How To Survive Living Back At Home In Your 20s
Way back in June I wrote a piece all about Living At Home In Your 20s and I wanted to talk about it again today and share some advice for if you've found yourself living back in your childhood bedroom. I moved back home to my parents with Alex a year ago now, and it's been quite the learning curve ever since. If you've found yourself living at home again in your 20s, here's my best advice for making the most out of it:
Make your room your own again After spending three years away from home at university, coming back home meant that I was itching to make my room feel like mine again. Together, Alex and I built our room to function in a way that works for us, and once our personal belongings were scattered around again it felt a whole lot more like home. Sometimes when you're just craving your own freedom and space, being able to close your bedroom door and have your own little haven makes all the difference.
Keep your independence as much as possible I think everyone's worst nightmare when moving back home in your 20s is losing all the independence you've built up over the years. Thankfully for us we haven't had any major issues with this - we buy and cook our own food and live to our own schedules and on the whole things work pretty seamlessly living alongside my parents. My best advice is to start as you mean to go on - pay your own way as much as you can, do your own laundry and pull your weight and help out around the house. We've found getting out as much as possible together or seeing our friends really helps, and the most important thing is to not fall into old habits and become a grumpy teenager again.
Fall back in love with your town/city I'm so happy to be living back in Manchester, I love this city and it really does feel like home. After living in Lancaster together for three years (where there's hardly anything to do), we're both so happy living in a city again where there's so much to see and do. Explore your home town or city again, fall back in love with it, and explore every chance you can get. If you have to move back home for whatever reason, the best thing to do is to make the most out of your situation.
Compromise Living back at home is of course a compromise, and respecting your parents and their home is super important. We're pretty good house guests - we always clean up after ourselves, and we always try and be conscious of others - but there are of course compromises to be made along the way. Whether it's cooking later on so my mum has free reign of the kitchen, or not quite having as much privacy as we'd like, the fact we have a roof over our head makes up for that so being open to bending a little is the best way to go.
Work towards the future If you're back at home and feeling like a failure, make sure you remind yourself why you're there. For us, first and foremost we moved back due to my illness and needing a safe place to live while we got back on our feet, and as we're both creatives pursuing freelance careers we're crazy grateful to have the freedom and support to do that. Whether it's for financial or personal reasons, remember that it's the best place for you right now and that once you're back on your feet you will be super grateful for this period in your life. Keep working towards the future, setting goals and moving forward, and even when your family are driving you crazy just remember that you're probably a little annoying to them too.
If you're a 20-something living back at home, what's your best advice for survival?
Jen
Background via June Letters
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