Moving out of the family home for the first time can be a daunting experience for anyone.
Gone is the free catering and laundromat service you might have enjoyed, gone are the familiar faces of your family around the breakfast table each morning, and gone is the certainty that you know what you’re doing with your life. It may be that you’re moving across country and need a 14ft lorry with driver to transport all your belongings to your destination. Or it may be that you’re going away to a nearby university and are packing only what you can fit in a single duffel bag.
In any case, it’s good to have some tips at your disposal for how to deal with the move. Here are a few.
Tip #1: Establish rituals and routines as quickly as possible
Without the judgmental gaze of your relatives ensuring that you make your bed each morning and brush your teeth each not, and without your dinners being provided for you on demand, you can easily find that moving out on your own throws you into a state of chaos where you get drunk on all the freedom and lack of responsibility and end up in trouble.
Establish certain rituals and routines as quickly as possible once you’ve arrived in your new home. Not only will this help you to feel more grounded and at home, but it will also mean you can feed yourself reliably and not end up living in a pigsty within a week. Try to set some structure for when and how you’re going to prepare dinner, what you’ll eat for breakfast, which days of the week you’ll do laundry on, and so on.
Tip #2: Get out regularly and get to know your local environment
Moving away from home obviously has its upsides, and one of these is that you’re free to meet new people and do new things, to a degree that you likely never were before.
To prevent yourself from feeling too homesick, go out and get to know your local environment as well as possible. Get a feel for what’s going on in town. If you’re at a University, join clubs and societies. Check out the local bars and meet some people. Ideally, you’ll be able to keep yourself busy enough, and having such a good time, that you don’t have time to feel out of sorts.
Tip #3: Keep in touch with your family and friends
You’ll almost certainly miss your family and friends from back home once you’ve gone through with the move. In order to ensure that neither you nor they become too upset, or feel too disconnected, make a point of keeping in touch with them on a regular basis. This could mean visiting whenever you get a chance, Skyping with your parents once a week, and inviting your old hometown friends to visit you at your new location so that you can all reminisce and then go out on the two together to form some new and lasting memories.
Have more tips you want to share? Leave them in the comments!
