I’ve been sharing houses and flats for four years now, and in all this time, I’ve come to the conclusion that flatmates can be classified very easily. For the first few weeks everything is perfect, but when the first month goes by… you start to see weird things and the truth comes to the surface. There are different types of flatmates, and of course there are. In this article we will just focus on the six worse that can be found… Let’s get to know them a bit!
The party animal
This specimen does not need much describing; its name says it all. You should expect finding him or her sleeping in the living room’s sofa – if he managed to get there after throwing up in the umbrella stand – or just in the hall floor after a wild night out. And although you think these things only happen in films, if you live with a party animal don’t be surprised if you walk into your house one night, after a long day at work, and find a huge party going on in the living room! This kind of flatmate needs strict rules from the very beginning about what is allowed and what is not, don’t be scared to be a little severe, you’ll thank yourself later for being a bit of a spoilsport.
The ghost
You know someone is supposed to be living in that room, but the door is always closed and if you stick your ear to the door you can’t hear a thing… so sometimes you are not sure if you are going nuts. This specimen may be just briefly seen in a couple of occasions during your entire coexistence hurrying into the room again after a quick stop at the kitchen or bathroom, as if this creature was scared of speaking or even making eye contact with the rest of humanity. The good thing about this kind of flatmate is that it will rarely bother you at all.
The clean freak
It’s usually a female and she seems lovely at the beginning, the perfect flatmate. She is chatty, funny… she almost looks normal! But after a couple of weeks, you start receiving mad looks if you leave your cup of tea in the kitchen table and do not wash it straight away… and let’s not mention the look in her eyes if you just forget to clean your assigned area of the week on the assigned day. Then, and only then, she will turn green – literally – and let her inner monster come to the surface. Just be prepared to suffer her angry words and evil looks every now and then. With a flatmate like this, you will learn for sure to be a bit tidier!
The messy one
Let’s go the other way around. While the clean freak cannot stand a bit of a messy kitchen or bathroom, this kind of flatmate is actually comfortable living in a dumpster. It would be alright if just his or her room was a mess – you would think that this specimen is usually male, but you’d be surprised of the growing number of females that you can find – but it’s only a matter of time before it extends to the common areas. Again, you have to be very specific about the rules from the beginning and keep an eye on the cleaning habits of this person. Who knows, perhaps it’s just that no one has ever taught this poor little thing how to use a mop and a cloth!
Warning: a clean freak and a messy flatmate should not live together; they would literally kill each other. Make sure you don’t have these two species living under the same roof, you might end up hurt!
Mama’s boy/girl
Let’s be honest and a bit blunt, we can say that this is just a useless being at the beginning of the coexistence. He or she does not know how to do the most basic things. They do not know how to cook – not even boil an egg –, the oven seems too complicated for them to use, they do try to clean but they always end up making a bigger mess and you cannot really tell the difference… They need you to be a bit of a mum to them during the first months, until they learn to take care of themselves. Then everything should be alright and you will know how proud parents feel when their kids start to do things by themselves.
The annoying couple
You can find this pair anywhere – in a restaurant, cinema, zoo, etc. – but you cannot imagine what it is like to live with them. Imagine this couple feeding and baby-talking each other constantly, kissing noisily, making not-very-sexy noises when they get more intimate only a few inches away just behind your bedroom’s wall… and that’s the best bit, when they get along! But when they fight, oh dear, you don’t want to be around! There’s crying, shouting and one of them will sleep in the sofa for a few nights until they go back to the kissing noisily and baby-talking. Just lovely!
So, if you are thinking about sharing a flat or a house, be careful with whom do you choose to do so! If you have the opportunity to get to know your flatmates before actually moving in with them, please do. It’s a great idea to try to have a good chat with the people living in the house you are taking a look at – because you should always arrange a meeting to see the house and room you want to rent. There are also other ways to get to know your future flatmates in advance, such as Weroom, a website where you can “find your home and the people you want to share it with” as every now and then they organize events where you can go to meet possible future flatmates while looking for somewhere to live at the same time. Thanks to websites like this one, you may be able to avoid extreme variants of the species we just analyzed!
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