend when she thinks no one is in ;)
  5. Room 5 - me! You know me, I like a drink but I like to sleep more. Came to uni to work, but likes to go out at the weekend.
  6. Room 6 - the new girl, moved in after everyone else and we still aren't sure of her name. Likes everything loud, drinks a lot and makes a lot of noise in the kitchen with #1 in the morning.
So, if you can read, you'll see that we're all quite different and view pretty much everything differently. I can talk to rooms 2 and 3 pretty easily as we all got pissed our 2nd night here. Room 4 stays in her room all the time and we barely see her unless she's cleaning. Rooms 1 and 6 and phantom's, I'm not sure if there is even someone living there or not. But we all have our own ways of doing things and no one really wants to point out that someone else is a messy/noisy/drunken shite. We do our own stuff, but eventually someone will cross the line and we'll all die.

Doeddwn i erioed i'n mynd i roi hyd. Peidiwch byth â mynd i adael i chi i lawr. Peidiwch byth â mynd i redeg o gwmpas a anialwch i chi.

4 comments:

  1. - The guy in room 1 is an Asian.
    - other Irish lass has to be from the south
    - always a gay one.
    - Haha, we used to have an angry cleaner. He was 6'3" and scary as shit. We used to intentionally leave a mess to see his vein bulge.

    One rule you should establish is no wanking in the shower. Indians like to do that... and poo with the door unlocked.

    It takes longer to make friends with the weird ones. It just takes finding that thing you both like. Mine was being a pirate with the angry cleaner.

    I have never been rick rolled so awesomely.... Bad Rachel.

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  2. He's from Cyprus actually. I think :P
    She's from Belfast :P
    The gay guy is awesome
    The angry cleaner is just odd, she gets pissed if we don't put the kettle back on the holdster :P

    I have an ENSUITE, so I hope no one will be wanking in my shower!! We talk, but the angry cleaner decided to give up drinking the same week she started uni, so it's a bit awkward when we're all pissed and she's just sitting there. :P

    MY RICK ROLL I AWESOME!

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  3. I have only just come across this blog! Extact same views as myslef ;D I think we discussed this at the table one time. No idea why we never did that again :( I have to ask who was the person in the towel? Let me guess, girl from room 6, haha.

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  4. Hahaha! I'd almost forgotten about this, and when I'd seen you commented I panicked a little! I thought 'What if it's an angry comment because I called him 'the gay one'?' The girl in the towel was Laura, I came back one day and she was making tea or something and I walked past and sort of did a double take and she looked like she wanted to talk to me so I worried a little that she thought I was being rude :P

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