11 signs you’re living in a Lancaster student house

Every house has free college merch somewhere, we just know it

1 year ago

Whether you’re living in halls, or off-campus, there are so many obvious signs that you’re living in student accommodation that you just never notice. From overflowing bins to unstable drying racks, there are so many little tip-offs that you’re a Lancs student that you might not be able to shake off for years.

If you’re a Lancaster Student, we can guarantee you’ll have at least one of these in your house or flat.

Stolen glasses

It’s a student rite of passage to steal glasses from a bar at some point. Whether they’re from Spoons or a college bar, purposefully stashed under a jacket, “accidentally” carried out the bar, or magically appearing in your kitchen cupboard, it’s an important task every student undertakes. They line the kitchen countertops with pride. And they eventually come in handy when yours inevitably smashed during a game of ring of fire.

Free things from Freshers’ Fair, colleges and the SU

Freshers’ Fair is a great event for everyone to attend, see which societies you can join and which sports teams are available. However, you also end up with lots of leaflets, pens, and general random shite. That never gets thrown out. And remains in the house for eternity. Usually involves about fifty free tote bags that get left lying around the living room after people’s big shops.

Some form of stolen sign/traffic cone

If you’ve not carried some random item from the street home from a night out, you haven’t lived. The classic cone remains in your house for the rest of the year, until someone gets the courage to put it back on the street, or a porter/landlord tells you to remove it or your deposit may go to the wayside.

Special mention here to my boyfriend’s dad who, while living in uni halls, came home to a full set of temporary traffic lights in his kitchen.

Overflowing bins

Taking the bins out is arguably the worst job for a student, so the rubbish piles up. With whispers of “it’s not my day on the rota” and “I did it last time” heard in the distance, the mountain continues to grow until it smells so bad someone eventually gives in.

An extra special off-campus mention to recycling blowing everywhere. Constant gale force wind from October to March blows it out of the bin which is actually just a green box. Sometimes it seems like Lancaster is the only place in the entire country that thinks boxes are a better idea than, I don’t know, just another wheelie bin?

Aldi food

Lancaster is blessed with multiple supermarkets, but let’s be honest, which student can afford to do their weekly shop at Sainsbury’s or Marks and Spencers? And who is trekking all the way to ASDA or Lidl? Aldi is the GOAT. Not many other places in Lancaster where you can buy £10 vodka, milk, bread, and an inflatable boat.

Campus loyalty cards

Lancaster campus is blessed with great food outlets that offer loyalty card rewards: Sultans and Juice Cafe. And while we love them dearly, every time anyone goes into one of these places, they forget their loyalty card. So they get a new one. Every. Single. Time.

Don’t worry. You’ll get your rewards one day. Though you might end up taking in nine separate loyalty cards, each with only one stamp.

The alcohol/mixers display

Most student accommodation, whether it’s on campus or in town, has an alcohol display. This is basically a dumping ground for drinks. Sometimes the bottles are proudly displayed in the window, with an area for empty ones, showing all the world how many bottles of Aldi own brand gin you’ve gone through.

Sometimes it’s a whole kitchen bench, full of mixers and bottles with just enough in for one drink. You do you, but maybe it’s time to condense those five bottles of lemonade into one?

An overflowing drying rack

Like some sort of dodgy Jenga game, one wrong move, and it all comes crashing down.

Umbrellas and raincoats

As Lancaster students, we try to ignore the fact that we’ve voluntarily chosen to live in the rainiest area of the UK. And that it’s cold. And wet. Constantly. But the magnitude of umbrellas and raincoats at each Lancaster Student house shows that we are prepared (well, as prepared as we can be) for the wettest the North West has to offer.

Random remnants from themed socials

Lancaster’s large range of societies and sports teams means there are loads of opportunities for socials and nights out. However, these often come with themes, which require costumes.

These costumes are then stored in each house throughout the year, never to be seen again, but always kept just in case there’s another incredibly niche themed night out on the horizon. Have a look around your house, there’s definitely a shit shirt and a pair of cat ears somewhere.

Sticky note decorations

This is a specific on-campus mention, but popular nonetheless. What happens when you mix strangers, a large window, and a box of sticky notes? Pictures made for all of campus to see. A chunder chart to be seen across Lancaster Square. Mike Wasowski. Just the word Hi. The possibilities are endless and inevitable.

And if it’s not sticky notes, it’s cardboard cutouts. Harry Styles. Danny Devito. That one Robert Pattinson that stood eerily in the Chaplaincy for two years. Lancaster cutout owners, you are the backbone of this university.