The best pranks to wind up your housemates

It’s that point in the semester where you and your housemates have fallen into a false sense of security. Reading week has passed and the nights are drawing in, meaning you need to find a few new ways to entertain yourself. Whether you’re feeling mischievous or looking for revenge after your mates forced you to do the Corp rainbow challenge, there are plenty of pranks that can be performed on your unsuspecting housemates.

Hiding all the sitting room furniture

An absolute classic. Wait until the flat has gone to sleep, before a couple of you help transport the entire contents of the sitting room into someone’s bedroom. I hear you ask, “That’s impossible! How does it all fit in someone’s room?!” And to that, I say “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It will totally bamboozle your unsuspecting housemates.

Relocating the entire content of a room

Leaving a bedroom door unlocked when out of the house is a cardinal sin that is simply asking for trouble. This can result in a room being stripped as if it’s moving out time. Yet the major difference is that instead of all the items being packed and ready to go, they are merely moved to an inconvenient location. The victim’s ‘new room’ may be in the corridor, living room, down by Endcliffe’s pond or in the case of the Inbetweeners, stuck to the roof. Whatever the case, it will take a considerable amount of time to move everything back.

Equally, if that seems like too much effort, swap everyone’s posters around.

Human Buckaroo

You’ll soon learn that falling asleep in a communal area is a bad idea. Piling whatever you can find on a sleeping drunk is a temptation that often cannot be resisted by fellow boozed up students and involves creating a tower of junk on the unsuspecting victim. The beauty of this prank is that the human buckaroo will often sleep through it, completely oblivious to what’s going on.

Swap the sugar for salt

Friday Night Dinner esque, and a prank that never grows old. Got a flatmate who has sugar in his tea? Empty their sugar tin and fill it with salt. As pranks go, this one is fairly mild yet so effortlessly satisfying. Tea, meant to be a comforting and warming drink becomes a horrendous beverage which will most likely result in the drink being spat out.

Wrapping everything in cling film

Got lots of cling-film to spare? If so, then this prank is a way of soon using it up rapidly. Wrap everything from laptops to phone chargers, folders to wallets in cling film. Even doors can be cling filmed so that the person is confronted with a transparent barrier that they may well walk straight into. Works equally well with cling filming over the toilet seat, although ensure you don’t do this in a communal bathroom.

Door pile up

The extent of this may vary but students have been known to find the bulkiest and most inconvenient objects possible. A microwave, a sofa, even a table may be used so that a door is well and truly barricaded. Unless the pranksters feel guilt and move everything away, the victim sure won’t be going anywhere soon.

Freezing someone’s keys

As simple as the title suggests. Fill a bowl with water, plonk someone’s keys in there and freeze them. When the victim eventually finds their keys, it’ll take an age for them to eventually unfreeze their keys, and thus hilarity ensues.

Might take a while to unfreeze them, mate

Drawing things on the floor in rice

This works best if you draw a massive penis just for the banter. Wait until your mate goes out and leaves their room unlocked and draw a penis on their floor. Immature, but equally hilarious.

Fill the sitting room with balloons

Works especially well if one of your friends has a phobia of loud bangs. Fill the sitting room with balloons and make it look like the student’s version of a ball pool. For extra points, creep up behind people and pop them.