I recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of moving in with my girlfriend in our first apartment, and I have to say that thinking back on the past year, I wasn’t given a whole lot of guidance beforehand. We’ve had a rollercoaster of experiences, and as I hear about our friends approaching similar situations soon, I thought it would be nice to put all of my advice in one place.
First, find a roommate you would be willing to spend a lot of time with. With your budget, square footage is not the name of the game, so be comfortable living in close quarters with this person. Are they the kind of person to do their fair share of household chores, or are they the type to leave dishes in the sink to let them “soak?” Can at least one of you cook, and not just the microwaveable dinners from Trader Joe’s? Finally, ask yourself, would you be okay sharing this space with someone after a nasty bout of food poisoning? If yes to all of the above, you’ve got the right guy.
Pick a place, preferably somewhere too far away from home to drive back for the weekend, but within a quick flight for the holidays. Location may depend on the person, but a city is a pretty good spot to set up. If you can find somewhere close to your university that’s within your price range, make sure to take a tour when there are a lot of residents around. If their eyes are screaming, “Get out as fast as you can and don’t look back,” I would heed that advice. Alas, I did not see the signs, and now the ceiling shakes when I flush the toilet. C’est la vie.
Next is furnishing, the battle royale of settling into your new home. I like maximalist design, my girlfriend likes minimalist, now we have a turquoise couch and white barstools. Easy as pie. But seriously, just let one of your parents micromanage their way through all of the interior design, it was bound to happen anyway. Then comes the mega trip to IKEA to obtain said furniture. The parent that drove the car with the most storage space will feel the desire to take the lead, but it’s truly in the hands of the one that brought a measuring tape to the store. The store itself will be an emotional rollercoaster; she likes accent pillows but I like silly little blankets, she likes matching dishes I like fun mugs, I like color and she wants to live in a bank foyer. IKEA will put a relationship to the test, but in the end, it will bring you closer together, with a shared love of the frozen meatballs with lingonberries.
With a new home comes new hobbies. No matter what it is, crocheting, paper mache, plants, the first hobby will not last long. There’s a reason your parents didn’t pay for the hobbies you had for fifteen minutes as a kid. In our case, you think you have a green thumb, purchase all the plants you can carry, and forget to consider the fact that your apartment has absolutely no natural light. You will make a valiant attempt to keep them alive, battle overwatering, mites, and general neglect. They will inevitably find themselves on the balcony, perched sadly on that old table your girlfriend impulse bought when she got really into restoring furniture she finds on the street. Don’t feel too bad about it, you will soon get really into fostering cats, and the room left by the abandoned plants will be filled with piles of kittens.
Continue collecting things to fill your space, and soon enough you’ll have started making memories, little things start to take on a whole lot more meaning. Keep this up, and before you know it, it’ll be this place that you start to call home.
