It\u2019s sad but true: if you\u2019ve ever lived in a shared house before, you\u2019ve almost definitely encountered that frustrating creature, the passive aggressive housemate.<\/p>\n
Whether it was your university flatmate who always found an excuse before they found money to pay you back with, the mystery sharer who never emerged to clean the kitchen when it was their turn or a co-habitant who picks holes in every system you try and implement to keep the peace, this monster always pops up in one form or another during your life as a house sharer.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there\u2019s no magic solution to passive aggression from someone you share a roof with. For smaller gripes, a begrudging acceptance can be the best antidote. However, these disputes oftentimes involve money and cleanliness, both of which you owe each other as members of the same household.<\/p>\n
In dealing with ongoing situations involving chores or bills, structure will be your greatest weapon. If there is a foolproof system in place for sharing responsibility, it becomes immediately obvious who isn\u2019t pulling their weight and there aren\u2019t many viable excuses for not doing so.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, treating your household like a business that needs to keep ticking over is the only way to get anything done. Cleaning rotas are the fairest way of sharing the burden of keeping the house clean, tidy and comfortable for everyone.<\/p>\n
As well as being diplomatic, they\u2019re super easy to implement. Create a list of chores that need doing once a week\u2014such as \u201cclean the bathroom\u201d, \u201cclean the kitchen\u201d, \u201cmop the floors\u201d, \u201ctake the bins out\u201d\u2014and rotate responsibility for carrying out each chore. The person whose turn it is has a whole week to do the work and everyone is always pulling their weight.<\/p>\n
However you\u2019ve chosen to share the household costs, it\u2019s important to have some system in place to keep things organised. Some prefer to nominate a designated person for each bill, others open joint accounts with their flatmates. However, both of these solutions come with pitfalls that could disadvantage people unfairly over time.<\/p>\n
The reason that bill-splitting apps work so well is their relative lack of financial risk. Find a platform that charges everyone directly for what they owe and offers transparency in terms of overdue balances. You\u2019re not automatically out of pocket if someone can\u2019t (or won\u2019t) cough up immediately, and you\u2019re not tied to people who are unreliable at managing their own money for years to come.<\/p>\n