Tips for cleaning your student accommodation

The accommodation team at your uni or your landlord will most likely inspect your accommodation on a regular or semi-regular basis. If your place is a mess or dirty, this could end up damaging the property – or even your health – so they’ll expect you to keep it to a decent standard. 

To save yourself any difficulty, it’s worth keeping on top of the cleaning. Though don’t worry, it should be a team effort with your housemates.

You’ll all be able to help with cleaning your student house or flat – making it much quicker than you might imagine. In general you’ll clean your own room and take care of your own washing up, but make sure you take your turn to give the kitchen a clean or run the hoover around. Some students make a rota, while others can see each other taking their turns and they’re ok with that. Make sure you do your bit and you’ll be fine.

If you have a shared bathroom, you might all have different standards of cleanliness, but if you can all keep a fair level of cleanliness then everyone’s happy. If it’s super sparkly clean (more so than you’re used to), maybe that’ll be quite nice?

Firstly make sure you’re all contributing to the purchase of cleaning supplies – whether that’s giving money to the person or people who are doing a shop for cleaning stuff. Or whether you take it in turns to buy cleaning things when they’re needed.

Secondly, what should you buy and where from? You can look out for good offers at supermarkets, but own-brand products are usually cheaper than the big names. Most kinds of washing up liquid and cleaning sprays are similarly effective, so try out some good value ones and see how you get on.

For your kitchen it’s worth having a few different cleaning products to make it an easy job.

• Get a kitchen spray that works on your surfaces, the sink, your fridge shelves etc.
• Have a cloth or sponge handy (and rinse with washing up liquid to keep them fresh.
• Have a few spare sprays, washing up liquids, cloths and sponges under the sink.
• Plus bin bags – don’t automatically get the very cheapest as they might split.
• Wash your dishes as soon as you can (so the food doesn’t get stuck on).

For your bathroom you could use some bathroom spray and a sponge or cloth for the shower, bath, sink, toilet seat and handle. Then some bleach or toilet cleaner you can pour around the toilet bowl. Try to keep your bathroom ventilated with an open window or extractor fan – this will help to reduce any mould from dampness. Wash the bath mat and towels regularly too.

Your room is a place where you can relax away from the stress of lectures and seminars. It’s your escape from your flatmates if they’re bickering or partying, and the perfect space for plenty of Netflix marathons. But it’s also the place where you’ll be doing a lot of studying and reading. Basically, your room functions as your space to do everything - so it’s no wonder it can get messy at times!

Unless you’re an organised person who thrives on cleaning and decluttering, tidying your room can seem like a bit of a chore. We’re not going to pretend that it’s fun, but there are some ways to make it more bearable.