- When your furniture doesn’t fit quite right
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You’ve tried every twist and turn, every angle and you’ve applied plenty of force, but still the unimaginable is happening: your furniture doesn’t fit. While measuring door frames, hallways and walls may cover your bases, there’s always a new angle you didn’t think to cover. Fret not. When moving into my first college house, this summer, my queen box spring didn’t fit up my stairs to my attic room, but we were able to replace it with slats of woods. Basically, always measure everything but be prepared to turn to Plan B.
- When nothing works, but it’s fine
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The stove cooks unevenly, the toaster keeps setting off the smoke detector, that one window doesn’t open, the toilet clogs, that light fixture doesn’t work and the basement leaks. Bad news: this is your new life where something is always broken. Good news: it’s your landlord’s job to fix it all so no need to brush up on your plumber and electrician skills. Just remember to keep your landlord or rental company updated.
- When you realize you have no AC
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So, you toured your house in the fall or winter when it was nice and cool. You could’ve sworn you saw a thermostat for the AC, but on move-in day you realize you’ve been sadly mistaken. Time to invest in a good fan and a window AC unit and bunker down in your local Walmart’s freezer section until fall.
- When everything is more expensive than you ever could have thought
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The gas bill, electricity, water, WiFi and cable are all common expenses in a college house, and they’re all exorbitantly expensive. Seriously how did your parents afford it all? That’s not even looking at your grocery bill. Who knew food was so expensive? The good news is that you also have some amazing roommates to split expenses with and there are plenty of low-cost, nutritious recipes out there.
- When you have to call your landlord with your list of repairs
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Definitely when looking for your first college house try to get a good read on the landlord or company’s response time to repairs. Ask the current tenants or look for reviews about the rental company. When you move in and get all settled, check out anything in the house that needs repaired, make a list, inform your landlord and stay on top of it. You don’t remember everything and neither does your landlord.
- When you’re doing your first load of laundry in your dirty basement
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College basements are exclusively cold, damp, and filthy bug ridden holes in the ground. Washers and dryers are exclusively in the basements, usually with instructions and settings you’ve never seen before. While this is just my experience, I can promise college house washers and dryers are a far cry from your dorm laundry facilities.
- When you have to coordinate all of your roomates’ aesthetics (and their parents’)
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The great thing about decorating college houses with your roommates is that everyone is able to bring their own taste to the table and is usually able to accumulate plenty of great pieces from their respective family and friends. The bad thing about decorating college houses with your roommates is exactly that. When decorating my college house, we ended up spending very little money on furniture and were able to get some great couches and chairs donated from family and friends and pieces like end tables and coffee tables off the street on trash day. The style isn’t particularly cohesive and some of the stuff is broken, but it’s a home.
- When you have to eat your first meal on the floor
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When moving in, often the last thing to be thought of is communal spaces, like the kitchen or living room. Cooking is pretty hard when pots and pans are all packed up and dishes are in a box somewhere, and before you know you end up eating your first home-cooked meal on the floor of your kitchen. You can try to avoid this, but it’s probably just going to happen.
- When your neighbors are pretty cool (or not)
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So you’re all moved in, and it’s time you meet the neighbors! Living in a college town, it’s highly likely that your new roommates are fellow college students which can mean they’re more receptive of parties, late night hours and could be new friends. Plenty of people, not in college, still live in and around college towns, so it’s important to be considerate to the fact that they’re unlikely to want to be woken up at 3am by your parties. Definitely introduce yourself to your neighbors, no matter who they are.
- When your roomates have different ideas of “clean”
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It’s highly unlikely that you and your roommates prefer to live in filth, but it’s pretty likely that you and your roommates have different definitions of “clean”. Maybe they prefer vacuuming every other day or believe in washing dishes only when the sink is full. Either way, one of you is likely to have higher or lower expectations. It’s important to first express these expectations in a respectful manner, and second, to compromise. Consider using a chore chart or writing down clear rules.