Sharing an accommodation or living area is never easy, especially with a stranger, which is why many of us out there want to live or move into an apartment together. However, you must that this isn’t always what you think; living with a friend or even best friend can make or break your relationship with them. This is why you need to think carefully before moving in with a stranger or your best friend.
We all love spending time with our best friends, which is something that we all look forward to, especially after a draining week at work. However, even if moving with a good friend might seem like a good idea, it might be a nightmare in the end, and this is why you need to set certain rules and boundaries before moving in. So, without further ado, let’s dive into this blog and learn some of the things you need to know about moving in with your best friend.
1. Shared spaces
Sharing a living arrangement means that you will share some rooms in the house/apartment/condo, like your kitchen, living room, and sometimes even your bathroom. These spaces need to be kept clean at all times because you share them, and you would not want a dirty kitchen or bathroom when it is your turn to use them. If you have a minimalist style and your best friend has a maximalist style, you need to find the style that will fit both of your aesthetics.
You can keep your style for your room and have a mixture of both for your living areas. Talk about the decorations you want and try to compromise when it comes to decorating the shared spaces. You can also talk about the appliance and gadgets you will keep in the shared spaces, and you might want to share the cost of said appliances and gadgets. These are some things you need to discuss when moving in with a best friend.
2. Fun activities and spending time together
One of the things you need to be aware of is that sometimes after you move in with your best friend, the nature of your relationship might change, be it because you spend too much or not enough time together, and this is why you need to take time to do fun activities together. We usually advise having a schedule where you both have a lot of time to spend together, and you can have regular fun activities that will keep your friendship as it was.
Because you are spending a shared living area, most of your conversation might be about house chores, or you might even be too tired to catch up after a hard day at work, and this is why you need a lot of time to have fun together and spend time as best friends and not just flat or housemates. My best friend and I are big movie watchers, and we spend most of our Fridays watching bls together; it is a way for us to bond and catch up after work.
Having said this, moving in with your best friend does not mean that you both have to spend every living and breathing second together; you should allow each other your personal space, which is what living together means in the long run. Even if you want to do that, we all have a certain limit to spending time with others, and we need to recharge our social battery alone, which is why you have to give each other some alone/me time.
3. Sharing food and cleaning
Using up that last gallon of milk that doesn’t belong to you may seem harmless, but it’s one of those little silly things that can easily turn into an ugly argument. Talk about how you feel about splitting up the groceries. You can decide to do all your shopping separately and commit to using only the items you bought.
You can also choose to share everyday items like cooking oil. You can even decide to share everything. Be honest about whether you’re the kind of person who goes nuts when others take your food without asking (we never like that person) or if you’re the rare unicorn who likes to share food. And most importantly, don’t assume your best friend feels the same way.
Is your best friend a secret slacker who only cleans up when people are visiting? There’s no way to know until you live together. Discuss your cleaning habits before you move in together. This means discussing which chores you don’t mind doing and which ones you hate.
If you like or do not mind vacuuming and your best friend likes to do dishes, then you can easily divide the responsibility of cleaning between who does what and how often. As childish as it may sound, you might even consider creating a chore chart or some other system to keep track of what needs to be done.
Final thought
Most of us dream of living with our best friend, but it is not something that most of us can achieve. So, before taking this major step in your life, you better think about it twice or thrice and balance the pros and cons of moving in with your best friend.
Sound off in the comments section below, and tell us what you want to read next and if you want to read more about moving in with your best friend. I would like to end this post with one of my favorite quotes from James Baldwin:
“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
