Moving in with your partner isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. They say you never really know a person until you have lived with them, and in my experience, this is very true. It can be really easy to get so excited about the prospect of living with each other that you can sometimes forget to look at the bigger picture. So, with this in mind, I’ve put together a list of how to prepare for moving in with your partner.
Think about having a trial period
Let’s be honest, prior to moving in together, most couples will spend nights at each other’s houses. A trial run would involve you spending perhaps 14 (or even more) consecutive nights together without any breaks. And by this, I don’t mean a holiday where you have room service to assist with day to day household chores. It will feel far more permanent and you will really get a feel of what it would be like living together properly. During this time you will pick up on any annoying habits that you can address before you decide to make the jump!
Create a budget
The last thing you want to be doing after you have made the jump to live together is to get off on the wrong foot and start arguing early on about money. This is why it’s really important to create a budget early on and stick to it.
It would be ideal to come up with a weekly or even monthly budget that takes into account combined earnings and expenses. So you’re going to need to be completely honest with each other. This doesn’t mean that it needs to be a 50/50 split, because one of you might earn more money than the other, but this is why it needs to be discussed before you move in together so complications don’t arise down the line.
Space of your own
Living together doesn’t mean that you have to spend all day, every day together. It’s actually really important to make sure that you get that all-important time to yourself and personal space. If your new place isn’t big enough then you can always make sure that you get out and about and do the activities that are important or of interest to you.
This doesn’t mean you can start hiding away or keeping secrets from each other. It doesn’t mean your significant other can start checking out Bubble Escorts as soon as you’re out the door, or that you can start spending more time with other people than him or her. It just means that you will respect each other enough to allow the other person the space to keep your own identity.
No relationship is easy and it’s important to keep a sense of identity and independence when you start on this new path.
Think about your future
The most important factor in all of this is the future. You want to live together, but have you thought about the future long-term? Do you both have the same thoughts on marriage and a possible family? If both of you are on different pages when it comes to this, then you need to think long and hard about whether it is worth investing precious time, emotions and money into something that might not work out in the future. If you are not married but are enjoying living together, then it might be worthwhile sorting out a cohabitation agreement. Also known as a “cohab agreement“, this is a form of legal agreement reached between a couple who have chosen to live together. When a cohab agreement is reached, the couple may be treated like a married couple, such as when applying for a mortgage or working out child support, without actually being legally married.
These days, living together is a natural first step in the progression of any long-term relationship — call it a ‘try before you buy’ scenario if you wish. But in some ways, it should be taken as seriously as marriage because you have to be as invested for it to work out and you both need to be certain that it is something that you both want and can adapt to easily.
If you hadn’t thought about these things prior to reading this post, then hopefully they will go some way in helping you prepare for moving in with your partner.
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