So this week I have an opportunity to see how the other half live – I’ve started a three month ‘experience’ living in a professional six-person pet-friendly house share in Shifnal writes Lea Beven.

I have never ever shared a house like this before as I did not go to university or college away from home.

And seeing as I spend my day job organising house shares for other people, this was an opportunity that my dog Poppet and I could not turn down.

I thought it would be great experience for me so that I can see what it is really like for my tenant clients from the very first day they move into a house share.

Within just a couple of hours I could already see how important it was to define personal space and ‘claim’ your place in the household.

I was the last to move in and, as a result, ended up with the worst food cupboard on the top level of the kitchen that goes around the corner and the bottom shelf in the fridge (being tall this is very far to bend down).

My first meal was baked bean toasties and I had to awkwardly open cupboards to try and find the communal bits and pieces. Luckily help was at hand and a house mate helped me.

The first morning was the most strange though as I suddenly realised that I had no idea who went to work at what time and who used which bathroom.

I didn’t want to get in the way, so I laid low until the front door had opened and closed about four times!

By the evening on that first full day though I had managed to find out all that information and was nicely settled in.

By the end of the second evening, and half a bottle of home-made damson gin later, I felt that I had moved in successfully and am now looking forward to having some great fun.

Poppet will join me at the weekend, which I’m also looking forward to.

I hope that I can learn a lot more about house shares and the dynamics so that I can really get my teeth into training potential landlords and also helping to put systems in place to help new tenants settle in.