At some point in your life or relationship you might find yourself living with a guy. It's definitely a big adjustment since living on your own means you've taken advantage of all of your living space for all of your stuff. Living with another person, male or not, means making some sacrifices. We decided to come up with a list of things you can do to make living with a guy a little bit easier.
- Clean out your closet. It's time to donate half of your wardrobe, girlfriend! We know, we know, having the same shirt in 10 different colors is so necessary, but not if it means that it will take up more space in the closet that you'll be sharing with the boy moving in. Consider this an act of charity as you can send your clothes in as a donation and attempt to write it off in your taxes. Guys need closet space too.
- Put things in storage. If you have storage or can afford to pay for storage monthly, free up space by putting your big items that you don't need immediate access to into a storage unit. This will make parting with your things easier because instead of throwing the items away or donating them, you're putting them into a different space. This portable closet is also great for you to have in your storage for clothes and shoes that you don't need access to for a third or half of the year!
- Buy shelving at Target or IKEA. Target and IKEA have great accessories to help you keep your things organized separately. Consider shelving, shoe racks, and drawers that can allow for great separation of each person's items. One shelf can be your stuff, the other his. Here is a link to one of our favorite bathroom shelves from Target: Home Bathroom Space Saver. Here is another link to great fabric storage cubes you can use for separating your stuff on shelves: Fabric Cubes.
- Consider neutral color shades. We don't know many men willing to live in a pink themed bathroom or with a pink and leopard living room theme (haha) so consider neutral shades in those common areas. Again, Target is the best place to find some earthy and neutral tones for just about any home accessory.
- Practice patience. When he leaves the toilet seat cover up--be patient. If you find pee on the toilet seat--be patient. If he squeezes toothpaste from the middle of the toothpaste bottle (don't you hate when people do that?!)--be patient. Bottom line is, change and adapting to people's preferences takes time. Just consider that you have spent x amount of years evolving into who you are and they have spent x amount of time evolving into who they are. When you both come together, there are going to be many things you'll have to compromise to make living together effective.
Good luck!!
