How to Keep Shared Spaces Clean When You Live with Roommates

That Cleaning Girl · Apartment Cleaning

A chore chart is a good start, but shared spaces have their own challenges. The living room becomes a storage unit for backpacks, the bathroom counter is covered in four people's products, and the fridge is a mystery. In Roommate Cleaning Schedules That Actually Work we set up the schedule. Here we look at how to set up the spaces themselves so they stay clean between chore days.

Set up the space for sharing

A lot of mess in shared apartments comes from not having enough places to put things. When there is no clear spot for your stuff, it ends up on the couch. A little setup prevents a lot of clutter.

• A shoe rack by the door with a spot for everyone.
• A hook or basket per person in the entry for bags and jackets.
• A bathroom caddy or drawer for each roommate.
• Labeled bins or shelves in the fridge and pantry.
• A shared basket in the living room for blankets and remotes.

The living room

The living room is where personal stuff likes to pile up. Agree that personal things come out of the living room every night, even if they just go back to your bedroom. Laptops, chargers, shoes, jackets, mugs and plates all count.

For the weekly clean, dust the TV stand and shelves, vacuum the couch, wipe the coffee table and vacuum or mop the floor. Wipe the remotes and game controllers too. They get handled by everyone, eaten over and almost never cleaned, so a quick wipe with a barely damp cloth makes a difference. If one roommate games or watches TV in there every night, they might take on the couch and coffee table as their extra job.

The shared bathroom

Shared bathrooms need more frequent attention than any other room. Hair in the drain, toothpaste in the sink and wet towels on the floor add up fast.

• Keep personal products in individual caddies, not on the counter.
• Clear your hair out of the drain after you shower.
• Hang your towel on your own hook.
• Keep a spray cleaner and a roll of paper towels under the sink for quick wipes.
• Replace the toilet paper roll when you finish it, always.

The kitchen and fridge

Kitchens in shared apartments can go from clean to chaos in a single dinner. The best rule is simple: clean up after yourself before you leave the kitchen. Wash your pan, wipe the stove and counter, and put away your food.

For the fridge, give everyone a shelf or a bin and keep shared items like condiments and milk in the door. Do a quick fridge sweep every week on trash day, tossing anything that is past its date or growing something.

Shared supplies

Running out of dish soap or toilet paper is a small thing that causes big friction. It is rarely about the money. It is about one person always being the one who notices. Keep a list on the fridge or in a shared phone note. When something runs low, write it down. Take turns buying, or keep a small shared fund. Basic supplies to keep stocked:

• Dish soap and sponges.
• Trash bags.
• Toilet paper and paper towels.
• All-purpose spray and glass cleaner.
• Hand soap for the kitchen and bathroom.

Guests and overnight visitors

Guests add to the mess, especially in the bathroom and kitchen. A fair rule is that whoever has the guest handles the extra cleaning. That means the dishes from a dinner party, the extra towels in the hamper and the air mattress put away the next morning, not three days later. A quick heads-up in the group chat before a gathering also goes a long way. If someone's partner is basically living there, it is worth a friendly talk about chipping in on chores, too.

When it is time for outside help

If the shared spaces keep slipping, or move-out is coming up, a professional clean can reset everything. We clean shared apartments around Waxahachie, Midlothian and the rest of the south DFW area all the time, and we can keep notes about which rooms to skip and which roommate to text when we are on the way. A professional clean also gives everyone a fresh starting line. It is much easier to keep a clean kitchen clean than to argue about who made it dirty in the first place.

Even with help on the bigger jobs, the daily habits in this guide are still what keep a shared apartment livable. A cleaner can reset the kitchen and bathroom, but only the people who live there can keep dishes from piling up on a Tuesday night. Pair the two and you get a home that feels clean all week, not just on cleaning day.

For more on how we clean apartments, visit our apartment cleaning services page. Next, we are moving on to moving out, starting with a checklist for getting your deposit back.