What steps do I take as far as the transition between living at home and moving out of the house?

Question

This won't happen this year, but odds are, it will happen next year because I graduate college and move on to law school. My parents seem to be approvng of the idea as well as I am. What can I do now and leading up to that time in order to smoothen the transition between living in my house and living somewhere else where I won't have my parents to help me all the time?

Answer 1

I hope you have already learned to cook and clean and do laundry and shop for groceries. These are the basics to keep your life in order.

Answer 2

Start with a budget and shopping for your new digs.
You may have to share a multi-bedroom apartment with some other guys to bring the rent + utilities into a reasonable range.

You can start weeding through your stuff and getting rid of anything that you will never use again. You can donate useable items to charity. This avoids leaving a mess for your parents to sort through while lightening your load while moving.

You may also consider shopping the furniture sales at places like Ikea and the like. You will need some basic housewares, too. See if you can store them in the garage as you collect them. See if your mom can help you do this preparation work... she may actually be able to smooth things out and even donate some things from her own supply. Pack smaller things in boxes and label where the boxes need to be placed when they arrive at the new place... kitchen, bath, bedroom.

I would also suggest putting aside some money for deposits on the apartment, electricity and the like. Savings are important back-up for emergencies. See if you can also line up a credit card, strictly for emergency use.

When you start the big move, get the biggest chunks gone at once... perhaps renting a truck for the weekend.

If you don't know anything about cooking, this would be a good time to get your mother to teach you some basic skills so you won't be eating nasty & expensive fast-food all the time. Making your own chicken and rice concoction is a lot better.

Answer 3

ask your parents to stop doing things for you: cook clean laundrey

HOpefuly they have taught you how to take care of these chores yourself but in any case, once they are not doing these things for you you will get a better sense of how often you do chores, what works, what doesn't work, all the little details that adults don't really think to TELL you about but have learned over time. Like I hope you know not to put bleach in the laundrey in anything except whites and never put it in undiluted and never ever pour the bleach over other clothes (because you will spill and splash it on the clothes and ruin them)

I've been through countless boyfriends and I had to teach each one of them different aspects of housework because although they knew the basics, they had not done it themselves and there are a million details yu must learn on your own.

Get your own bank account, ask your parents to bill you for a portion of the utilities an start learning to pay for things too.

Really, its simple: just convince your parents not to do anything that constitutes "taking care of" for you. You'll learn to check your clothes BEFORE you need that special shirt and you'll learn to go shopping BEFORE you run out of milk etc and you'l learn all this best at home when you have no choice.

Answer 4

* Save as much money as you can when living at home

* Help around your parents house with cooking and cleaning so it does not become like a shock when you move out alone.