11 Things We Wished We Knew Before Living Alone

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There comes a point in everyone’s life when it’s time to decide if you want to live the roommate life or venture out on your own. Roommates are awesome for a lot of reasons, but eventually, you won’t want to deal with wildcard personalities. Taking that step towards solo living might be scary, but it can also be extremely rewarding. Here are 11 things we wished we knew before living alone.

Every sound will scare you.

When you live with roommates, you’re used to hearing all kinds of noises, big and small. Living alone is a little different. Any creek or thump will scare the sh*t out of you since there’s no one else that could possibly be making noise. Sleeping is also scarier when you live alone. When you can’t sleep and need to go eat a piece of toast in the middle of the night, there won’t be anyone to talk to.

Bills are easier.

While you’ll be handling the entirety of your bills on your own, you won’t have to deal with anyone else flaking in the process. You’ll know how much to expect every month and there won’t be any kind of messy Venmo situation.

Veg days can get out of hand.

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When you live with roommates, you have people to call you out for bumming around all day. You could sit there and watch movie after movie, order seamless multiple times and finish all of the wine in your fridge and there’d be no one to tell you to get off of the damn couch.

Your electric bills will be steeper.

Even though bills will be easier to handle on your own, you’re obviously going to end up paying more. Not only are you handling the full amount of expenses on your own, but living alone can get lonely. You might end up leaving the lights and television on more often to give the apartment more energy and background noise.

Cleaning becomes crucial.

Living alone makes you take a good hard look in the mirror at your cleanliness habits. If you don’t do it, no one will. You’ll realize pretty quickly how messy or neat you actually are. If you’re already a tidy person, you won’t have to stress about anyone else making a mess in your space. No more arguments about whose dishes are in the sink. On the other hand, there will be no one to blame but yourself if those pots stack up.

You’ll become more social.

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Yes, your couch days might easily get out of hand, but you’ll also want to go out and socialize more when you live alone. With no one to shoot the shit with, you’ll have to go outside for human interaction. It’s the best of both worlds since you can choose when and for how long you want to socialize.

You won’t need a bathroom door.

Get ready for bathroom liberation. You’ll get to handle all of your business with the door wide open. You won’t even need a bathroom door anymore. This means you don’t have to worry about the bathroom steaming up when you shower (unless you’re into the steam) and you can color your hair while watching a movie if you position your television the right way. You won’t fully understand how amazing the open door policy is until you’re living it.

You’ll become great at prioritizing your own needs.

When you live alone, you’ll have no one to please except yourself. You can wake up with the loudest alarm, blast music while you’re in the shower, cook all of the curries, walk around naked, practice karaoke, have friends over whenever and go to sleep as early or as late as you want with no one else to consider. You’ll get so used to doing what makes you happy, it might be hard to compromise with other people when you’re out in the real world.

You’ll realize cooking for one is more complicated than it seems.

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If you’ve ever seen the movie “Under The Tuscan Sun” you know how annoying it can be when you’re shopping for one at the grocery store. It’s difficult to find food in small portions since things are usually sold family-style. For this reason, you’ll need to be a little more strategic with how you plan your meals. If you’re someone who likes leftovers and meal prep this shouldn’t be an issue. If you’re anti-leftovers, you’ll just have to think a little more carefully about how much food you buy at a time.

Losing your keys isn’t an option.

There’s a safety net when you live with roommates and lose your keys. You can always send that cringy text asking if anyone will be up to let you in. When you live alone, there’s no one to save your ass. You’ll have to contact the super and who knows when you’ll be able to get into your apartment. The best plan is to make a copy of your key and give it to a friend who lives nearby just in case you lock yourself out.

You won’t have anyone to check in with.

Depending on your lifestyle, this could either be a positive or negative. If you’re someone who likes to come and go as they please without feeling like someone is keeping tabs on you, you’ll love living alone. If you like the idea of someone checking in and asking how your day is going, living alone can be a little jarring. Luckily there are all kinds of technology that’ll help you get face time with your friends and family when you chose.

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