So, this post has been an interesting one to plan. I wasn’t really sure how to word it or what to include, but I wanted to talk about my recent change in living arrangements. For those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know a little while ago I was living with my boyfriend. We had our own little place in Brighton and well, it was ok. I think if I’m honest with myself, I was happy there because I loved the flat, I poured my life into keeping it clean and making it a home, maybe ignoring that the relationship wasn’t right. Some things about it worked, some things didn’t. Anyway, we won’t go massively into details, I’m sure you don’t need to hear my life story!
Cutting a long story short, things changed and after a while and some time to think about what I really want out of life I’ve moved onto a completely different situation. I was lucky enough to meet someone new who I am just moving in with and we have a completely different lifestyle. The difference between the two is that my new relationship is with a woman, her name is Vanessa (I’m sure you’ll have seen lots of pictures of her if you’ve followed my Peru adventure). She’s amazing and one of the best things to happen to me, I’m so happy we are now living together. Things are so different it’s hard to think I ever lived any other way.
Things moved quickly for us, we’ve been together just 6 months (roughly) and are already living together, they say that only 39% of women think that moving in within 6 months is too soon, for us it felt right, so I think when you just know something you should go with it. I think what makes it work for us is that we both have our own friends, hobbies and work different shifts so we still have our own lives aside from living together. We are able to spend lots of time together but give each other space too.
For us, cooking and cleaning is a shared job. We don’t really have roles, which I really like – we just muck in with what needs doing, and take turns. That is something really nice for me as I found in my previous relationships with men, they have always been a bit shy on the cleaning front, in fact in a recent survey only 27% of men admitted to helping with the cleaning, so two women in the house and we are laughing. It’s nice as everything is shared and we both actually want the house to stay nice and tidy, rather than nagging each other or making things a chore.
Decorating and DIY is where we vary, Vanessa is keen on her DIY and will get her hands dirty sanding, painting and sorting the garden, whereas I really don’t have a clue. I have to say I’ve always let the ‘man’ in my house take care of things like that (actually no that’s a lie, they were useless too, it was my Dad). On a recent shopping trip for DIY goods we really showed our differences as she bought a sander (and was so excited about it) whereas I bought the Frozen soundtrack and a Yankee Candle. DIY fail. I’m really glad to have found her, seeing as apparently only 23% of women will get involved with DIY, I must have found myself a catch there! Our taste in decoration is similar, however we have the odd disagreement occasionally, I’ve been talking about buying a new chest of drawers, whereas Vanessa would like to erect an inflatable dalek in the living room (!!). I think it really doesn’t matter on the gender sometimes, we are not always going to agree on everything, but thats what makes living together fun.
So, as you can see my lifestyle has changed dramatically over the last year, but for the better.
Who do you live with and how do you make it work?
– Stats provided in this post by The Furniture Market –
– Image Source: Pinterest –
