Sharing a Kitchen: A Survival Guide

Local Community

So you’ve moved out of home and are enjoying the sweet smell of freedom – until you realise that smell is richly marinated in dirty dishes and an overflowing bin. C&G have compiled a list of five tips to help make kitchen sharing a whole lot more harmonious.

1. Live with people on your wavelength.

It may sound obvious, but it’s really worth giving your future cohabiters a good grilling before agreeing to live together. It’s important that you’re on the same page with the attitude to house maintenance. One clean freak plus one lazy takeout addict is recipe for disaster. Know your natures early on, and understand your own limits of tolerance.

2. Hire a cleaner.

In some scenarios, hiring an affordable cleaner for a couple of hours a fortnight may make all the difference to your living harmony. If you and your housemates are all busy and on different schedules, leaving the cleaning to a professional may eliminate a lot of controversy. When you split the cost between all of you, it can be surprisingly affordable, too.

3. Have a roster.

While a cleaner might keep things in shape, there’s day to day chores that need to be shared, like taking out the bins. Having a routine for smaller jobs that fit ‘round everybody’s schedules avoids arguments in the long run.

4. Decide on your food protocol.

Do you share food? Do you have your own? This sort of thing needs to be established early, otherwise you’ll find yourself stumbling in from a late shift hankering for a cheese and vegemite toastie, only to find it’s been used for your housemate’s midnight snack the night before. If you’re keeping your own foods, label them in the fridge so there’s no confusion. Having a communal cash jar for staples that everyone uses, like milk and teabags, is a great idea, too. It’ll stop you doubling up and ending up with four lumpy cartons of milk going to waste.

5. Cook together, when you can.

Four or five people each using a pan or two for every meal, every day, makes for a lot of washing up. If you’re all home, work together and make something big for everyone – if your dietary tastes allow, of course. If you’ve shared the cooking, you’re more likely to share the cleaning. It’s a great bonding method for newbies, too.