Top 10 tips for a clean House Share

Although the communal areas are cleaned every two weeks, housemates are expected to maintain the property to a good standard of cleanliness and hygiene in between times.

Also, one of the main reasons that landlords withhold money from a tenant’s DEPOSIT when they leave is to cover the cost of cleaning, not just the room you rent but your share of the house.

Living in a shared house should feel like home. For this to be possible, a clean and tidy environment is essential. Follow our top tips:

Create a rota

It’s advisable to draw up a cleaning rota with other housemates over a bottle of wine, for example! Or a cup of tea.

Be Tidy

The evening before the cleaner calls to your house share, put all rubbish in the bin, do the dishes and clear the worktops – this will allow the cleaners to do their job better, and your house will be cleaner.

Remove Personal belongings

Please don’t leave your personal belongings in the shared areas. Other tenants may be too polite to tell you it bothers them!

Defrost your freezer

It is up to housemates to remove old food from the freezer and  defrost it periodically = Total group respect!

Keep your Oven Clean

Place a layer of foil in the bottom of the oven to collect  spills. Replace when dirty. Yea it’s a pain, but housemates will  see you as their ‘Leader’, and you will all benefit from cooking in a clean oven in your shared house.

Use foil in the Grill

Similarly, place a layer of foil in the pan so it covers the top edges.  This will catch all grease and fat. Replace after use … Leader!

Microwave Cleaning Tip

The cleaners do clean the microwave but remember they only call once a fortnight. It is up to you to keep it clean on a daily basis. A dirty microwave is easily cleaned with a cup of lemon juice mixed with sodium bicarbonate placed inside and micro-waved for a couple of minutes. The lemon will evaporate and condense onto the metal surfaces melting the grease ready for a quick wipe out.

Tell your housemates to try it as a really cool scientific/magic experiment. The same mixture can be warmed and used to clean and deodorise a fridge or freezer.

Keep worktops clean

When preparing and disposing of food in your houseshare , please ensure that nothing is left out. Thoroughly clean any spillages, wipe down all surfaces and place all leftovers into an appropriate sealed container. Following these simple steps will prevent left-over food becoming irresistible bait to Mickey and his mates!

Keep the Showers clean

Use a shower de-scale spray on the shower screen and shower head and remember to open windows to ventilate the room and avoid mould. Cool and double cool!

Bomb the toilet!

To make it easy-peasy, buy a few ‘bleach-bombs’ and let them do their work overnight. Finish off the next day with another squirt of bleach and Flash bleach spray to clean the outsides. If you don’t like the harshness of bleach, there are lots of natural options available these days.