Editorials

Breaking the Ice with Your New Flatmates

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19 September 2016

By Lauren H

Your first week at uni can be pretty daunting – moving out, meeting new people, and having to be truly independent for the first time in your life. Breaking the ice with your new flatmates can be a bit difficult at first,  but we’re here to prepare you for that. So, here are our top tips to get you settled in nicely:

  • Take a door stop with you – when your other flatmates arrive you’ll seem more welcoming, and it’ll help to start conversation.
  • Spend some time in the common area (e.g. the kitchen) rather than in your bedroom all of the time. It can be a bit scary sharing a space with people you don’t know but the sooner you socialise with each other the better.
  • Bring something that can be shared around with everyone. It doesn’t need to be something big, just perhaps a box of chocolate brownies, or a DVD that you can all watch together. You’ll be living together for a long time, so sharing is caring (most of the time anyway!).
  • Play some cheesy ice-breaking games, and to make things even more interesting you could even get alcohol involved – like a typical student! You could try ‘two truths one lie’, or ‘truth or dare’, etc. Anything to get you talking.

Of course, there are a number of other ways you can break the ice with your new housemates, but these are a few to get you started. Just don’t sleep with any of your flatmates in freshers’ week; it’ll not end well, and certainly won’t break the ice how you might like it to!

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