Predictions for your flatshare – Typical over a week or a month

In a shared flat, the typical things don't show up in one evening but over weeks. Someone leaves pots "to soak", someone else sticks notes on the fridge, and somebody always ends up taking in parcels for half the building. Typical turns these habits into a bingo game that runs alongside everyday life: at the start you write predictions about each other, then you tick off what happens – at breakfast, on cleaning day or when the doorbell rings in the evening. How the game works in detail is explained in the how-to-play guide.

How to set up your flatshare round

• Card size by duration. For a week, 3 × 3 is enough, so every square has a real chance. For a month, 4 × 4 fits, so that everything isn't decided by day three. 5 × 5 is only worth it if there are lots of you and you really want to keep going for four weeks.
• Set an end date. Pick a day everyone already has in mind: the Sunday the cleaning rota changes, the end of the month or the next flat meeting. If nobody fills a line, the round ends there by itself, and whoever came closest to bingo wins.
• A prize that suits the flat. The winner gets the best shelf in the fridge for a month, chooses the food for the next shared evening or gets a week off taking out the bins.
• Write freely rather than Blitz. Every flatshare has its own rituals, and they aren't on any ready-made list. So choose “Write freely”. Use Blitz mode with the category “Typical us” when someone has only just moved in and barely knows the others.

With four or more people you can also play in team mode and assign the teams yourselves, say the upstairs rooms against the downstairs rooms. Anyone who doesn't want to install an app can join in the browser.

14 predictions for flatshare life

These sentences are ideas for your own card. Each describes behaviour you can observe within a week or a month, and none targets something that already causes arguments in the flat:

• leaves a pot "to soak" in the sink
• asks the group whose yoghurt is in the fridge
• sticks a note on the fridge
• swaps cleaning duty with someone
• buys toilet paper even though there's still plenty
• takes in a parcel for another flat
• mentions a visitor only when the doorbell is already ringing
• takes the bins down and grabs the paper recycling on the way
• cooks enough for the whole flat
• asks who turned the heating up
• empties the dishwasher without being asked
• suggests a flat night together
• eats something from the fridge and replaces it the next day
• reminds everyone in the flat chat about money still owed for shopping

More from Blitz mode

Some sentences from the “Typical us” category also fit a flatshare well. On the card, each sentence is preceded by the name of a person from your round:

• helps themselves to someone else's snacks
• asks for a charger
• complains about the weather
• tells everyone about a weird dream
• sends a meme to the group chat while everyone is sitting together
• says goodbye and then stays another hour

Tips for a round that lasts a month

• The host sets things up – nothing more. The host chooses the card size, end date and prize, then releases the round. After that, everyone can tick things off, immediately and without a vote. Nobody needs to act as referee.
• Tick straight away, don't save it up. After ten days nobody remembers who emptied the dishwasher on Tuesday. Tap the square while the moment is still fresh. A wrong tick can be undone by the person who set it, and everyone else can object.
• Mix the daily and the rare. A card made only of things that happen every day is full after a week; a card made only of rare things stays empty. A mix works best: a few sentences for the kitchen, a few for cleaning day, one or two for visitors and post.
• Bring in the quieter ones. People who rarely sit in the kitchen notice other things: who cooks at night, who stacks the parcels in the hallway, who is up first on Sunday. Typical hands out the writing tasks so that the same number of sentences is written about each person – so even those who usually hold back write about everyone.
• No hidden criticism. The most common mistake in flatshare rounds: an annoyance gets dressed up as a prediction, like dishes left standing. That stings instead of entertaining. What really bothers you belongs in the flat meeting, not on the card. A good sentence is one the person it's about laughs at too.
• Finish with the reveal. After the bingo, each person sees what was written about them, including what never happened. That's worth an evening together in the kitchen – ideally with the prize.