Are you sharing kitchen and living spaces with other students? With COVID19, hygiene has never been as important and it’s important to ensure your house, apartment or student accommodation is squeaky clean. Just remember that it’s up to you to set high hygiene standards in your student accommodation and your roommates will follow. Cleanliness is a habit so try your best to follow the tips below and we promise you’ll your reap the rewards of living in a nicer, cleaner environment.  

We’ve listed our top 7 tips below to ensure your student accommodation stays clean and germ free!!

1. Label Your Things!

Sharing kitchen spaces and living areas is a risk so it’s important to ensure that you are not sharing kitchen utensils, crockery and cutlery with your roommates. One clever way to avoid mixing up your kitchen items is to label them – Labelyourthings.com sells labels which are specifically designed for student houses. This is particularly important given COVID19 and the implications of handing the same items. Simply pick a colour and use their dishwasher and microwaveable labels to ensure that your kitchen items remain for your hands only. The added advantage if everything is labelled is that you know who isn’t cleaning up after themselves. See more at labelyourthings.com

2. Clean Regularly

Sounds obvious however cleaning in shared spaces is tricky as not everybody puts in the same amount amount of effort. At Studenthouse we recommend that you create a rota, label your things and maybe even pay for a professional cleaner. This is the fairest way to keep your student accommodation clean and maintain high standards. Deep cleaning on a regular, periodic basis is advised (e.g. weekly) and try to keep the place reasonably clean and tidy in the meantime.

Make sure to clean all surfaces and pay close attention to frequently touched surfaces such as counters, table-tops, bathroom fixtures, toilets and toilet handles, bedside tables, phones, keyboards and tablets, every day with household cleaning products. Remember germs and COVID19 hate clean surfaces and antibacterial wipes.

3 Buy Cleaning Products

We recommend that all roommates chip in to create a cleaning fund and buy a certain amount of cleaning products each month. This ensures that the apartment is fully stocked with essential cleaning items. If you do not have a suitable household cleaning product, you can use a bleach solution to clean surfaces. To make a bleach solution at home, add one tablespoon of household bleach to one litre of water to be used for cleaning.

Try to wear disposable gloves and ideally a plastic apron when cleaning surfaces, clothing or bedding. Wash your hands after removing gloves and aprons

4. Wash your Hands Frequently

Wash your hands often and thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use sanitiser as much as possible too especially in light of COVID19.

5. Keep shared spaces (kitchen, bathroom) well ventilated

Keep windows opened as regularly as possible. This keeps the shared areas clean and it’s important to ensure those germs have somewhere to go!

6. Wear a facemask if Advised

If you’re worried about being in contact with somebody with Coronavirus/COVID19, it’s extremely important that you wear a facemask when using shared spaces within your student accommodation. Most residences will provide facemasks and advise you to use them. Masks should not be touched or handled during use.  Discard the mask into the household waste or rubbish bin after use and perform hand hygiene after removal of the mask.

7. Tell your Guests to Clean Up!

Nobody likes when a roommate invites friends over for the evening only for them to leave a mess behind. Ask your friends to clean up after themselves and if they do make sure it’s you cleaning up the mess and not your roommates!

8. Avoid sharing household items

You should not share dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding, or other items with a person who is undergoing testing for coronavirus infection until they have been cleaned thoroughly. Again, Labels on your items via Labelyourthings.com is a good way to prevent this.

9. Reuse and Recycle

Last but not least – make sure you reuse and recycle. Try to reuse packaging, bottles, packaging etc. if at all possible and if that’s not possible, PLEASE recycle. It’s up to you to create a culture of recycling in your shared student accommodation and we promise you’ll enjoy it if you do. Recycling is a habit and it’s one that you can quickly get accustomed to. Just remember that everyone can make a difference and do their bit for our planet and so let’s start now!

As always, we welcome your feedback and please feel free to reach out to us at info@studenthouse.com for additional information.