The Ultimate Guide: How to Live Alone

This post is all about how to live alone. Follow these tips and valuable pieces of advice to master the art of solo living!

Living alone can be such a liberating and empowering experience. It allows you to have complete control over your environment and can give you space and privacy to pursue your interests and hobbies. Solo living can also be a great opportunity to learn so much about yourself and become more independent.

However, living alone also comes with its own set of challenges. Sometimes it can be isolating and expensive. You are solely responsible for all of the household tasks and decision-making on your own. It’s important to be prepared for the challenges and to find ways to stay connected with others. Overall though, living alone can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience.

Whether you are already living alone or are getting ready to live alone for the first time, read up on these tips to set yourself up for success!

At what age should you start living alone?

There isn’t an ideal age to begin living alone. In fact, some people may never live alone.

Many young adults move out for the first time to go to college. Whether college is a factor or not, once you’ve got a full-time job secured, living alone becomes a possibility. Even with a good job, some people move in with roommates to keep costs lower. Others go straight from living with family to moving in with a significant other. Some people don’t begin living alone until a breakup or divorce later in life.

You get the picture. There isn’t a certain age because life dishes out so many different circumstances. Don’t pressure yourself!

How to live alone

To safely and happily live alone…

Know your budget
Save up for the move
Get a spare key
Create a routine
Follow some essential solo living safety tips
Shop and cook for one
Make plans with friends & family
Start a new hobby
Explore your new neighborhood
Meet your neighbors
Make your place a home
Get a handle on loneliness
Enjoy living alone!

Know your budget

Living alone can be quite a bit more expensive than living with another person, so you’ll need to be diligent about budgeting. If you’re truly living on your own, all of the bills will be your responsibility, and man, those babies add up quickly.

As you’re preparing for living alone for the first time, below are some of the bills you should expect to pay each month. Whether you’re renting or buying, these may need to be tweaked. Some rent payments include utilities, so keep that in mind.

Housing-Related Monthly Bills

Rent or mortgage payment
Gas bill
Electricity bill (depending on your provider, gas & electricity may be combined)
Water bill
Renters insurance (homeowners insurance is usually part of your mortgage payment)
Internet
Homeowners Association fees (in some neighborhoods)

Other Bills

While you’re budgeting, don’t forget about personal bills, like your:

Phone bill
Student loan payments
Car payment
Car insurance
Credit card bills
Subscription services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Audible, etc.)

Pro Tip: Cut your monthly expenses right now by calling your internet provider and asking to cancel the service. While I can’t guarantee it, I’m 99% confident that within the first 3 minutes of talking with customer service, they’ll offer you a cheaper rate to stay.

Other Monthly Expenses

And estimate a budget for non-bills items that you’ll buy every month:

Groceries
Gas (for your car)
Medications
Dog food

Add up all your monthly expenses and subtract them from your monthly income. If you’re looking at a positive number, you’re on the right track!

Ideally, your housing expenses should land at about 30% of your monthly income or less. That should help give you the wiggle room to build up an emergency fund. If you’re working through debts like high credit card balances or student loans, a less expensive housing cost is better. Prioritize working your debts down first, if you can.

If the difference is a negative number, you’ve got some work to do before you dive into solo living. Look into ways to increase your monthly income, reduce your monthly expenses, or even better, both.

Whether you can afford to live alone or not, reducing your expenses is always beneficial to your wallet.

Pro Tip: Skim through the last couple of months on your bank statement to review all your recurring monthly subscription payments. If you’re not actually using that service, cancel them! You can always resubscribe later when you’re more likely to use it.

Save up for the move

Now you have a grasp on how much money you’ll spend month-to-month living alone, but what about the upfront cost of getting your own place? The one-time costs of moving out vary based on your circumstances, but here’s a good starting point:

Security deposit (if renting) or down payment (if buying; research this, as there are many other costs that go into buying a house)
First & last month’s rent or first year’s insurance payment
Literally, anything you put in your new place like…
Furniture: bed, sofa, dining room table & chairs, end tables, etc.
The smaller things: trash cans, rugs, lamps, blankets, tv, tv stand, clothing hamper, pots & pans, etc.
Appliances: fridge, oven, microwave, washing machine, dryer, etc.
Food: an initial grocery shopping trip to stock your fridge and pantry
Toiletries: toilet paper, shampoo, hand soap, body wash, etc.
A moving truck, if you need one

Pro Tip: If you’re planning to move out on your own but still have some time, start a stash! Buy a few things from every paycheck. This will be a huge relief once you finally move out since you’ll already have some of these purchases out of the way.

The bottom line: Moving out can be expensive. Save up as much as you can before making the move so you can afford the anticipated expenses and have a buffer in case something unexpected comes up. Depending on where you live and your standard of living, this price can vary a ton.

Get a spare key

People that live alone absolutely must make a spare key. Or a few. Locking yourself out is bad enough as it is, but locking yourself out when there is never anyone else home to let you in? THE WORST.

During the first spring that I lived alone, I excitedly skipped out the door because it was finally warm enough that I didn’t need a coat. In the same millisecond that the door clicked shut behind me, I had the dreaded realization that I left my keys on the tv stand.

Because I live alone, I have the place locked up pretty well. So well that I couldn’t think of a single backup entry point where I could break into my own house.

I sat on the front porch for a moment and contemplated my horrible mistake. Luckily, when I moved in, I gave my mom a spare key to my house. A quick call and 30 minutes later, I was back in.

Moral of the story: make sure you or someone else has a spare key.

What to do with a spare house key:

Give it to someone you trust and who, ideally, lives nearby.
Hide it somewhere outside. Be very careful about this one. Once you’ve used your hiding spot once, don’t put the key back in the same place again. Pick a new hiding place.
Keep one in your purse or wallet. If your purse or wallet is ever stolen, change your locks. But as long as that key is safe, if you ever walk out of the house without your keys, but have everything else, you can get right back in!

Create a routine

Some people thrive on routines. They wake up around the same time every day, have the same morning ritual, eat their meals around the same time, do to bed around the same time – it structures their day.

When you move into a new place, whether great or small, there is definitely a change to your routine. Things are kept in new places and you may have more or new responsibilities that you didn’t before. Be patient with yourself as you feel your way into a new normal.

If you’ve always wanted to be one of those people with a beautiful Insta-worthy morning and bedtime routine, once you’re living alone, it’s a perfect time to start. Weave some basic safety measures into your routines, like turning on the porch light and blowing out the candles before bed.

When possible, try not to be too predictable when you live alone. In the unlikely situation that someone is watching you or your home, your perfectly repeatable schedule could create opportunities for them. For instance, you can walk your dog every day, but choose different times each day and mix up the route you take.

Follow some essential solo living safety tips

Living alone inherently makes you more vulnerable than when you live with other people. This doesn’t always have to mean anything super scary though. For instance, if you live alone, you’re the only person around to notice that you left the stove burner on. If you don’t remember and turn it off, who else will?

For this reason, you should take some extra safety precautions while living solo. Some safety measures include things like:

Always keeping the doors and windows locked, especially at night and when no one is home
Keeping the curtains closed
Installing security cameras
Being careful with what you post on social media and when

A little bit of extra effort can reduce the odds that you run into a dangerous situation while living alone.

Shop & cook for one

Whether you are coming from a living situation where you cooked for your whole family or you’ve rarely ever cooked at all, you’ll have to adjust to cooking only for yourself.

Step one is grocery shopping. The best way to avoid food going bad in your fridge is to plan out your meals for the week before you go grocery shopping. Most of the food you buy should be what you need to make those meals while leaving room for snacks, drinks and your favorite treats.

While you can absolutely make single-serving meals, I recommend making enough food, especially for dinner, so you end up with leftovers. That way, you only have to cook a few times a week but have enough ready-to-eat meals to last all week long.

As tempting as it is, try to avoid ordering delivery. Treat yourself on occasion, but not only are most delivery options less healthy than home-cooked meals, but they also drain your wallet much faster.

Check out my favorite food bloggers for some inspiration on what to make:

Make plans with friends and family

While living alone is loaded with so many benefits, it can be isolating at times. If you work from home, spending too much time alone can happen easily, without you even noticing. Even if you’re like me and love having time to yourself, make an effort to see family and friends.

Research suggests that living alone may increase your risk of alcoholism and depression. Don’t worry though! Living alone not only has the potential to be healthy, but also enriching. Eric Klinenberg, Ph.D., author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise And Surprising Appeal Of Living Alone, wrote “there’s evidence that people who live alone enjoy better mental health than unmarried people who live with others.”

There’s something so liberating about having control over everything going on in your home. No more fighting over the remote or cleaning up after messy housemates. The key is just to balance the luxuries of solo living with plenty of quality social time.

To avoid falling into a rut on your own, keep in touch with the people you love. Invite someone over or go out with a group of friends. Whatever you do, don’t forget to stay connected with your network.

Start a new hobby

Now that you have more time and space to do your own thing, consider picking up a new hobby. It’s the perfect time to finally get started on something you’ve always wanted to learn. Here are some great hobby ideas that you can learn from home:

Learn to play the guitar
Make jewelry
Knit or crochet
Scrapbook
Practice photography
Learn a new computer program, like Adobe Photoshop
Take up cooking by trying new recipes
Learn to draw or paint using online tutorials
Try yoga
Setup an agility course in your backyard and train your dog
Start a blog!

A new activity that you do for yourself will have you appreciating your own space in no time. If you’re spending all your free time doing things you enjoy and find fulfilling, you may even start looking forward to your alone time!

Explore your new neighborhood

Once you’re settled into your new place, take some time to cruise around your new stomping grounds. Check out nearby parks where you can walk your dog. See if there are any interesting shops or grocery stores that can be your new go-to. Find the nearest essentials, like gas stations, mailboxes and drug stores.

Driving around your new neighborhood will probably happen one way or another, but don’t forget to take walks too! Feeling familiar with your new surroundings will make you feel more confident in your new place.

Neighborhood walks are also a great way to meet neighbors. That said…

Meet the neighbors

Introduce yourself to your new neighbors. For the especially ambitious, pick up a small gift, like a candle or nice hand soap, and swing by their house to introduce yourself. If you’re not the knock-on-a-stranger’s-door type of person, make an effort to say hi when you run into a neighbor outside.

There are several benefits to making acquaintances with the people who live around you, such as:

Having somewhere to run to in the case of an emergency
Recruiting someone to bring out your trash or grab your mail while you’re on vacation
Finding someone to talk to face-to-face when you start becoming a social recluse
Having people in the neighborhood who will recognize your dog if they ever get loose

If you’re lucky, you may have super cool neighbors like me. You don’t want to miss out on doggy playdates and barbeques because you didn’t bother to say hi!

Make your place a home

When you live alone, you are the queen (or king) of your castle. Make it feel like it.

Hang pictures, buy comfy pillows, paint the walls, get plush rugs, put up string lights, set out healing crystals, line your windows with houseplants – do whatever you want to make your place feel like home!

Setup up a radio or smart device (I love the Amazon Echo) so you can play music. Piano music while you sip your morning coffee or upbeat music while you clean the house will put you in a good mood.

String lights are another of my favorites for making a space super cozy. I’ve always preferred dimmer mood lighting over using big overhead lights. If you take the Amazon Echo route, you can also get these super cool smart plugs to put your lights on a timer. It’s a double whammy! They make keeping up with your routines insanely convenient AND you can remotely turn some lights on so it looks like someone’s home, even when you’re not.

Keep your space tidy so your home has good energy. Or don’t, honestly. You’re the queen, remember? Keep it however you’d like.

Get a handle on loneliness

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Everyone feels lonely sometimes, even when they’re not literally alone. Feeling lonely isn’t necessarily a bad thing, rather an internal alarm system letting you know that you need to better prioritize your social needs.

When you’re feeling lonely, recognize the feeling you have and know that it’s completely normal. In some situations, the only thing you can do is wait it out. More often than not though, you can do something about it!

Here are some suggestions of things to do when loneliness creeps in:

Call a friend and talk on the phone for a while
Make plans with a loved one – even better if you leave the house
Distract yourself with something you enjoy, like a hobby, by exercising or with a good movie
Get out of the house to run errands. Sometimes something as simple as seeing people at the grocery store can be enough to pull you out of a funk. Don’t forget to talk to your cashier!
Research volunteer opportunities and consider making a weekly commitment to doing good while seeing other people
Take your dog to a park and go for a walk
If you don’t have a dog, consider if that could be a good option for you. Getting a dog is a big decision, so don’t take this one lightly. If you decide to take the plunge, they can do wonders for loneliness!

Everyone is different, but in my experience, dealing with loneliness was the hardest for the first few months I lived alone for the first time. As I designed a great daily routine, struck a good balance between socializing and doing my own thing and got into some new hobbies, feeling lonely became more and more uncommon.

Enjoy living alone!

Remember all those things that drove you nuts about the people you lived with before? You’re finally on your way to creating a home that is exactly the way you want it!

Living alone can be intimidating at times, but with the right preparation and mindset, you may just find yourself loving it. Be smart, budget, take care of yourself, make time for your loved ones and create a home you enjoy spending time in. You’ll be solo living yourself right into bliss.

Do you live alone? Do you enjoy it? Are there things you wish you would have done differently when you moved into your first place by yourself? Please share in the comments!

Sincerely,

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