You've moved into the perfect flat share. The flat is large and the people are very friendly... To maintain a good atmosphere, you need to be well organised in the flat. And it starts with the division of tasks.

Equal in household chores

Shopping, washing up, dusting, tiling, cooking... unless you hire a cleaning lady (do the maths, it can be interesting), daily chores are one of the secrets of a successful flat share. Unless, of course, you're into the whole messy thing! A good organisation in the flat share is necessary on this subject, based on the equality of all in the household. If there are no rules of procedure worthy of a condominium, the simplest solution is to draw up a schedule that will be displayed for all to see.

This weekly or monthly schedule should, of course, be drawn up in the presence of all the members of the flat, during a meeting. You will need to decide beforehand what is to be done jointly: it is perfectly acceptable for everyone to do their own shopping and washing up, while other housemates may prefer everything to be done jointly. You will also need to consider each other's preferences, lifestyles and schedules. Your flatmate who has been working all night might hate you if you vacuum at 7.30am!

Classic or more original planning

Once the distribution is fair, you can then organise the roommate's schedule as you see fit, and why not use your imagination. Instead of the traditional 'rota' (X cleans the bathroom for a week while Y washes the floors and Z does the dishes), you can use the 'carrot method': a task done gives rights or points, and the person who has done the least is responsible for putting on the gloves to finish the job. W, if it's him, may soon get fed up with cleaning the toilets and will probably put more effort into the rest. On the famous schedule, you can also plan a day (monthly, for example) of joint cleaning: speed and conviviality guaranteed!

For roommates 2.0

New technologies have also been put to work for flat-sharing. In addition to HomeBubble for the shopping list, we advise you to use Fairshare. This application allows you to schedule tasks, assign them to each other (each person ticks them off when they have completed their "mission") and even categorise them with a number of points. Fairshare also allows you to comment on the work or efforts of your roommates... but we recommend that you do this in person. Because the other secret is communication!