Living alone is exciting, it truly represents independence, empowerment and freedom. There is something very liberating about having your own space that you can decorate how you wish, play by your own rules and not have anyone to answer to!
Living alone is a huge achievement for most, especially due to rising living costs and living in expensive cities such as London or New York that can make living alone even more difficult to achieve, so congratulations if you have managed to achieve this milestone!
Maybe living alone was not entirely your choice and there has been a breakdown in a relationship or moving for your career forced you into this position. Whatever the case, it can be hard work, daunting and even lonely for many people, but we have provided some helpful tips to help you smash living alone!
Meals
Some of you may not be used to cooking or are not used to cooking for just yourself. The key to boss at living alone is to ensure that you are looking after yourself by making healthy, tasty meals and not spending a lot of money on takeaway or eating a lot of pre-cooked processed food that is often high in fat sugar and salt.
Cooking for yourself doesn’t have to be a chore, it can be a fun benefit of living alone, you get a chance to get playful and creative with the meals you make, try new foods and explore ingredients you may have never used. Aside from this, preparing meals when living alone can come with challenges so you will need to be savvy when it comes to meal prepping.
Helpful tips:
- Plan your meals: Meal planning will save you money, this is because when you are less likely to buy anything from the supermarkets and instead you will just be buying the things you need! I would advise planning your meals for 1 week or 2.
- Batch cooking: Batch cooking is ideal for those who live alone as it will save you time, money and food wastage. It means cooking in large quantities and freezing it for a later date. You will be grateful for those days when you can’t be bothered to cook and all you have to do is take the leftover bolognaise you cooked the week before out the freezer.
- Avoid food wastage: If you live alone then it’s easy to waste a lot of food and this is something that many people living alone struggle with. As mentioned above, planning meals and batch cooking can avoid food wastage as well shopping with intention whereby you only get what you need can also help. Buying canned and frozen veg will save food going off before you even have time to use it and getting creative with your leftovers will save you lots of food wastage. For example, if you have cooked chicken and have lots left over, then to avoid wasting it, you can use the left chicken to put in pasta the next day for dinner or a sandwich for lunch. Preserving food well will be helpful, as this can make all the difference in how long it lasts, for example making sure it’s covered
- Don’t waste money on cookbooks: The internet is full of free recipes, and YouTube is great for recipes where you can watch them making the meals.
Cleaning
You have a new pad so you want to keep it clean and tidy, plus cleanliness is super important and good for mental health and well-being and research shows this. If you want to boss living alone, try to keep up with your cleaning!
Helpful tips:
- Dedicate a day in the week to cleaning your home – this can be worked around your own schedule. This weekly cleaning schedule will be for mopping the floors, changing bed sheets dusting and wiping down sides
- Schedule time to do ‘deep cleaning’ this type of task is for things we don’t don’t tend to clean as often such as the oven, the skirting birds or the inside of the cupboards. Experts say that deep cleaning should be done every 2-6 months for homes that have fewer residents.
- Putting things back in their place after you used them is so simple but yet a lot of people find it hard to keep up with. Getting into the habit of putting things back is seriously a game-changer in keeping your house neat and tidy and you will find that you won’t have to spend too much time cleaning up after yourself!
- Ensure you are looking out for incredible cleaning hacks that can save you time and money!
- Quilts and duvet covers should be washed approximately every 4 months!
- Experts advise cleaning dishwashers and washing machines monthly (these tasks can be easy to forget)
Guests
Now you are living on your own you might be thinking about having guests over. Perhaps you want a dinner party, housewarming, or just a gathering.
Having who you want in your property has to be one of the highlights of living alone, your guests will help you to manage the loneliness that living by yourself can sometimes cause and it can do wonders for your dating and love life!
Socialising at your property will also help you appreciate the quiet times when it’s just yourself.
Helpful tips
- Invest in an air mattress and quilt for guests, that way you won’t feel obliged to share your bed when you have people stay over, and sleeping on sofas can damage them over time, so avoid it if you can!
- Keep spare washcloths and toothbrushes for those times when guests stay over randomly and unexpectedly. Trust me, your guests will be grateful that they will be able to brush their teeth when they wake up!
- If you are a non-smoker keep an ashtray for smokers that come, of course, you don’t have to let them smoke in your property, but if they smoke outside, then they have something to put their cigarette butts and ash in instead of it going on all over the floor!
- Keep some cheap disposable take-out boxes, so if you ever cook for your guests or order takeout you send them home with a doggy bag then you won’t have to use all your Tupperware you probably won’t get back!
Bills bills bills
Living alone is costly, but of course, you know that, so it’s helpful to get organised when it comes to your bills. Missing bills could mean further financial penalties and it could mess up your credit which could have severe financial implications for you!
Helpful tips:
- Direct debits and standing orders will ensure that you do not miss your bills and you can schedule them to come out of your account when it is most convenient for you
- For those who prefer to not have automatic payments, ensure that you keep a memo of when all your bills are due so you do not miss them and have added charges!
- For those who do not want automatic payments coming out of their account, then you
- Most companies allow customers to have paperless bills that come right to their email, this will save you from having ‘paper clutter’, but organise them into folders in your email, making them easily accessible when needed.
- Make sure you keep a folder with all paper bills if you do not receive them electronically
- Use comparison websites to compare bills to ensure you are getting the cheapest options. Ensure you don’t just use comparison sites when you move in, you need to do it when your contracts end to keep getting the best deals.
Manage loneliness
The campaign to end loneliness has stated that loneliness is the largest public health challenge we face and a loneliness and wellbeing study carried out in 2021 found that adults living alone were twice as likely to feel lonely than adults who lived with others. Since loneliness can seriously affect your health and quality of life those living alone need to try to manage and reduce their loneliness.
Helpful tips:
- Ensure you invite friends and family over as often as you see fit, having guests will help deal with loneliness and it will also help you to appreciate when you have the place to yourself to chill out
- As well as having friends over you need to ensure you are getting out of your property to visit them or do other things, a change in environment can do wonders for wellbeing.
- Working from home is quite the norm now, so if you are someone who only has to attend the office a few days a week this may contribute to your loneliness as you won’t be seeing and interacting with colleagues every day, so if you can, going into the office more often than you have to may help, or another workspace where you are around others.
- Avoid having long periods in the house alone and leave the house even if you do not need to, for example, to get some fresh air or go for a walk.
- Creating a routine and schedule to keep you occupied when you are at home, for example, batch cooking and cleaning
- Calling friends and family for a catch-up can help with loneliness when you cannot see them in person.
- Understand your loneliness triggers so that you can develop a strategy to
- Get professional help such as counselling or support groups
- Get a hobby or spend time in the gym
Manage your fears
The downside of living alone is that we have to face our fears alone and we won’t have anyone there to help us and this can be daunting. This may be fears of having to get rid of bugs you might find in the flat to security issues or maybe you are just a little scared about being by yourself.
Helpful tips:
- Invest in some security for your place, whether this is is a ring doorbell or fitted security camera’s
- Get to know your neighbours or at least be polite to them when you see them so if you ever need to call upon them for support or a favour then you will be comfortable doing so!
- Avoid scary movies or programmes if you know you will likely be freaked out after watching them
- Get bug spray or other utensils/ tools that will help you manage bugs that come into your home, especially if you are scared of them!
Safety
Safety is always important and if you are going to live alone, especially for the first time, you may be thinking about how to keep yourself safe, which can be daunting for many individuals.
Helpful tips:
- Always make sure that someone you trust has a spare key to your place
- Don’t put all your keys for every lock in your property on the same key chain.
- Every time you leave the house ensure that your keys are in your hand to avoid locking yourself out or misplacing them
- When making your way back home, especially in the evening or at night ensure you let someone know you are home safe
- Make sure all windows and doors are locked before you go to bed
- Invest in home security or ring doorbell
- Be aware of your surroundings
- Ensure workmen show their ID before entering your home
- Be careful about bringing strangers back to your property and if you do let someone you know
And finally…. put your personal touch on it, of course!
One of the most exciting things about getting your own place and living alone is decorating it to your liking. Ensure your place reflects your personality and likes so you can truly feel at home and enjoy being in your personal space!
Let us know in the comments what you like and dislike the most about living alone!
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