For my first year I lived in Clarice Cliff Court which has flats of between 4 and 6 people sharing a kitchen. All rooms have en-suite bathrooms which is one of the reasons I chose to live there. But I found it an adjustment to get used to sharing a kitchen with 4 other people but we manged to get along just fine.
As soon as we moved in we each chose a cupboard for our food and kitchen equipment. Each flat has enough cupboard space for two each, one mounted on the wall and on under the work surface. For our flat respecting each other’s privacy was a big thing, we always asked before going into someone else’s cupboard. You can put padlocks on each cupboard but this can cause problems. My view was to take a couple of padlocks and leave them off the cupboards unless things started to go missing.
Also during the first day, try to divide up who can have what space in the fridge-freeze. We had two fridge-freezers in our flat, one was bigger than the other so three of us shared the larger one and two of us the smaller one.
We avoided any arguments in the flat by trying to be considerate of each other. Eg. we had one cooker between us which meant that if there was more than one person cooking dinner at the same time then we tended to ask each other what space we all needed. It is sometimes just the small things that can make for a nicer sharing experience e.g. if someone has put the oven on to pre heat before they put their food in, then ask how many shelves they are using or make sure you only use one shelf and don’t fill up the oven.
We made a kitchen cleaning rota at the start of term, yet few others actually stuck to it. This can mean the all the cleaning can fall to one person which can cause tensions in the flat. If you make a rota try to stick to it or if you don’t, make sure you take your share of cleaning and always do your washing up. If you just clean your mess as you go then you will find life to be so much easier.Sharing
Finally, when you meet someone else from your flat in the kitchen then just be nice. This might seem a silly thing to say but even if they are not your cup of tea, if you are nice and friendly then it will make all the difference to the atmosphere in the flat in general, which will make for you having a lovely year.
Most people worry about getting on in halls but you will find your way and lots of people find the best of friends there and have the best time so just relax and enjoy (and be considerate too).
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