Relationships December 1, 2016
After years under your parents’ roof, the time has finally come move out of (or even away from) home. You quickly kiss the ‘rents goodbye as you run off to freedom – into a small four-walled box with an empty fridge, a mailbox full of bills and trash bags forming mountain ranges in the hallway. Turns out freedom isn’t so freeing after all.
Here are seven secrets they don’t tell you about leaving mom and dad’s place.
In the movies, apartment hunting with your BFF looks so exciting and painless. Fiercely independent roommates always score an adorable pad even if they’re making minimum wage. Reality check: When looking for a place, you can choose cheap or cute. Accept the fact that you probably won’t land the apartment of your dreams for the first few years on your own.
READ MORE: How to Foster a Good Relationship With Your Parents After Moving Out
While mom and dad won’t tell you what to do with your own money anymore, your rent collector is sure to knock every month. Plus, rent isn’t the only bill to pay. You may be lucky enough to be on your parents’ cell phone plan or Netflix account, but there are a lot more expenses for essentials once you move out of the house like water, gas, electricity, Wi-Fi, magazine subscriptions …
Turns out you definitely under-appreciated having a personal shopper for two decades. Food doesn’t magically appear in your fridge anymore. Breakfast, lunch and dinner (not to mention chocolate, coffee and wine) are now your responsibility. Since eating out all the time will soon put a hole in your wallet, you’ll need to stop at the grocery store and learn to cook for yourself. And no, you can’t live on ramen forever.
READ MORE: 6 Signs You Might Be Going Through an Identity Crisis
While you may have learned how to do your own laundry before you left home, will you actually do it? Chances are you’ll wait to wash your heaping pile of dirty clothes until you run out of clean underwear. Or you’ll just stop by Victoria’s Secret to buy a new pair. Set a weekly date with your washing machine to make sure you don’t show up to work with a lingering smell. You spend a huge chunk of that paycheck to not be homeless, so don’t dress like it.
The chores you split up among your siblings don’t compare to the cleaning responsibilities you have now. Without your parents threatening to ground you, soon the mold will creep into the shower and your overflowing trash can will attract new ant roommates. Create a schedule, set reminders and keep your pad clean.
READ MORE: Your Room Should Not Have Its Own Ecosystem: Why Keeping It Clean Helps Stave off Depression
Sure, they were a little protective and maybe they didn’t like you dropping the f-bomb at family dinners. But did they bring a booty call home at 3 a.m. or leave a stack of dirty dishes in the sink for three weeks? While living with your friends or significant other is a lot more fun, mom and dad definitely are definitely #roommategoals when it comes to common courtesy.
True, you have no curfew on weeknights, but you also have no one to wake you up for work at 7 a.m. the next morning. Eating a slice of Domino’s for breakfast and drinking Starbucks past midnight will eventually get exhausting. Attempt to balance life and be your own boss. Adulting is hard, but everyone’s got to do it at some point.
READ MORE: Lacking Motivation? Here’s How You Can Still Succeed
