Moving back home isn’t as easy as dropping your bags in your room and plopping on your bed. Since you were gone at college, there is a high chance that some things in your family home have changed, and there is also a good chance that you have changed.
From your routine, to your cleaning habits, putting your belongings away, and relearning your role at home as part of a family unit rather than an individual and independent student, it can be tough to make the transition back home after college. I’m here to give you all the advice I can to make this process as easy as possible for you. I recently had to do this myself, having just finished up my last semester of college, but I also had to deal with moving home each summer during the four years I was at school.
So whether you are recently graduated and living at home again until you can financially afford to live on your own, or you’re between your freshman and sophomore years in school, this post is for you. Continue reading to find out how I managed to make the transition back home as seamless as possible, as well as some hiccups that presented themselves along the way.
Packing and Unpacking
If you are only staying for the summer, and returning to wherever your school is located in the fall, I recommend first and foremost to not bring all of your belongings home with you every summer. Take advantage of the on-campus storage options that your school most likely has available to you. And if you’re not sure whether your college provides this or not, find an R.A. or someone else that would know and can point you in the right direction to store your belongings at the end of each school year.
For the things you do decide to bring home and use over your summer stay, don’t leave them in bins and bags everywhere. Actually put your belongings away. It may not make sense to completely unpack for that short of a time, but trust me, it will make you feel more at home rather than a visitor. Plus, it avoids the issue of having bulky boxes and bags in living areas and hallways that will most likely irritate the rest of your family, and eventually irritate you, too.
Any school supplies that you bring home, such as your backpack, computer, textbooks, notebooks, and writing utensils, should be kept somewhere out of the way, but also easily accessible. If you have your own room, I would recommend placing your backpack near the area that you would normally study. I realize that there may not be much studying to do over the summer months, but it still helps you to designate a specific space for such activities.
Decorations
If you took all of your wall decorations with you to school to have in your living space there, I recommend bringing at least some of those back. You will want to have a space that is familiar to you when you get home, and how you decorate your space will help with that. Even a couple staple decorations that you are used to will do the trick to make the transition easier to adjust to.
For me, this is the artwork I have accumulated from friends and professors over the years. I love displaying other people’s work, as well as my own, on my walls to see every day. It helps me feel more connected to those college friends that I won’t get to see again until the fall.
Chores
If your family is anything like mine, everyone chips in to help around the house. And this doesn’t exclude you when you get back from school simply because you haven’t been there in months.
The best advice I can give with this one is to willingly do the work that your parents ask of you. I know that it can be a bit annoying getting home and expecting some down time only to be asked to do half a dozen different tasks around the house.
Coming back from college for the summer after my freshman year, I had this same mindset. Since I hadn’t lived at home in nearly nine months, I wasn’t used to the monotony of daily chores anymore. I did my room cleaning and other basic necessary tasks as I felt like it while at school. It’s completely different when you are back in your parent’s house. You are on their clock now, and you need to accept that. They were gracious enough to provide you with a place to live for the summer (most likely rent-free) and if they ask you to do small tasks for them, use it as a way to show your gratitude.
Family Relations
My family is big on home-cooked meals that we sit down as a family to enjoy. It has always been hard for me to get reoriented to that coming back each year from school. With a college dining hall, you go in, get what you want, sit down, eat, then leave when you’re finished. It’s usually a quick, thoughtless action that requires little to no planning or communication with others, and it is completely individualized to suit you and your schedule.
Needless to say, when you go back home, you won’t be eating meals and interacting with your family on your own time. More often than not, you will need to be open to the idea that you will be eating meals either earlier or later than you are used to. When I was in college, I got used to eating dinner at 5:30 in the evening. It was quite a change when I got home, and my family didn’t normally eat until 7 or later.
This same principle goes for quality time with your family. You are most likely used to spending your time alone, or doing what you feel like whenever you want to. Now that you are back home, you must be conscious of the others in the house that you live with. If your little brother comes to you asking to do something together, but you are busy watching Netflix, resist the urge to snap at him that you are busy. Make the effort to put your independent habits aside every once in a while to spend time with your family on their time, doing things that they want to do. It will help to strengthen your relationships with them in a way that isolating yourself from them simply and obviously cannot.
Work
Having a job, both to occupy your time and to earn money, is a great way to spend your summers. Unlike in high school when you lived with your parents year-round, you now have the responsibility of paying for some, if not all, of your own expenses.
Working will also provide you with a way to maintain a routine. Being the only person in your household without a job to go to every day can get old pretty fast. That was the case for me last summer, when I got home from my Junior year. It took me a couple of weeks to find a job, and in the meantime I sat at home alone while my younger brother was in school, and my parents and older brother worked full time. My local friends were either working as well, or still in school, so I truly had no one to spend time with. It was me, myself, and I. The job I did end up getting could not have come soon enough. It gave me something to do every day besides sitting on my bed and watching Netflix for hours at a time.
Closing Thoughts
While moving home may not be the most ideal way to spend your summers in college, I urge you to look at it from a positive perspective. These are some of the last times you will get to spend with your family before you inevitably graduate and move on to your own career and adult life. Don’t take that for granted, spend every second you can with them, even if they do drive you nuts. All good families do!
I hope this post helped you to make your transition from living in a college dorm or apartment to back home a little bit easier and more enjoyable.
Until next time, stay golden!
Hannah