Updated with current information for 2022
So, you signed up for five person Athens Ohio rentals and actually thought life would be simple? Dream on! You may be living with your friends and these are days you’ll never forget, but that doesn’t mean you still won’t want to kill each other at least some of the time.
The folks at Huffington Post have some advice to reign in problems before they get out of control.
Start by setting some ground rules before people’s true colors come out. Outline cleaning duties from the beginning, perhaps with a chore chart that regularly rotates. Divvy up the fridge so everyone knows whose food is whose. And don’t be a jerk. It’s shared space, so everyone should feel at home. When you’ve got a packed house, respect everyone’s space.
Spreadsheets, calendars, whiteboards, oh my!
Splitting responsibilities amongst a large, odd number of people is not an easy task. There are several methods you can take to equitably distribute the chores of keeping your big five-bedroom rental clean and tidy.
First, before even deciding on a system, make sure you have clearly and outlined the responsibilities that the five-bedroom home actually has. Some people are cleaner than others, and not everyone will agree. The best you can all do is compromise and vote on issues. Majority rules. Some chore suggestions:
- Cleaning the driveway. If your rental has a parking space, keep it clean. This just means picking up cans and trash. Don’t let a dirty rental parking space be the reason you pop a tire.
- Cleaning the yard. Similarly, for apartments with a yard, you absolutely need to keep it clean. Failure to do so can result in fines and citations from the city.
- Scrubbing the windows. Sure, this may seem pedantic, but do you want the beautiful view from your apartment of Court Street be ruined by stains on the window? Exactly.
Anyway, here are some methods of dividing tasks in your home:
- The excel method: This requires some skill and programming experience (maybe you live with a CS or business major?). Either way, the objective is to program excel with each responsibility and use it like a calendar. Every task is highlighted and assigned, no one and nothing gets left behind.
- The calendar method: Like the excel method, but involves a physical calendar, be it hung up on paper or on a whiteboard.
- The floor method: Most five-bedroom rentals are split into floors that are themselves individual student rentals. In other words, a five-bedroom home is more likely a two bedroom apartment on top of a three-bedroom unit, or some alternative variation of that combo. Regardless, the strategy is to split responsibilities by floor. Each group has control over how the tasks are split and assigned. The benefit to this strategy is that it decentralizes the cleaning process, so there’s no fear of one person being stuck assigning all of the work.
Find a strategy that works, and stick with it. The more likely you and your four roommates are to stay committed to a cleaning schedule, the more likely you won’t have to worry about the cleanliness of your five bedroom rental.