In my opinion, you don’t truly know someone until you live with them. Sure you might get to know someone pretty well going on dates here and there, crashing at their place every once in a while and going on weekends away. However, it’s not until you share a real home with someone that you discover whether you are really compatible.
Personally, I wouldn’t dive into a big commitment unless I had lived with someone. There are so many unknown things that you uncover when you share a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and lounge with your beloved. Whether you like it or not, some of the romance dies and you see your partner for who they really are, and witness all of their annoying habits. It’s whether you can live with these habits and not get resentful that will be the decider of your relationship in the end.
So you have lived with someone for a substantial amount of time, how do you know whether you should stay in it for the long run? Well, the truth is, you just know. Usually fairly early on you will either fall harder for your lover, or start to wish they were never born. In case you are confused, here are 20 signs you can probably live with someone for the rest of your life…
1. You enjoy watching similar programmes on Netflix (but it’s also good to each have your own programmes you can watch when you need some alone time). Watching TV programme marathons with your roomy is the best.
2. You actually find their strange and sometimes even gross habits annoying yet still mildly entertaining. However, you are happy to draw the line at some things, and will say so.
3. Instead of dreading your partner coming home from work because they are going to interrupt your day/evening, you look forward to seeing them each night.
4. You team up against your neighbours/estate agents/landlord/anyone who threatens your joint happiness and living situation, because you are roomies, which makes you a team.
5. You learn to accept each other’s weaknesses when it comes to cleaning and daily tasks. Pro couples will use this to their advantage and share out household chores accordingly.
6. You think about what sort of house you might have in the future, and agree on what features it would have.
7. You have similar taste in home decor, and usually agree on how to accessorise and decorate your home. If you have slightly different tastes (i.e. he wants a games room and you want a pamper room) then you find a way to compromise.
8. When you both go away for the weekend or aren’t home for a while, you return home and feel grateful for what you have.
9. When one partner goes away your home feels like a ghost town, and even though you make loads of plans, you feel lost without your roomy.
10. You get a pet and manage to look after it properly between the two of you.
11. You have heard them go to the toilet (because let’s face it, you can’t avoid it when you live together) and you manage to get over it.
12. You manage to juggle the morning routine and not get in each other’s way.
13. You always make sure your partner kisses you goodbye and says they love you before they leave the house (rather than constantly checking your watch in the hope that they will leave soon).
14. You have figured out exactly when to not bother each other and get some much needed space, because living together can be intense.
15. Sometimes you would rather stay in with your partner than go out and socialise, because snuggles on the sofa are amazeballs.
16. You do really odd things around each other and neither of you bats an eyelid (or you relentlessly take the piss out of each other).
17. You actually like sleeping next to your partner, and sleeping in your bed without them feels extremely odd, like you have lost a limb.
18. You walk around naked regularly and don’t give a damn (wave goodbye to your privacy).
19. You wake up next to them in the morning and feel happy they are there rather than wishing they weren’t.
20. Lastly, and quite simply, you are happy and totally comfortable in their company.
Here’s one of my fave pics of my housemates.
