Everything living with your big sister teaches you

A sister is like a best friend on steroids, with slightly fewer manners involved.

You may drive her mad, but in the end she’s stuck with you – her little limpet of a sister, stealing her deodorant and tights. But essentially, sisters are the best people to live with. A little slice of home to guide you through hectic London life, plus there’s no one funner (who also has their shit together) than a big sister.

You will steal all of her stuff

That top you borrowed once – you washed it, and then were dashing out of the door and needed to wear it again. Fast forward a couple of months and it has taken pride of place in your wardrobe. Family shares everything, right?

She will look after you when you’re hungover

This isn’t strictly true, because you’ll probably actually be looking after each other. There’s a magic in hangovers where one sister’s always exceeds the other’s – and this will result in the sprightlier of the two popping to Saino’s on a Sunday morning to pick up some bacon and a 1.5l orange juice (with bits, obviously).

She owns everything you know you should have that you don’t

Like extra face wipes. Hair serum. A spare can of deodorant. Nail varnish remover. She has a hairbrush, for Christ’s sake.  She owns one of those wheely travel-suitcases that actually meet the restrictions for the overhead lockers on FlyBe and an adapter. She has enough pairs of socks to last fully until the next wash and tights without ladders. She keeps a spare toothpaste in the cupboard so she never doesn’t have any. It’s genius, and you know you should have all these things but you don’t.

She’ll cook food that tastes like your mum’s

You grow up watching your mum cook. The way she drops a stock cube into the pan then pours boiling water in instead of pre-dissolving it, or uses red wine when she should use white. There’s just something about cooking with your sister that tastes like home-food in a way that just doesn’t happen with your friends.

She knows what you did on Friday night, and could very easily tell Mum and Dad

She heard you creep in at 5am, and – whilst of course she never would tell them anything bad out of malice, she can still use “telling” as ammo when she fancies a cup of tea or breakfast in bed.

She spends her money on actual grown up things

Like flights to Hong Kong, because she is a real-life adult and has actual control over her expenditure. Whilst your outgoing finances somehow always tend to defy your incoming.

You can plan weekends at home to escape London, and travel together

You’re at home-home, even though you aren’t at home

There’s something about having your sister around all the time that goes the extra mile in making a house a home.

It’s super awkward if you were to bring a boy home

“Mooooooorning — oh my gosh, sorry”. This is hypothetical obviously, but the prospect of bringing someone home after a date is drastically less attractive when your sister’s head is mere metres away on the other side of the wall.

She will give you the ultimate in honest fashion opinion

“No, you can’t wear that.”

She’ll force you to do hungover admin, which you are actually really grateful for later

Like cleaning the gross food out of the fridge, and doing your laundry – “don’t put it off until tomorrow what you could do today”.

She is always right

She pretty much always is. And then when she’s not you hold it up as an example of all the times you were wrong and she had a go. You secretly know this is really unfair because your getting-it-wrong ratio is about 10:1 on her.

She will convince you to exercise

She will get you out of bed for work after you roguely went out on a Tuesday

Because she has her shit together, she gets up with enough time to spare before work to drag you out of bed.

You can be utter dorks because you can’t phase each other out

And you’ll probably end up out-dorking one another.

She will tell you to tidy up (a lot)

Like, yeah, you know your room should be tidy. But it’s really hard maintaining a job, (rarely) exercising, going out and having an acceptable social life. Except she does it, so suck it up and spare three seconds to hang up that nice dress you bought last summer.

She’ll try to get you to do yoga

It’s really good for my chakra or whatever, it’s just not going to happen. Case in point:

She will also help you to sort your shit out

Because she’s the best, and knows you’ll never actually get around to booking that train ticket when you’re going home together.

When you fight it’s chilled because you both know you can’t not be friends

You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family (sorry Mads).