Moving into a student house in second or third year is a completely different ballgame to your first year in halls. In freshers, you get randomly assigned a flat, bond over the chaos, and accept that someone you didn't choose might leave dishes in the sink for five days. But in your second or third year, you have actively chosen the people you live with. They are your close friends, which makes it feel amazing right up until the first cold snap hits, the heating bill lands, and nobody wants to bring up who forgot to buy loo roll.

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It’s almost never the massive fallouts that strain friendships; it’s the quiet, passive-aggressive build-up over small household admin. If you want to keep the house running smoothly and actually enjoy living together, here is what you need to sort out right now:

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1. The Bills Dilemma: Package vs Variable

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A lot of student houses decide to sign up for an unlimited bills-inclusive package through third-party providers just to remove the headache entirely. If that’s what your house did, brilliant. You know exactly what is going out each month without having to do maths every time someone takes an extra-long shower.

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However, if you aren't on an all-inclusive package and are managing direct utility accounts yourselves, you need to be on top of it. Don't let individual housemates crank up the thermostat in the hall whenever they feel a slight chill. Sit down as a house, agree on set timer windows for the heating in the morning and evening, and make sure everyone knows that standard energy tariffs in winter will eat up a loan remarkably fast if left unchecked.

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2. Get on Splitwise Immediately (I Cannot Emphasise This Enough)

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If there is one absolute non-negotiable for a shared student house, it’s a shared Splitwise. Inevitably, the house needs boring communal essentials: bin bags, fairy liquid, dishwasher tablets, salt, pepper, olive oil, and loo roll.

Nothing breeds resentment faster than one person constantly footing the bill at the supermarket while everyone else assumes things just magically restock themselves. Log every single shared expense the second you buy it and set a reminder to settle balances weekly.

Having an active house Splitwise also makes social stuff a million times easier, especially if you want to cook weekly house dinners together. One person can do the big ingredient run, split it equally in two taps, and no one is stuck chasing people for £3.40 over WhatsApp.

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3. Establish the Cleaning Rota (and Stick to it)

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Hoping that people will clean communal areas out of good vibes alone simply does not work. Everyone moves into a house with completely different standards of what "clean" means.

• Set up a clear weekly rota rotating the main jobs: kitchen surfaces and hob, vacuuming the stairs and hallway, and a proper bathroom deep clean
• Agree on an unwritten rule for the kitchen: clear and wash your plates or stick them in the dishwasher within 24 hours. Stacking dirty frying pans by the sink to "soak" until Friday ruins everyone's evening.

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4. Master the Council Bin Rota

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Bins are a notorious flashpoint across student streets in Exeter, and the last thing we want to do is annoy the council or our neighbours any more than necessary.

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• Exeter City Council runs alternating collection weeks for general waste, food caddy, and recycling - and missing collection day means living with overflowing black sacks on your front path for a fortnight.
• Check your address on the council bin lookup, screenshot the calender into your house chat, and add taking the bins out to the weekly cleaning rota.
• Make sure you pull bins back in after they are emptied so they aren't blocking the narrow pavements or getting kicked over by weekend crowds.

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5. Protect Your Space from Damp and Cold

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Older terraced student houses are practically designed to trap damp.

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• Never dry soaking wet laundry directly over bedroom radiators with the door and window shut. It is the number one cause of black mould spreading across bedroom walls
• Use a drying rack in a well-ventilated communal room or a bathroom with the extractor fan running
• Crack your bedroomwindow for just 10 minutes every morning to let moist air out and dry air in. It keeps condensation off your window sills and stops the house feeling musty

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6. Lock in a Weekly House Tradition

When everyone is juggling lectures, dissertation prep, society commitments, and part-time jobs, it’s surprisingly easy to become ships in the night who only communicate about bins. Make a conscious effort to do something regular together as a full house outside of the living room.

Whether it’s cooking that weekly house dinner together on a Monday or picking a local pub quiz to do every Tuesday, having an unmissable weekly ritual keeps your house feeling like a home rather than just a collection of bedrooms.

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