‘My flatmate rubbed my deodorant on his behind’: Stories from students who survived halls

Count yourself lucky if you got on with your flat

3 years ago

It’s the lead up to university, you’ve been assigned your accommodation and now find yourself in a Facebook group chat with a bunch of random people – your new flatmates. You don’t know anything about these people, yet, within the coming weeks, these ‘strangers’ are somehow supposed to become your best friends.

For some students, this does happen and they manage to create an exciting friendship group with their new roomies. However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes halls are not the exciting, friendly experience they are so often cracked up to be.

It can be quite disheartening when your university adventure doesn’t begin how you had hoped and you’re not seeing eye-to-eye with your new flat mates, but you’re not alone.

Here are seven of the strangest stories we found from students who managed to survived halls in Sheffield:

Hannah, a second year Hallam student said:

“Somebody I used to live with would use their pots, pans and cutlery and then, if they couldn’t be bothered to wash it, they’d throw it away.

“We also used to take it in turns to do the weekly shop and on his week, he didn’t know what to buy. This resulted in him just shopping by colour and only buying items of this particular colour. He always liked the colour red.”

Charlotte, a Sheffield Hallam graduate said:

“We were all just watching a film together and one of my flatmates decided to sit there and casually eat eight whole carrots in one sitting.”

Sam, an accounting and business marketing student said:

“We used to have a throw over our sofa which we used all year. At the end of the year our flatmate told us he used to bring girls back and sleep with them on this unwashed blanket. We had been sitting on it all year.”

A Sheffield Hallam law graduate said:

“My flatmate used to rub my deodorant can on his behind and put it back, he only told me at the end of the year that he had been doing so.”

Hollie, a third year Uni of Sheffield student said:

“For a laugh we changed our flatmates Facebook name, she took it so seriously that she didn’t speak to us for a long time and we still aren’t allowed to speak about it now. She absolutely lost it and said that we ruined all of her job prospects and she would now have a failed career.”

Sam, a third year Hallam student said:

“This guy in our old flat was so lazy he used to be sick in all of our glasses and mugs in his room, at least twice a week. He then would throw it out of the window and it ended up blocking all of our guttering.

“As if that wasn’t bad enough he would also urinate in the same glasses that he drank from, without washing or even fully disposing of the wee in the glass.”

A University of Sheffield geography graduate said:

“There was a girl in our flat who we never saw, I honestly think I saw her twice all year. She must have done her cooking in the early hours of the morning. We saw her once in town and she ran the other way. We have no clue what happened.”

Strange as these stories may seem, it puts your mind at ease seeing how many students get stuck with bizarre flatmates – people that after first year, you normally never speak to again.

Whether you get on with your flat or can’t wait to move out, just remember you’re not alone and there are so many other ways to make friends at university. For now, if you see a glass filled with what looks like apple juice in the kitchen – just don’t drink it.