Hello Erasmus community and anyone else!

In this article, we will talk about “Living in a shared flat: Expectations vs Reality“. The Flacommy Team asked one Erasmus student who is experiencing for the first time the living in a WG about what he expected about it before moving in with his flatmates vs how the reality is.

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Expectation 1: He expected to share a cozy common area with his flatmates such as a living room in order to chat and have some drinks together.

Reality 1: There is no living room in the flat. There is just a kitchen area and people don’t spend much time in there.

Comment 1: He will look for a flat with common area next time.

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Expectation 2: Eating with the flatmates in the evening on a regular basis and sharing the expenses together.

Reality 2: They do share expenses when they are eating together in their flat-sharing community in Budapest, however each flatmate has a different schedules and activities, therefore they do not eat together often.

Comment 2: The Dutch website https://wiebetaaltwat.nl (also available as a mobile app and in English!) is a useful tool to share expenses with flatmates or friends. You can use it if you buy some groceries together or for any other activities where you have to share expenses.

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Expectation 3:  He was expected the flat in Budapest to be a bit dirty as 4 people would share the flat.

Reality 3: Thanks to a cleaning plan, the flatmates are maintaining a good level of cleanliness in the flat.

Comment 3: The cleaning plan has to be fairly shared. Each one has to put the same amount of effort.

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Although all the expectations were not met, he is still happy with the experience of living in a Shared Flat here in Budapest. He may renew the experience later when coming back to his home country.

And don’t forget to have a look on our post about “What activities do you share?” – the WG shows that you can have a lot of fun together, even though not all your expectations are met.

Are you also living in a shared flat? Did you also have expectations before moving in the new flat-sharing community and with new flatmates? Did the reality meet your expectations? Share you experience with us and post a little comment!

Have a nice day ! Cheers