Avoiding biohazard creation in your accommodation

It is important to remember that everyone deserves to live in a clean and hygienic environment.

It is so easy for small amounts of clutter, unwashed dishes, and food spills to become overwhelming messes, particularly when lots of people are living together. Challenges can arise when you and your flatmates have slightly (or significantly) different definitions of 'clean', and it can take some time to know how to support the cleanliness of your living spaces, particularly if this is the first time you, or some of your flatmates, have had to cook and clean for yourselves.

To be considerate to your flatmates (and to yourself!) it is important to take responsibility for cleaning up after yourself. Ideally, you should aim to leave your communal spaces in a similar state to how you found them - here are some things to consider in different shared spaces:

Cooking in a shared kitchen

It is pretty much a given that there will be some cleaning to do after you've cooked or prepared a meal. Before you cook, it can be helpful to make sure to have cleaning products and areas ready to go, including:

• A sponge or scourer and washing-up liquid for your dishes. 
• A clean or empty sink.
• Space for clean dishes on the drying boards.
• Cleaning spray and a cloth for wiping surface (kitchen roll can be useful for oily messes).

Let's jump ahead to when you've finished cooking. Every time you've used the kitchen, you should aim to:

• Wipe crumbs and stains off kitchen surfaces and eating areas using kitchen spray/cloth. It is especially important to use disinfectant if you've prepared raw meat or fish. 
• Use the same cloth to wipe off stains from the hob ring and the backsplash. You might need to wait a bit for it to cool down. If there are lots of splashes, you may want to consider using a pan lid next time you cook.
• Put all of you rubbish and recycling in the bins. If you've generated a lot of food waste, it can be helpful to collect it in a bowl while cooking to make it easier to keep separate from general waste and to decant into the correct bin. Make sure to rinse out and sort your recycling, and see if you can rinse non-recyclable packaging with strong odours, such as raw meat or cheese packaging.

There will inevitability be times where you're in a rush and will need to leave your cleaning until later. Make sure to leave your dishes in neat pile out of the way, and let your flatmates know that you won't have time to clean up but will be coming back to it later.

Group responsibilities in kitchens and social spaces

Hopefully you've agreed on some cleaning expectations with your flat group when you moved-in. You may find things have changed now that you and your flatmates' have different routines and workloads, so it can be a good idea to check-in with each other on a regular basis.

It can be useful to have a cleaning rota or a chore chart, so you can make sure it isn't always the same person taking out the bins! As a group, you will need to regularly:

• Take out the bins when they are full. 
• Dispose of out-of-date food in the fridge and clean up any spills.
• Clear-up personal belongings/clutter in shared spaces.
• Wipe down surfaces and heavily used appliances, including counters, splashback, hob, microwave, and fridge handles.
• Sweep floors.

Using your shared bathroom

It doesn't take long for things in the bathroom to get a bit grim, so you'll want to take a few steps to keep things useable for everyone.

• Don't be a toilet tyrant! Make sure that you are leaving the toilet seat clean, the toilet has been flushed, any rubbish is put in the appropriate bin, and that you make good use of the toilet brush when required. It can be useful to keep toilet cleaner or thick bleach, and some air freshener next to the toilets.
• Clean the sink and shower to prevent drain blockage. A blocked drain is both inconvenient and unhygienic, so it is important to remove things like hair and nail clippings (consider doing that over a bin) rather than leaving them for the next person in the bathroom. It is helpful to keep a cleaning spray and a cloth or paper towels in the bathroom. 
• Don't bring food into the bathroom. This one shouldn't need much of an explanation hopefully!

Communicating issues

Okay, so you definitely know what you're doing to keep things clean, you've set boundaries and expectations on group responsibilities, but some of your flatmates haven't quite received the message...

Here are some things to consider when you're thinking about how to raise a cleanliness issue:

• Does the problem break the rules of your flat agreement? For example, if you agreed as a flat that you could leave personal belongings in the kitchen area, but there's so much stuff that you can't find space to eat on the table, it might be worth scheduling a flat meeting to review your flat rules!
• Is this potentially a sensitive issue? It is worth considering whether bringing up the issue is likely to cause your flatmate any embarrassment. For example, bathroom hygiene can be quite sensitive for some people, and while this shouldn't stop you from raising any issues and having some frank conversations about where you don't want to be finding other people's hair, you should probably have a bit of a think about the best context to raise it. 
• Have you brought up the issue before? It might be that your flatmate doesn't realise that they are making or leaving a mess in communal spaces, or haven't thought about how their usage of the space is affecting others. 
• Is this a recurring issue? While you are not responsible for cleaning up after your flatmates, it can be worth working together, as a temporary solution, to support the person who is struggling to clean, or mitigate the impact of someone who definitely isn't trying. 
• A guest is causing the issue. Your flatmates have responsibility over the conduct of any guests they have in your flat; this includes students invited from other flats. 

Communication is key to addressing any issues your flat is experiencing, and it is often much easier to bring things up when they first happen, and before simmering tensions start to build! In most cases, you will probably initially want to try and resolve the issue internally as a flat.

• Speak to your flatmate(s) directly. If you know exactly who is causing the issue, raising it with them directly is usually the most effective and straightforward way to resolve the issues. Usually in person is best, as tone can be harder to read across messages. Think very carefully before bringing it up in a group context, including on your flat group chat, as this can sometimes make the other person feel a bit attacked.
• Bring it up to your flat indirectly. This might be necessary if you don't know who is causing the issue, if it involves a few of your flatmates, or feels too sensitive to single one person out. You can organise a flat meeting or suggest a review of your flat rules.
• Ask for help from one of your flatmates if you are not able to raise it yourself. Try to be thoughtful if approaching it this way, as a mistimed conversation with your helper could seem like complaining about someone behind their back. 

If there is a serious hygiene concern, or if repeated attempts to communicate with those you are living with have failed, you can always email reslife@bath.ac.uk for support.