Shelby Clements gives her gripes of living in communal accommodation.

 If your lady flat mate bakes a cake, under no circumstance is it okay for you to eat it while she is at a work meeting.

I have lived in a number of share houses and I feel like there are a few things that need to be addressed from the beginning otherwise you and your new roomies will start playing a game known as *chicken; dishes chicken, cooking chicken, cleaning chicken, you get the idea.

*Chicken is where you and your freshly acquired extended family play the waiting game to see who will crack first and do that particular chore, once you crack though you become that person who will be consistently responsible for that duty, FOREVER.

There are some basics that come to living with others in a share house.

I, in particular live with three young men, which I love, some have compared it to the popular tv show New Girl (which it is nothing like really) and not saying that my flat mates aren’t wonderful, but I have a few gripes that I feel are common courtesy.

Here for your reading pleasure are five things that should really be followed in any share house:

1. If you eat off it/from it, you at least put it on the sink, and if you’re feeling generous, wash it up.

2. If the bin is overflowing with the gross left overs you had for lunch or dinner, you change the bin bag, and again if you’re feeling like being particularly motivated, put the old bag in the Otto bin outside.

3. If your lady flat mate bakes a cake, under no circumstance is it okay for you to eat it while she is at a work meeting.

Shelby’s experiment

4. If you have a poignant stink, whether that is your work socks or general bo, don’t sit on the couch for hours stinking out the lounge room.

5. Don’t leave your clothes in the washing machine for longer than the wash cycle it takes to clean them. Not only does it monopolises the machine, but they get smelly all over again and thus creates more washing.

Live on college? Read Jamie Jeffery’s tips to a peaceful block.

Image: Shelby Clements