Your 20s are the best years of your life, so here’s why you shouldn’t move home after uni

No amount of free washing is worth the trauma

9 months ago

After what is, for many, the best three years of your life spent at uni, moving back home is often the automatic next step for a lot of grads. It can actually be really good to recharge, relax and finally get the smell of damp out your bedsheets. The comforts of your childhood home are tempting and the ruse of a mould free bedroom, accompanied by year round clean tea towels, is undeniably enticing. If you’re within the majority of recently graduated students who don’t have a grad job with perfect career progression lined up immediately after uni, you’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, you’ve just entered the most exciting and dynamic years of your life – so if you can financially afford to, don’t waste them at home. So here are all of the reasons why you shouldn’t move back home after graduating from university.

The changed dynamic with your family

Slotting back into a home you moved out of when you were three years younger is not smooth sailing. Despite being used to your own freedom, you’re not the person you were when you left and so finding a new routine that works for both you and your family isn’t that fun. Whatever co-habitation skills you thought you learned through halls and house sharing, forget them. Forget your silly little cleaning rota and washing machine schedule you had at uni – now you’re fighting siblings over the Coco Pops and having to sit through Columbo with your dad after dinner.

You can’t be territorial at home. That might be your hand painted mug but your brother used it to bleach his hair Kristen Stuart style and oop – it’s in the dishwasher now. But equally, you’d better not eat the “guest biscuits”, and don’t even think about talking between 8pm and 9pm while Corrie’s on. Plus, they’ve probably moved all the pots since you left and now you don’t know where anything is. It’s just not the same.

The lack of freedom

There’s not really much more to say. Being able to do what you want, when you want is the only good thing about being an adult. Having someone repeatedly asking you where you’re going, who with, why you got in so late and “You didn’t wear, that did you?” just isn’t it. Once you’ve had a taste of that freedom, forget ever living a peaceful life at home, where it’s chicken casserole every Wednesday and you need a doctors note with two days’ notice to get out of it.

There’s no room for growth

Familiar isn’t always good. If moving to a new city is too much right now, even staying in your uni city is better than moving back home. Comfort brings no opportunity for growth, so even if that means sharing a flat with three random and equally lost grads from Facebook and losing a few pints of milk to their cornflakes every now and then, it’ll actually be a lot of fun and might make for a good story one day. Anything to escape the incessant bickering with your sibling and next door’s kid’s crying through the walls.

Everyone’s moved on

You know those nostalgic memories of that insanely chaotic summer before uni – those are the memories of home you want to keep hold of. Not the new reality, where all your mates at home have full time jobs or live scattered across the country. Moving back now would be like trying to get into a dress you lent your sister and finally got back; nothing fits and half of it’s missing. It won’t be the same as before and it’s likely you’ll feel even more lost and confused. While it’s normal to not want to move on, don’t let a panic to recreate the past ruin the souvenirs you have of home.

It’s just boring

Plain and simple, moving back home after living next door to your best friend, playing hungover Wii with your house and learning how to hide a hamster from your landlord is just boring. There’s no thrill, no adventure, just no fun. Your 20s are about putting yourself out there, grabbing every opportunity available and messing up all the time; you can’t do any of that with your mum knocking at your door everyday to wash your socks and pick up the pieces.

Before you make the move and slot back into your old, familiar life, consider why you’re heading home and the reasons which are pulling you back – you’re probably only considering it because you think you should. Your hometown will be waiting for you whenever you need it but as for now, treat it like a one night stand you can’t remember the name of and stay well away.