For decades, you’ve been living at your beloved house with your family.  However, kids grow up and leave home to build their own lives, visiting on holidays and occasional weekends.  Suddenly, the house feels empty and enormous, but you’re not ready to call the moving company.  Amid ever-increasing bills, staying in your home may require you to find a housemate to supplement the cost.  In this moving blog, we’ll explain why you should get a housemate instead of moving out.

Help with Costs

To run a large household efficiently requires money to heat and air condition the home, use electricity, maintain the interior and exterior of the home, and for unexpected expenses that appear like replacing old appliances.  Paying for groceries also adds up even if you’re simply eating for two or on your own.  Price clubs and purchasing sizable amounts of produce or bulk items are no longer worth it.  A housemate can contribute to those expenses and maybe share the occasional big meal like the ones you once cooked for the whole family.

Play House Monitor

If you currently live alone, you may feel uncomfortable all by yourself in a big house on a dark and stormy night.  Or maybe, despite switching on your home security system, you’d feel more at ease if someone was home during the day or when you travel for business or vacation.  Coordinating your schedules with a housemate could help you out in this regard.  If you receive packages containing precious cargo or important paperwork through the mail, a housemate who works from home or at night and on weekends, could sign for them and ensure boxes are not stolen from your porch.

Help with Chores

Maintaining a large household not only requires plenty of elbow grease but more than one person to tackle it.  When you start aging and lose some of the energy you once had as a younger person, you’ll feel less motivated to clean every bathroom, mow the lawn and keep up-to-date with daily chores.  Once you decide on a housemate, discuss dividing up the chores into a schedule you both can tolerate.  If you inform your housemate of your expectations and how you prefer to keep house, things will work out.  Trading off chores, if you don’t always want to do the same chores or your schedules don’t allow you to complete them when needed works, too.

Making Housemates into Friends

Unless you enjoy living alone and need frequent private time, you’re probably lonely and bored.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the new housemate you found became a companion or close friend? Involving a new person into your life could broaden your social circle with new experiences, fun activities, and stimulating conversation.

How FlatRate Moving Can Help

Along with the moving and packing services we offer, your housemate may need to store furniture or other household items in our storage units, using our short-term or long-term storage programs.  If you need to clear out a space for your new housemate or keep your antiques or heirlooms for your grown kids safely out of their way, ask our moving specialists about storage options for you.

Categories: Home Advice, Moving Tips