The end of this school year was different than the many others I've experienced. This summer, my friends and I began renting a house in our college town. Our first summer away from home and our first time living in a house we have to pay for. You might be thinking that it can't be that much different than living in a dorm room, but you are so wrong. I've lived in this house for less than a week and here are a number of things I've already learned from moving from a dorm into an off-campus place.
1. You have too much stuff.
You never realize just how much stuff you have until you have to pack it all into boxes and pile those boxes into any bit of free space you can find. The sad part is that this pile of stuff doesn't even include big items like a bed or a desk because your school has provided these for you during your on-campus stay. It also doesn't include the piles of things you probably left at home.
2. You don't use a lot of the stuff you do have.
Speaking of the stuff you left at home, has it occurred to anyone else that if you have lived all these months at school without the stuff at home that you probably don't need it? I have this thought literally every time I go home, but I still can't make myself get rid of more than a few things at a time. Additionally, there's also stuff in your dorm room you don't need, but you decide to pack it anyway, just to make your trips to and from the car even more exhausting.
3. You lose stuff.
It's the moving equivalent of the dryer eating your socks. You pack up your stuff and somewhere in the trip, it disappears. It might be due to packing your stuff in random places you think you won't forget. It might show up eventually, or it could be lost to the world.
4. Stairs are hard.
I hope that the number of people that can relate to a dorm without an elevator is relatively small, but our only way from our room to our car was to take the stairs. As I made trip after trip, I began to wonder how it was that I packed all of my stuff into this room because carrying it DOWN the stairs was hard enough! And once I made it to the house, I got to pack it all back up the stairs because second story bedroom. I've never hated stairs more in my life, but I got almost seventy flights of stairs logged on my FitBit that day. Holla!
5. Doorways are small.
I hadn't spent too much time thinking about this one because, again, the school provides furniture, but moving into my new room required (my guy friends) packing a bed and a desk up our very small stairway and through my very small doorway. It was a tight fit for the mattress and desk and an impossible fit for the box springs, but I took the opportunity to yell "PIVOT," just like Ross.
6. It costs a lot of money.
You hear the cost of rent and you think, "oh, that's not too bad." But make sure you take into account the cost of gas, electric, trash, water, WiFi (because you know you aren't going without that); not to mention deposits or installation fees that also might be a part of that initial cost. And if you do all the math and think, "well this is still cheaper than what I'm paying to live on campus," cool. But it's a little bit easier to pay that money with scholarships and loans. Living off-campus means having the money upfront and saying goodbye to it once a month. It's definitely a hard thing to get used to.
7. You become very aware of all the water and electricity you use.
When you're personally paying the bills on these items, you begin to think of how much you're really using. One big bill and suddenly shorter showers don't sound so bad. You'll sit with the lights off in your room or burn a candle instead of using a Scentsy. And opening a window or investing in a heated blanket sounds better than blasting the heat or AC. I guess we're going green to keep our green.
8. You don't know how to grocery shop.
So you've been living on-campus with a meal plan and all of a sudden you're off-campus with an empty fridge. Time to go grocery shopping, like you have tons of time with your family or for your dorm room. Except buying food to make actual meals is way different than picking up a few snacks to stock your mini-fridge. You have to plan ahead a little bit to know what you're making so you'll know what you need to buy. It's a big struggle for those of us who can't cook.
9. Cooking takes creativity.
Maybe this one isn't for everyone, but like I said, I'm not exactly the most experienced in the kitchen. When I try to think of the things I can make, my list mainly consists of all things microwaveable. When I venture outside of this box, I come up with spaghetti (that's impossible to mess up, right?) and then I hit a brick wall. Safe to say I will be spending some time on Google, looking up easy dishes to cook. Is there a Cooking for Dummies book?
10. Parents know everything.
In case they hadn't already proved their superiority, parents will walk into a house and start asking you a million things you hadn't even thought of yet or bring you things you hadn't realized you needed. Mattress covers, Ziploc bags, fire alarms and plug-in adapters have all made this list.
11. It's bittersweet.
There's always that feeling of nostalgia when you've cleared out a place you've lived for awhile. Even more so if it also means the last time living with some of your best friends. Luckily for me, I got to bring half of my roommates with me to the next place, and it's been an exciting adventure thus far. Like we're experiencing adulthood, the "real world" that everyone has been talking about, for the first time. It's a little scary, but also a step in the right direction.
