Living with your family has its benefits but there comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to leave the nest. For some people, this can happen if you need to move away in order to study at university. This can be intimidating, especially if you’re also in an unfamiliar place and just about to start university. There are so many new things to think about when you’re living out of home.

Each situation is different and not every person is going to have the same struggles when they move out. However, living on your own when you’re young does come with a particular set of obstacles.

If you’re moving out and perhaps you’re a little bit unsure, here’s what to expect and some tips to get you through.

 

Expectation 1: It’ll be hard

This isn’t particularly encouraging but it’s true. Moving out is hard! Most people would have lived with their family as company and support for most of their lives, so it’s difficult when you have to live separately. Living away from your friends, family and familiarity can be a challenge. This is a reminder that it’s okay to feel lonely and down about it sometimes, but it’s all a part of the experience.

Expectation 2: You will learn a lot

When you move out, you’re not only learning how to do things like cooking, laundry and cleaning-up, but learning how to take care of everything yourself. You’ll be doing things like communicating with service providers and paying bills. These are great things to learn when you’re young and will prepare you for similar experiences later in life.

Expectation 3: It’s great

It really is great living outside of home. You have so much more freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You can choose what you want to eat and if you don’t want to clean up your room, no one’s going to tell you to. No one’s going to ask where you’re going and what time you’re getting back. When you’re forced to take responsibility for yourself, you’ll undoubtedly grow in maturity and independence. It’s liberating to take a step into the world on your own and stand on your own two feet.

Tip 1: Surround yourself

Since you’re living alone and don’t have the overwhelming support that you experience there, it’s important to keep yourself supported. This means that you have people that you can rely on and talk to if you need to. This should probably include people who are and aren’t living with you. It’s good to reach out to your friends for help and actually, a friendship is strengthened by asking someone for help. So don’t feel bad about it. You should also take advantage of counselling services, most universities will offer them for free.

Tip 2: Be organised!

Moving out of home comes with a whole new and long list of responsibilities. Things like bills and cleaning duties can be pushed into the back of your mind if you have a stressful week at university. Staying on top of things when you’re not stressed will help you to keep ahead of things for when the going gets tough. This will ultimately decrease the stress. They say ‘a stitch in time saves nine’ and that’s definitely true for these responsibilities.

Tip 3: Don’t be a…

If you’re living with other people, it’s a whole other world. Living with strangers or friends is completely different from staying with family. Living with others works best when there’s give and take. You should outline your expectations and try and see where there might be conflict in the household so you can prepare to deal with it. An ideal household works on effective communication and also effective compromise. It’s also not a great idea to piss off your housemates too much so… just don’t be that person. Listen to what your roommates have to say and try and deal with conflict in a mature way. Hopefully they will return the same respect. 

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This is just a tiny window into the next part of your life- moving out! It’s a scary and exciting time and you should take advantage of the opportunity! Learning to live with others or on your own are both unique and valuable life experiences. We hope that this post has helped you gauge what challenges may come your way.

We wish you all the best and hope that you have fun living out of home! If you have any specific questions or comments, leave us a message down below!