Going to college and living on your own is a fun and exciting experience. But living with your significant other is a completely different story. Speaking from experience after having gone through it myself, here are several tips on how to enjoy living with your significant other.
- Setting “goals”
This might seem confusing at first since the main goal should be living with your significant other, right? But that isn’t the case here. Setting goals simply means making it clear to one another where you both want to be academically, physically, emotionally, and mentally. When those goals are set, you both have a clear understanding of where you want to be in life whether it’s in the short or long run.
- Doing a trial run
Now, this can be as simple as taking a weekend getaway with your significant other to see how you function as a unit for a period of time. You will get an insight into what works in a routine, how they are in a living space, and how they take care of themselves. It will definitely make you see them in a different light and help you decide if living together will work.
- Setting boundaries
Both of you are individuals that need time and space. Spending every single moment with them in a house can seem suffocating at times, and it’s hard since you can’t escape to your home since it is also theirs. Setting boundaries when needed with your significant other can help prevent fights from blowing out of proportion. This will give you time to be yourself away from your person.
- Compromise
Since you are two different people, you will obviously have different tastes and opinions on everything; from how you want the place to look to how clean you want the bathroom to be. You might be dating, but this doesn’t mean you are going to agree on everything. With that said, there needs to be a middle ground where you both can agree so that the environment at home won’t be hostile and so your partner won’t feel like they can’t communicate with you.
- Communicate
Last but not least, is communication. You might have heard this too from couples who have been together for a while when they are asked for advice on how they have managed to go for so long. This is because it is true, and it works. Being able to communicate with one another will make your home feel like a welcoming and safe space to go to when the world might seem against you. Talking with your significant other can help avoid fights, find common ground, and eventually, allow you to learn more about each other on a deeper level.
In the long run, there are obviously more actions that go into living with your partner but from experience, these five are a good foundation to start at. Once you both get the hang of these tips and hang on to each other when times get tough, living with one another will get easier as time goes by and it will eventually be second nature to act like a unit with your partner.