Remember when you were a kid and your parents would leave you home alone and you would be so happy? It was like a weight leaving your shoulders and you had all the freedom in the world. Living by yourself is kind of like that, but all the time. Living alone has it's pros and it's cons but it is definitely an adventure. Sometimes you hate it, sometimes you love it. I spent one year living alone and now that I'm about to move out to go live with roommates again, I can look back on it as a positive memory, but there's definitely somethings I should have thought about before moving in. Here are eight things I wish I would have known before living alone.
1. Cleaning by yourself is really hard.
Deep cleaning an entire living space takes a lot of time. My apartment was tiny but it still takes me at least two hours to thoroughly clean the whole thing. Now I understand first hand why your parents always force you to help clean up the house.
2. Cooking becomes difficult.
Trying to cook yourself a home made meal can be tricky. There are rarely any recipes for one serving. So, there are three options when you want to have a nice meal at home: order takeout, cook a killer recipe and eat all of the 4 servings that it makes, or eat one serving then you have dinner for the rest of the week.
3. When you run out of something, you're screwed.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to ask my friends who were coming over to stop and bring me toilet paper on their way. If you run out of anything important, like toilet paper, shampoo, food, or tampons, you can't just borrow it from your roommates. You have to go get yourself some.
4. The first few nights alone are scary.
When you're alone in your bed with no one else there, every little noise brings you to think that Freddy Krueger himself is hiding under your bed. But, eventually you learn that all those sounds are explainable.
5. Watching Netflix is never a problem.
There's never anyone there to fight about what you want to watch on Netflix about. You get to watch whatever you want, whenever you want, with no one there to say anything about it. This is probably the most beautiful part about living alone.
6. No one is there to judge you about your eating habits.
Kind of like the last one, you can eat whatever whenever and you don't have to feel guilty. You can order a whole pizza and eat it all by yourself, and it won't even count because no one was there to see it.
7. It's easy to get bored.
Sometimes a little company can go a long way. When you have roommates and you're bored, you can just go talk to them. But, when you live alone and get bored you actually have to go do something productive and leave your apartment to get rid of it.
8. You have so much freedom that you don't know what to do with it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can literally do whatever you want. If you want to stay up until 4 a.m. watching makeup tutorials in your living room, go for it. If you want to stand naked in your kitchen eating Cheetos straight out of the cabinet, you can (I have actually done this one before).
