As of this past weekend, I officially have a roommate. No, it’s not a cat, and no, it’s not my mom—as much as she keeps saying she wants to move in with me. My new roommate is Josh.

Cue Monica Geller from Friends: “And I have to live with a boy!”

This is the good news I was talking about in my last post; we spent the first week of 2023 getting a few things done, like getting copies of keys made and packing up. It’s also the reason why I was cleaning out my closet over my winter break. Yes, I have to give him closet space. It’s unfortunate.

I didn’t want to share anything on here until he actually moved in. We’ve been planning this since early October and decided to have the official move-in the first weekend of this month after the holidays. It also gave us time to figure out everything and how we wanted to do the move.

We decided it was the right next step in our relationship. Josh has been living at home with his parents for the past year, and having him move in with me makes more sense than him finding a place on his own; other benefits include a shorter work commute for him and it’ll be easier to spend time together since we’ll be in the same place. (We were seeing each other about four times a week, which was fine, but we were hanging out for a few hours after he got out of work or watching football on Sundays.)

Once we decided this was something we wanted to do, I immediately began making charts, spreadsheets, and lists—very on-brand for me. Using my limited Google sheets skills, I created spreadsheets for monthly costs (since we’ll be splitting costs), our work schedules, chores, and a meal planning template. I wanted to make sure we were prepared as possible, and to me, nothing says preparation like a collection of Google sheets.

Since Josh has been living at home, he doesn’t have a ton of stuff to move—mostly clothes, personal items, and his gaming computer set up. That means we don’t have to figure out whose couches we’re keeping or what to do with an extra dining room table. It seems he has a lot more clothes than I thought he would, so he’s been working on going through all of those and deciding what to keep and what to donate. (Along with the five full trash bags I have of clothes to donate.)

It’s exciting and scary at the same time. When I first bought my condo, I didn’t think I’d have a boyfriend, let alone have him move in just before our year and a half anniversary on January 20. I felt overwhelmed the first few days as this is an adjustment for me as much as it is for him. I had to learn how to live by myself when I moved out in July 2021, and I finally felt like I was comfortable living by myself, and now I’m living with a significant other. 

We’re taking things day by day. This month will be trial and error as we figure out what works for us. Our work schedules don’t line up well due to the nature of our jobs, so that will be something we’ll have to work through. But one thing I am looking forward to is having someone to hang out with at night. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit lonely after work—not sure if the whole “pitch black at 5:00 p.m.” thing has anything to do with it—but it’ll be nice to have Josh around more, even if we just watch TV together or we do our own things in the living room.

I might do a mid-year check-in come the summer about how we’re doing living together. My two year anniversary in the condo is in July, along with our relationship two year anniversary—they’re actually just two days apart. I’m looking forward to starting this new step in our relationship together, and Josh was already connected to my WiFi anyway, which is named “Loose Seal”—five points to anyone who can tell me what that’s from—so I guess it was inevitable.