Things no one tells you about living alone.

I still remember having the idea of living by my own a couple of years ago, when I was doing my bachelor’s degree. Back in Mexico, I lived quite far from my university, so moving closer to campus and living by myself wasn’t a crazy idea. Having my own place to put whatever I wanted, eating ice cream for dinner with no one telling me whether it was allowed or not, waking up whenever I wanted and so on. You guys get the point, the idea of living alone, in theory, is simply beautiful.

But not everything is joy and happiness, living alone implicates a lot of responsibilities. So, I decided to create a small list of things that no one tells you about living alone.

1. Groceries

Buying groceries is not an easy task, it takes a lot of time to think about what you need, how much money you have (this is the biggest problem most of the time, especially as a student), remembering what ingredients you have in your house that could be used and what ingredients to buy.

Going on a grocery-shopping spree with a lot of fresh vegetables, and a lot of food might sound as a great idea at the time of shopping, however, having them stay fresh and eat everything within expiration limits is the biggest challenge by far.

Carrying your shopping bags all the way to your house is like working out 3 hours, trust me groceries are heavy and it becomes a challenge.

2. Laundry

Doing laundry is a pain. White clothes, black clothes, color clothes, water temperature, amount of soap, fabrics softener, revolutions per minute of the machine, washing cycles, time, drying method, folding your clothes, and I could go for hours. Doing laundry is like an endless equation with infinite variables to solve. (I just put everything inside the machine and press random buttons until it starts, but I’m working on in don’t worry)

3. Cooking

Cooking for one is a difficult task, either it’s too much food which is nice because you can save for another day, or it’s not enough and you starve to death. I think that this GIF sums up my cooking skills.

4. Cleaning

Cooking means dirty dishes, and that’s the ugly part, even for those of you who like to cook you will agree with me that doing the dishes is the worst part. Even if you don’t cook anything at your place you will need to dedicate at least 2-3 hours each week to clean your place, otherwise, dust starts to become a problem.

Of course, when you live alone you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can sing in the shower as loud as you want, cook your favorite meal every day, wake up whenever you want, have ice cream for dinner (I’ve done this a couple of days ago). So now you know, living alone comes with a few drawbacks but it’s worth it.