How to Set Housemate Expectations

We enjoy living with housemates. It’s smart for us financially, and we enjoy hosting.

When I was in college, I lived with seven other girls in a dorm suite. I adored the girls and enjoyed living with them. However, we were neither the cleanest suite, nor did we get along together all of the time. I am not a fan of the passive aggressive notes or talking about what you wish she did differently…. but we did not have enough courage to confront one another. I wish that back then, before we all lived together, we came up with suite rules and expectations.

Thankfully Collin and I have gotten along with all of the people that we have hosted long term in our home, but we knew that we still needed to set up expectations/rules for our house. It’s important to set ground rules before you need them! I think it’s safe to say that we have both become more confrontational since our college roommate days.

Here are the expectations (I literally copied and pasted) that we give to all of our long term guests (those staying 3+ weeks):

1. Housekeeping in Common Areas – Please make yourself at home and feel free to use any of the common areas. However since we use our spare rooms to host guests through Airbnb forces us to have higher expectations for you and for ourselves when it comes to keeping common areas clean.
   • Kitchen – We understand that sometimes you may be in a hurry and not have time to wash your dish after eating breakfast, but typically, we expect you to wash your dishes (or put them in the dishwasher), wipe off any crumbs or mess on the counter, put all food away, and clean off stove if it gets dirty after each use of the kitchen. Leave it like you found it. If you use dish soap or paper towels, buy some once in a while. Sweep/mop and clean a little extra every once in a while if it seems like it needs it. You can expect us to do this more than our tenants.
   • 1^st Floor Bathroom – Leave it like you found it. Please don’t leave towels, clothes or other stuff on the floor. We will clean it sometimes but we hope that you will at least as often as we do since we use the 2^nd floor bathroom and you use this one so clean it (toilet, sink, mirror, shower, floor) somewhat frequently. If you use toilet paper, buy some once in a while. We keep cleaning supplies in the cupboard in the bathroom.
2. Living Room, Porch, Entryway – Please leave it how you found it and don’t leave too many personal items out here. If you use common areas (we hope you do) sweep/pick up when necessary (expect us to do this way more than you do).
3. Noise – We will have a conversation about when we all go to sleep and wake up typically just so we can be thoughtful of one another and know when to keep it down. If we are being too loud, please let us know. I would rather know about it and adjust my music listening habits etc. then having you just put up with it.
4. Guests – Please let us know as far in advance as you know if you plan on hosting a guest overnight or multiple nights. We also have extra blankets, bedding, air mattresses if you’d like to borrow them.
5. Communication – Please let us know promptly if you have any problems with the house or your room or us. We want to hear from you and do whatever we can to accommodate.

So far all of our guests/housemates have been quiet, mature, adults, so these are not difficult to abide by. We have yet to have a rowdy college student trying to throw parties on a weeknight. 🙂

For the guests that stay here for several months, we also have a lease that we sign together that goes into more depth about move in and move out dates, rent payments, overdue payments, pets, early termination of lease, unlawful or illegal activities, etc.

What do you think are some important expectations/ground rules that should be set before living with housemates?