By Lauren Evans

Signed your second-year house far too soon without really looking at it? Succumbed to the relentless pressure of Durham’s housing scene? Congratulations, you’ve joined the ranks of around 50% of university population! With term slowly encroaching, it may be too late to change your decision, but it isn’t too late to follow these top tips to make your student hell-hole far more liveable.

My second-year ‘home’: windowless, dark and inexplicably damp (in spite of our best efforts). Our 5-person home from home could often feel more of an infliction than a sanctuary; especially in the winter months from which we would emerge from the darkness of the house, into the equivalent darkness of Michaelmas Durham. With the only ‘nice’ rooms being the bedrooms, it became imperative that we try to make our university house as homely as possible for the price we were paying – creating this list of tips to help you do the same!

Top Tip Number One:

Lighting is key! Many student homes lack the natural lighting of a home that isn’t saturated with barely-legal bedrooms – particularly in the cluttered communal areas that distinguish your house from student halls. As one of the unfortunate survivors of such a scenario, there was no distinction between night and day outside of my bedroom – making ambient light all the more important.

A simple string of fairy lights, or a lamp split 5-ways, can make all the difference in making your messy living room, a room you can actually live in! Dunelm and the Range are perfect budget-friendly hotspots, but TJ Hughes also has some pretty good choices if you don’t fancy the hike/bus trip!

Top Tip Number Two:

Mess is inevitable, but certainly preventable. Many student houses flaunt a dinky kitchen that, in turn, flaunts a not-so-dinky mess. If you’re the unlucky recipient of a small kitchen and living area, keeping it clean (or at least not unduly cluttered) can help you feel less like you live in a student pit. Whether that’s keeping a cleaning rota, or using your ancient dishwasher as an extra cupboard, keep those worktops clear and clean!

“A simple string of fairy lights, or a lamp split 5-ways, can make all the difference in making your messy living room, a room you can actually live in!”

Top Tip Number Three:

Make your house a home – by which, I mean, add many many silly but meaningful decorations! From the naked calendar we were kindly left behind, to the 3 identical signed Klute posters that besmirched our wall, sometimes the best response to living in a terrible student house is embracing it! Whether you choose to go classy and tied-together with a collage of photos, or go chaotic and senseless (like us), uni houses are meant to be decorated with all sorts of nonsense!

N.B. Should you heed this tip, make sure you use blutack that does not stain – or risk the wrath of your landlord.

Top Tip Number Four:

Should all of these tips fail, and you still hate your uni house, it’s time to get out and about exploring Durham and the North-East (i.e. spend as little time in it as possible). Day trips can range anywhere from Seaham, to Tyneside, to Newcastle and even Edinburgh! There’s a lot to see around the North-East, and perhaps the terrible accomodation might just push you to see some of it!

Best of luck to all the unfortunate hasty house-signers out there, you’ve got this!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons