3 Tips for Roommates Looking to Keep a Clean, Happy Home

Getting your first apartment after college is a big step, and it can be both exciting and terrifying. On the bright side, you don’t have to suffer through a stranger’s Cardi B impression in the communal shower every morning. On the other side, having your own place means that you’re really on your own, you know? You’re adulting now, which means there are power and water bills to pay—and no cafeteria staff to wash your dishes.

Find the right roommate, though, and you won’t have to figure it all out on your own—and at least you’ll be friends with the person who’s singing “I Like It” while she uses most of the hot water.

Nicole and Hope are new roommates who have recently moved into a small apartment together. It’s going well so far: “The best part is having someone to drink wine with at the end of a long day,” Nicole said. But they’ve quickly realized that two people sharing a living space, a kitchen, and a bathroom can create two times the mess of someone living solo.

Lucky for them, Sarah’s about to buzz their door. She’s the Apartment Therapist, and if they use her simple tips—and a box of Arm & Hammer™ Baking Soda—these roomies can get through twice the cleaning in half the time.

Nicole and Hope don’t have the same schedule, which means that they use the kitchen at different times of day. While it’s great that neither of them has to wait to fix dinner, their staggered mealtimes mean that the stove always seems to be covered in spills and splatters. To keep their meal-prep area looking like something they’d, you know, like to eat around, they can sprinkle some Arm & Hammer™ Baking Soda on a damp sponge, wipe off the spills, and rinse it with a damp sponge. (If that grime has collected since the day they moved in, they might need to make a paste of Arm & Hammer™ Baking Soda and water, spread it on the surface, and allow it to dry overnight. The next morning, all of it should wipe clean.)

The bathroom is another problem area because when two people share a shower and a sink, those surfaces can get scummy and gunky pretty fast. Although they joked that it’s easier to throw their shower curtain liner away every few weeks, it’s much cheaper—and only slightly more difficult—to put Arm & Hammer™ Baking Soda on a damp sponge, wipe the mildew stain off the liner, and rinse it clean. Doing that every couple of weeks should make the shower much more inviting for any impromptu concerts (or for, um, showering).

One of Nicole’s biggest pet peeves is seeing toothpaste splatters on the bathroom faucet. After reminding her that she’s lucky to have a roomie who brushes her teeth (yes, we speak from experience), Sarah tells her that it’s an easy fix. They can clean their faucet with soap and water, let it dry, then rub it with a sheet of wax paper. Not only does that make it really shine, it also adds a protective coating to keep it sparkling for a few more days.

Since cleaning up won’t take all day, Nicole and Hope can have that glass of wine when they’re finished. Best of all, they both have someone to toast with. To roommates!

See how the Apartment Therapist helped other households keep cleaner homes in “The Messy Truth.”

^{This post was created by Apartment Therapy’s Creative Studio with our partners at Arm & Hammer™.
Thank you for supporting the brands that make Apartment Therapy possible.}