Living With A Boy For A Year.
I should probably point out it's my boyfriend, not just a random boy.
A year ago today I bought my first car and that started the moving process to living with my boyfriend. It's hard to pin point an actual day I finished moving my stuff in and 'officially' lived here so today is as good an anniversary as any.
(Bizarrely I don't actually 'officially' live here still, I'm 'officially' moving here in January when we're renovating parts of his parents house to have a big kitchen of our own and stuff, I can't even begin to explain why it's so complicated)
But for all intents and purposes of this post; I've been living with him for a year now.
Observations I've made whilst living with my boyfriend:
1. I eat way worse. My boyfriend is a carer, he leaves the house around 6.30/7.00am every day and doesn't come home till 11.00pm. I spend a lot of time at my parents house because that's where my office is so I get a lot of meals made for me by Mamma Rees but when I'm with Joss we eat sooooo unhealthily. It's late at night, we don't have the time or the energy to make something nice, we know it'll be midnight before we're eating most of the time so we live on a diet of frozen chips and pasta. Quick, easy, not so nutritious.
2. Compromise is not a dirty word. That's basically all living with someone is. I compromise on our TV stand being full of his gaming consoles and games. He compromises on our shelves being full of family photos and rose gold trinkets. I would like to add something a bit more pretty to the TV stand, he'd rather not have to look at my selection of candles I don't burn. Compromise.
3. You take the small victories. On the whole Joss doesn't have much interest in how the house is decorated. He has a few inputs and opinions but on the whole it just really isn't his thing. I on the other hand think I might be a bit of a dictator to live with. Everything has a home and that home is where I decide it should be. He doesn't like choosing paint and sofas and finding a home for everything - I would hate it if he did. Win win.
4. You barter over chores. I cannot stand doing the dishes or taking the bins out. He cannot stand cleaning or washing. I actually don't mind cleaning or laundry at all. He is more than happy to take the bins outside (although he is buying a dishwasher for our new kitchen so I'll have to find another chore for him). It's a happy household.
5. You have silent battles. I think I've mentioned this before but we have battles that neither of us EVER speak of but we both know they're going on. Things like his ability to leave the inside tubes of toilet roll on TOP of the toilet not in the bin which is RIGHT NEXT TO IT. Also his insistence that his toothpaste should live on the shelf above the sink not in the handy little holder I bought for him. It's all fun living with boys.
6. You'll pick up each others habits. It's understandable, you're spending a lot of time together and living together means picking up eachother's routines and habits. I am getting veryyyyy used to eating at random times of day and sleeping till mid morning on a Friday because of the shifts he works and the times we get up the rest of the week.
7. A house to yourself is a god send. I downright hate being by myself at night but any other time of the day if I'm here and he's not it's like heaven for a few hours, and I know he feels the same if he has a morning off. I don't spend a lot of time in the house on my own because I go to work at my Mum & Dad's but when I do? I whizz round like a right girl boss feeling like the baddest bit homemaker that ever did live.
8. A bed to yourself is even better. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer sharing a bed. It's warmer, it's cosy, it's company and I get to sleep so much better with him by my side but once in a while omfg a double bed to myself is the best damn present a girl could get. I keep telling him we need to buy one of them super king size beds that fits like 4 people just so we can have the company and the warmth but also have the space to starfish without doing eachother an injury. So far he hasn't bought it but I'll continue my work.
9. Having your own interests is A OK. I think that's the biggest thing I have learnt about living with a boy. I think it can become easy to think you have to be home at the same time, doing the same things in the same routine but it's soooo much healthier that we do our own thing. I have a niece that requires a lot of looking after and she isn't going to wait until he's gone to work so I can spend 2 hours extra with him. Equally his idea of a good day off is lying on the sofa playing his xbox where mine is more get up and do something. It's all gravy if you make sure you still DO do things together, share your common interests (nobody needs a partner in their lives who watches the next episode of that boxset without you) and communicate. We're simple beings, we like nothing more than spending an evening on the sofa watching some telly and chatting.
10. You complain A LOT about how messy/noisy/dirty/annoying they are because no matter the length of time you've been together, living together takes some adjusting to but at the end of the day there is nothing nicer than coming home to your bae at the end of a long day.