Living in a share house is a rite of passage for any uni student. You’ve finally moved away from the watchful eyes of your parents, and you’re free to live your life exactly how you want. Does it get any better than this?

It can be super fun, but it’s not always all that it’s cracked up to be. Here’s a few expectations you’ll have when moving into a share house, and what it’s actually like.

Expectation: You’ll hang out together all the time

Reality: Where is everyone?

We always think that living together equals spending all your time together, but that’s hardly ever the case. I honestly can’t remember the last time my housemates and I were all home at the same time for more than 30 minutes.

Everyone has their own uni timetables, work rosters, and social lives to coordinate, and your schedule won’t often line up with those of your housemates. You’ll be lucky if everyone is home to have dinner together once a week, let alone see them every day.

Expectation: You and your housemates will always get along

Reality: There will be a few fights

When you first move in with friends, it’s easy to think it’ll be happy times all around. No matter how close you are with your housemates, there’s bound to be a few fights here and there about your living arrangements.

What many of us fail to realise is that being friends with someone is very different to living with them, and some of their habits might start to get on your nerves. Just because you were friends with someone before you moved in together doesn’t mean you won’t get annoyed if they don’t always clean their dishes right away

Expectation: Our house will have the best aesthetic

Reality: A free couch is a free couch

When I first moved into my share house, I was super excited to decorate it myself. As much as we would love our homes to resemble the latest Kmart catalogue, unfortunately us students don’t have money to splurge on interior decorations.

If someone’s parents have a dining table laying around or you find one in good condition on the side of the road, you’ll take it. You house will be a mismatched collection of essential furniture that will look far from the Pinterest-style house you’d imagined.

Expectation: Everyone will pull their weight with chores

Reality: Not always

You don’t realise just how much work goes into keeping a house clean until you move out of home and have to do it for yourself. There’s cleaning the floors, wiping down the benches, taking the bins out — the list is endless.

Uni is pretty intense on its own, let alone when you have a bunch of assignments to complete or exams to study for. Don’t be surprised if you or your housemates accidentally take 3 days to do the dishes and another 3 days to put these dishes away.

Expectation: We’re gonna cook so much good food

Reality: Who wants pizza? 

We all think we’ll become some sort of domestic goddess when we first move into our share houses and have this idea that you and your housemates will encourage each other to try exciting recipes.

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but cooking is hard work and when one house mate realises this, they’ll drag the rest of you down with them. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve planned to cook myself a nice dinner, only to come home and have my house mate convince me to get Uber eats with her.

(Lead image: Please Like Me/ABC)