“The best way to find out if you can trust someone is to trust them.”
– Earnest Hemingway
Ready to take your relationship to the next level and move in with your significant other?
Congratulations on your cohabitation! You’re about to enter the world of shared storage space and household chore negotiations. Having open and honest conversations about expectations and boundaries ensures a harmonious and enjoyable shared living space. It’s like deciding to share your favorite dessert when you both really want it, but with more cooperation, understanding, and emotional growth.
1. Finances Unfiltered: Discussing Finances Before Moving in Together
Kick off with a romantic candlelit dinner where the main course is your financial realities. Nothing says love like opening up about credit scores and debit. It’s important to lay all your cards on the table, even if some of them are maxed out. When you discuss finances before moving in together, you can budget for both your dream home and your dream date nights.
2. To Infinity and Beyond… or Just Lease Terms
Before you sign on the dotted line, decide if you’ll own or rent your shared space. If you’re renting, decide whose name(s) will be on the lease. This has implications for responsibility and rights. Buying a home? Consider the implications of joint ownership. Talk about what would happen if – for any reason – one of you decides to move out in the future. Yeah… discussing what happens if things don’t work out might seem awkward, but it’s smart to have a mutual plan.
3. The Cost of Being a Grown-Up: Budgeting Beyond Expected Living Expenses
Sure, you’ll split rent or mortgage, but what about those sneaky costs like internet and streaming services for at home date day marathons or unexpected car troubles? Budgeting for these together ensures you won’t have to eat instant noodles for a month because the refrigerator went kaput.
4. Designing Your Shared Space: Creating a Home That Reflects Both Personalities
Creating a space that whispers “us” is the next step. Your home should be a comfortable space that reflects both of your personalities and preferences. Whether you’re into minimalist chic or retro clutter, find a happy medium that doesn’t involve arguing over if a life-sized poster of a superhero counts as “art.” It’s about compromise and sometimes, putting the less appealing stuff in storage.
5. Choosing your Perfect Headquarters: Balance
Choosing the right location as a couple is crucial for both your daily commutes, lifestyle preferences, and social lives. Consider what’s important for both of you and meets your shared needs, whether it’s proximity to work, family, or leisure activities. Or at least somewhere that has a decent coffee shop for those mornings after your late-night DIY project. [Shout out to Fitti’s Espresso, exceptional locally owned Kansas City Northland ambient coffee shop. 10/10 recommend.]
6. Blending Daily Routines: Harmonizing Living Habits and Responsibilities
Living together means blending your lives, routines, and possibly your questionable taste in music. It’s discovering joys in the little things, like whose turn it is to buy toilet paper or learning to appreciate each other’s quirks – like someone’s inexplicable love for vacuuming at 7 AM on a Saturday. It’s me, I’m her, I’m the inexplicable AM vacuum bandit.
7. Ensure Your Team Thrives in the Future: Setting Shared Goals and Expectations
Last on this list (but not the last of hard conversations you’ll have as you grow) chat about what comes next. Having shared goals and understanding each other’s expectations for the future is important. Discuss your aspirations: are you gunning for pet parent, plant parent, or human parent status? Plans to turn your dining room into a home office or a gathering space for frequent company? It’s like plotting your own adventure story where the next chapter might involve adopting a dog or, dare I say, a DIY thrifted furniture repurposing project.
Conclusion
Moving in together is an adventure packed with learning curves, grace, laughter, understanding, and love. But let us not forget, this significant milestone requires more than just love; it needs planning, communication, and compromise. Crafting a unique life together that reflects your bond, complete with the perk of sampling two restaurant meals when you can’t decide so you get both and split em’ in half. Here’s to your journey of cohabitation! May your biggest argument only ever be about the fundamentals of loading a dishwasher.
Other related blogs you might find helpful: [7 Reasons to Love Homeownership], [Tips for Reviving a Fixer-Upper], [The True Value of a Realtor]
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