Let Homies keep score for you
Why do house rules beat good intentions?
Because intentions don't survive scheduling. Everyone intends to do the dishes eventually; the fight is about whether eventually means tonight or Thursday. A rule converts a recurring negotiation into a settled fact, which is cheaper for everyone — including the person who would have lost the negotiation.
House rules are also a different tool from a roommate agreement. The agreement is the constitution: money, deposit, notice periods, signed once and filed. House rules are the everyday operating manual — unsigned, lightweight, revised whenever life changes. You need both, but you'll use the rules daily.
What are the 10 house rules every shared flat needs?
These ten, tuned to your house's tolerance levels, cover nearly everything shared flats fight about:
- Dishes are done same-day. The sink is a workspace, not storage — whatever you dirty tonight is clean before tomorrow.
- Quiet hours match real schedules. If someone wakes at 6:30, weeknights go quiet at 23:00 — set the number from the earliest alarm, not the latest party.
- Partners cap at two-three nights a week. Past that, a fourth person is using the shower and the wifi while three people pay — the rule turns "your boyfriend lives here" from an accusation into a number.
- Guests get a heads-up, not a permission slip. A message in the group before friends come over — notice, not bureaucracy.
- Shared food has one default: communal unless labeled, or personal unless offered. Pick one, and the last of the milk stops being a diplomatic incident.
- Shared money is logged the day it's spent. The ₪43 you fronted today is a fact; the ₪43 you remember in three weeks is a fight.
- Trash goes out when it's full, not when it's fragrant — and whoever closes the bag carries it down.
- Common areas reset by midnight. Your laptop, your mug, your laundry — everything migrates back to your room before bed.
- Chores run on the rotation, not on whoever breaks first. The chore chart decides whose week it is, so no person has to.
- Bedrooms are sovereign. Every rule above ends at a closed door — private mess is private.
How do you agree on house rules without it being weird?
One thirty-minute house meeting, ideally with food, ideally before the first conflict. Everyone proposes, anyone can veto, and the surviving list gets written somewhere everyone sees it. The framing that keeps it light: these are defaults, not laws — they exist so nobody has to renegotiate the same five things every week.
Work through the concrete numbers together, because the numbers are the rule. "Reasonable quiet hours" means nothing; "23:00 on weeknights" means something. "Partners shouldn't overstay" is a vibe; "three nights a week" is a policy. Then revisit the list when something changes — a new roommate, a job with early shifts, a new relationship — rather than on a schedule. Rules that drift from reality stop being followed, and then they poison the ones that still match.
How do you make the rules stick without becoming the house cop?
Visibility does the enforcing. A rule everyone agreed to, written where everyone sees it, mostly polices itself through mild social gravity — once the dishes rule is public, the Tuesday pan is everyone's known violation, not your private grievance. When someone does slip, point at the rule, not the person: "we said same-day dishes" lands as a reminder; "you always do this" lands as a verdict.
The rules with moving parts — chores, money, shopping — stick best when software runs them. Homies, the app for running a shared home, turns rule six into a running balance the whole house sees, rule nine into a rotation that advances itself with checklists defining "done", and the shared-supplies question into a live list with the receipt split across the home. Half the list above stops needing enforcement, because nothing depends on anyone's memory. It's in closed beta on iPhone and Android, free while we build it: join now to get in early, with a single signup for the whole place.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between house rules and a roommate agreement?
The agreement is the signed, settle-it-once layer: rent split, deposit shares, notice periods, what happens if someone leaves. House rules are the everyday layer: quiet hours, guests, dishes, shared food. Keep the agreement to one page and rarely touched; keep the rules visible and revised whenever life changes.
What are reasonable quiet hours for roommates?
Set them from the earliest real obligation in the house, not from a generic standard. If the earliest alarm is 6:30, weeknights go quiet around 23:00 and weekends stretch to midnight or later. The exact hour matters less than everyone knowing it — surprise is what turns noise into a grievance.
How many nights a week can a partner stay over?
The common rule is two to three. Beyond that, a fourth person is showering, streaming, and sitting on the couch while three people pay the bills — at which point it's a conversation about contributing, not about feelings. Agreeing on the number before anyone's dating turns that conversation into a clause reference instead of an ambush.
What do you do when a roommate keeps breaking a house rule?
Name it the first time, calmly and specifically, by pointing at the rule rather than the person. If it keeps happening, either the rule is wrong for your house — renegotiate it — or the roommate has stopped holding up their end, which is a bigger conversation than the rule. A system where turns and standards are visible surfaces both cases early.
Is there an app that helps house rules stick?
For the rules with moving parts, yes. Homies runs the chore rotation with checklists, keeps every shared expense in one balance the house can see, and holds the shared shopping list — so the money, chores, and supplies rules enforce themselves. It's in closed beta on iOS and Android: join now to get in early and free while we build it, with one signup for the whole home.
Let Homies keep score for you
What these guides set up by hand, the app runs on its own: the chore chart fills itself, balances settle in a tap, and the shopping list stays current for everyone. Homies is in closed beta now: join and you're in early, free while we build it.