What’s worse than living with messy housemates? Scattered clothes, occupied floor with whatever junks, unwashed dishes, smelly rooms, maybe roaches… ugh.
Housemate issues are universal. It could bother you even in the country where one of the the most reserved, humble people live. I’d say Oakhouse is doing a fairly good job here.
Where I live, for example, Oakhouse Kichijoji 2 is not really a new share house. The building is old and part of the building is wooden. but, as far as I compare with other share house, our house isn’t dirty. Here’s why it’s this way.
■ Common areas are all taken care of
The biggest reason that we’re not facing a cleanliness crisis is because common areas are well-cleaned by professional cleaners. This includes kitchen, bathroom, shower room, entrance, and hallway. Basically everywhere in the house except your own private room, is taken care of. This means you don’t have to clean. and no need to set up cleaning duty among housemates (which is usually a source of problem because there’s always someone who doesn’t do it).
In my case, I got Roomba in my 10 sqm room. Every single housemate of mine makes fun of me for having Roomba in such a small room but it actually makes sense. Since I don’t need to clean the common areas, all I have to do (or all it matters) is my own room. If Roomba can take care of it, it means I can liberate myself from cleaning. Isn’t this the future???
Anyway, Oakhouse is kind of flexible on rules in general. They tell you rules when you sign up for a room but many of them are negotiable depending on what you’re asking. There are, however, two rules that Oakhouse is very strict about. It sounds kind of random but it makes sense in order to avoid housemate issues.
▼ Rule 1: Shoes into a shoe box.
Leaving your shoes in the entrance area is not a good idea. Oak house doesn’t like this because it looks, obviously, messy. Oak house manager brings some people to the house every once in a while to show how the house actually look like. When they do, they don’t want the messy entrance to be the first thing to show the guest.
What if you don’t follow this rule? Oak house literally throw away your shoes into a trash box. I’m serious.
▼ Rule 2: Do not leave personal stuff in the common area
There comes a time you’re feeling lazy and you don’t want to wash dishes or leave some kitchen stuff so you can access easily next time. Try not to do this as living room gets messy instantly.
Oak house provides you some basic stuff, futon and furniture, when you sign up for a room. Unless you plan to stay in Oakhouse for many years, you probably don’t need so many stuff in your room. Besides, it’ll be easier to move out if you surround yourself with less stuff.
Oakhouse does try to throw away the personal stuff left in the common area. In most cases, people leave stuff in the common area because something is inconvenient. If that’s the case, tell oak house manager to buy something (like toaster?) for the house. Often times, they buy one for you if it’s not too expensive.
