How do I live an eco-friendly lifestyle when I live with flatmates?

It’s the time of year when rentals are in short supply. O-Week is happening at universities, people are starting new jobs and young people are scrambling to secure themselves a good flat for the year ahead.

But finding flatmates is never easy. What you see isn’t always what you get.

Increasingly, flatties are using apps to find a flatmate. And while that idea is nothing new, a new app just launched takes a fresh approach to the problem.

The designers say Mogeo provides a survey for potential flatmates that will sort out the compatible from the ‘‘don’t even think about it’’.

‘‘It’s a global platform that can predict compatibility,’’ says Adam Hutchinson of Mogeo.com.

‘‘It is based on a new algorithm that comes from a reverse engineering of what makes up a compatible flatting situation.

‘‘Unlike other apps, we are not providing a database of potential flatmates – we have seen a number of those apps come and go. Instead, we see Mogeo as an addon to listings on Trade Me, Facebook or craigslist. We generate a link for the advertiser that they can post into their existing listing.

‘‘I’ve heard lots of horror stories over mismatched expectations. And while co-living makes sense, the No 1 barrier for people is concern that the person they choose to live with will not be compatible.’’

Hutchinson says Mogeo involves the existing flatmates filling out a questionnaire that establishes the existing flat dynamic.

‘‘When more than two people get together a dynamic is formed. We try to unearth what that is, and then test potential flatmates to see how they will fit in. And it’s not just about personalities – it’s also about expectations around things such as cleanliness, sociability and partying.’’

Potential flatmates also fill out a questionnaire and the app can predict compatibility before there is any commitment.

‘‘We’ve given over 250 compatibility ratings so far through some initial testing,’’ says Hutchinson.

‘‘Our lowest compatibility rating is 22 per cent and the highest the algorithm has generated for someone is 91 per cent.’’

A group of Christchurch flatmates who got together this week to discuss the perils of choosing a flatmate agreed it wasn’t always easy to get it right.

What they most disliked in flatmates was inconsiderate behaviour, which included playing loud music very early in time (usually a few months) for your hair to get used to its new, natural cleaning regime. I’ve lived with flatmates for more than two years now, so I know exactly how hard it is to live with other people who may not share your eco values.

The most important thing, is to keep communicating. No one likes a sullen flatmate who is passive aggressive over a plastic bag in the kitchen.

Try to meet your flatmates in the middle, and be prepared to be the one to take the lead in running the shared household amenities (only if you all agree on this). the morning, failure to do their own dishes, and lack of punctuality in paying bills. They also didn’t like cliques developing in flats, and flatmates with very different schedules that disrupted sleeping.

‘‘You definitely need to know something more about them than [what you find out in] an interview screening situation,’’ said one flatmate. ‘‘You need to know more than they might be willing to share.’’

The flatmates agreed finding someone friendly, whom you get on with straight away was important: ‘‘Compatible personalities, compatible lifestyles, similar ways of keeping the house tidy’’ are the things that matter.

For me, this looks like taking charge of filling up our cleaners, soaps, salt, pepper, and making sure we have scrubbing brushes, toilet brushes and cloths.

I signed us up to a Green Cane toilet paper subscription, and as I am passionate about not using bin liners, I have also become the main rubbish sorter.

I’ve donated my time to the flat, in order to reduce my waste and the waste of others.

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices of your own time, in order to uphold your personal values.

Blogger Kate Hall lives and breathes ethical living. She answers some of your questions about how to live a greener existence.

Follow Kate’s ethical living journey at ethicallykate.com.

Georgia Norton Lodge loves houses. She loves the sentiment behind them; the nostalgia attached to them.

In fact, Norton Lodge loves them so much she’s saving for one of her own by drawing other people’s.

In 2014, the now 28-year-old was working fulltime as a graphic designer when her creative director noticed some of her scribbles on a piece of paper.

‘‘My mum is very creative. She is always painting new things around our house and learning new crafts. She is incredible.

‘‘So I’ve always been a drawer, since I was very little. Though I never fancied myself as any good,’’ she says.

‘‘It was my first creative director who noticed my scribbles and pushed me to draw more.’’

Quietly, Norton Lodge began to draw more and more, before she realised she had a knack for capturing homes.

‘‘I started drawing houses for my sister’s first book cover,’’ she says.

‘‘The book was based in Annandale, Sydney, where we grew up, so I decided to draw it. I drew my own house first. As each brick was laid and each chimney grew, I kind of thought to myself ‘hold on, this is pretty cute!’

‘‘I showed my friends and family and they wanted me to draw their houses. Soon, friends of distant cousins started asking, so I launched Georgia Draws A House.’’

While juggling her fulltime job in graphic design, Norton Lodge receives commissions to draw houses around the country, requiring just a two-week deadline and a home address.

‘‘Being a graphic designer can be demanding, illustration is my way of keeping sane and staying true to the maker in me.

‘‘Juggling is what I was born to do – last year while working fulltime and building Georgia Draws A House, my sister Zoe and I also released our first children’s book, Elizabella Meets Her Match – written by her, illustrated by me.

‘‘Side hustles are great pocket money and ever since I’ve been moonlighting with them, I’ve got closer to my house-saving goal. Drawing houses to buy a house sort of has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

‘‘I would love to buy a home [at] the end of this year, but realistically some time next year. I’m a terrible saver, which is why having Georgia Draws A House as a side hustle is so important – multiple revenue streams help the savings grow.’’

Norton Lodge says her work is the kind of drawing that elicits huge emotion from those who are attached to the homes.

‘‘People respond beautifully. I get emails, texts, love letters and photos of smiling faces. Happy tears are not uncommon and they’re so special.

‘‘People already know home is where the heart is, I believe when they see their house in its childlike, wiggly-line purity it makes them feel a special sort of nostalgia.’’ – domain.com.au

For more of Georgia’s work, visit georgiadrawsahouse.com or @georgiadrawsa house .