To celebrate my 10^th post of 2019 🙌, I thought I’d list 10 things that I don’t think I could function without in Carlaw. Hopefully some of these will surprise you!

Clothes rack:

I’ve had a clothes rack ever since my days in O’Rorke and I haven’t looked back since. It’s unfortunate that I don’t have the funds to be wearing a new outfit everyday (but don’t worry Fashion Police I’m not wearing the same thing two days in a row), where else would I put the clothes, if not on a clothes rack? Mine is a simple single rod, but there’re also some fancy transformer ones if those tickle your fancy.

These could be my clothes.

Laundry basket or bag of some sort:

A laundry rack is for your worn clothes. A laundry basket for the clothes you need washed. Self-explanatory, but it’s always a surprise how many people forget one.

(Bathroom) slippers!

You don’t know what’s been on the bathroom floor, and most of the time you don’t want to know. Save yourself the worry buy donning a pair of bathroom slippers. Jandals will do!

Definitely not my foot.

A cup to hold your toothbrush:

Ah, here’s a surprising one. We don’t have any toothbrush holders in the bathrooms so its convenient to bring a cup, or a mason jar etc. to hold them. My flatmates use bubble tea cups 🥤!

I hope you appreciate the theme.

Shower cap:

This is more of a personal preference, I’m a short person and the shower head is quite high so my hair nearly always gets wet without a cap. If you’re good at craning your head to avoid the water, or if you wash your hair every time you shower, you probably won’t need one 😊

Calendar:

The only decoration I have in my room. A big calendar with all the important dates written on them.

“Hey so when’s the assignment due”
“Ah let me just check my calendar”

“So are you free to hang on Saturday?”
“Yup, my calendar says I’m free”

“What day is your exam on?”
“My calendar says Friday!”

Ok, so I’ve never said any of those things before and I don’t think people reference their calendars in a conversation, but you get what I mean 😅! Checking your calendar happens in the background, and its so much faster than pulling up Canvas.

You can tell I’m enjoying myself with these stock images.

Here’s a few that you might want to get together with your flatmates and sort out/buy together.

A bin for the bathroom:

There’s no bin in the Carlaw bathrooms, unless the lovely people who lived here before you have left one behind. The people before us didn’t and so we had no place to put our floss 😟. We got one from the Warehouse for $7.50 so not too expensive.

A cleaning schedule:

I’ve been blessed with great flatmates (shout out if you’re reading 😉), but let’s face it, no one wants to do chores. Splitting tasks up and setting a deadline removes some of the awkwardness of who ‘should be’ doing what, and gets stuff done.

Cling wrap, baking paper, foil:

Our flat is currently down to just cling wrap, so if I wanted to bake with the Carlaw trays, it would be impossible. Luckily the flatmates have obtained a non-stick cake pan, which doubles as a baking tray, so crisis averted!

Finally, probably the most important thing you need to bring:

A positive mental attitude:

Moving into a flat and sharing things with other people who aren’t your family, isn’t always smooth sailing. I’ve had friends who’ve had fall outs with their flat mates, other friends who often rant about their flatmates etc. etc. Things like: waiting an hour to use the oven, being woken up at 7am when you slept at 2am, being woken up at 2am when you sleep at 10pm, when someone’s in the shower when you need to brush your teeth, when they don’t clean, when they use your stuff. Things like this will happen and its your attitude that determines how you enjoy living in a flat. No matter how big or small the issue, you have a few options:

1. Get angry and do nothing.
2. Get angry, suck it up and fix the issue yourself.
3. Talk to you flat mates about the issue.
4. Take it easy and do nothing.
5. Take it easy and fix the issue.
6. Talk to your RA/the people in charge of your building.

Life’s too short to always be angry, coming into Carlaw my dad told me the key to enjoying flatting is to be less fussy, and more generous (good advice!). Whenever I’ve faced flatting issues (which is not often, again, great flat mates 💞), I’ve chosen to go with option 5. If you have more serious problems, I’ll suggest option 3 or in extreme cases option 6. Don’t bottle up your anger. If you have an issue, talk to someone.

Now this could definitely be us!

Aand that’s a wrap! If your moving into Carlaw/a flat second semester or even next year, hope these tips helped, and good luck!

– Cecilia