5 Things Students Wish They’d Known Before Moving Out Of Home

No one gets a guidebook when they move out of home.

You might get a few good pointers from your parents – wash your whites separately! Buy a good-quality mattress! – but a lot has changed since they were first out on their own. They lived in a world of affordable rent; a world where vetting new housemates didn’t start with an FBI-style deep dive through the past six years of social media.

Instead, some of the best advice often comes from new uni friends or workmates who have recently gone out on their own. To help you out, we’ve compiled a few tips and tricks from other young people who have moved out (and made plenty of mistakes that you can learn from).

You Really Need People Around You

“Don’t move out and live alone!” says Lada Volkova, a student at the University of Melbourne.

Every frustrated teen has the same fantasy at some point: your very own apartment. Everything is decorated exactly how you want it, there are no rules or outside judgments – you’re not accountable to anyone at all. It sounds great. But it can also get pretty lonely (and expensive!).

Plus: if you’ve moved out to go to uni, it means you’re missing a big chance to make new friends. “Diversity and exposure to lots of ideas builds character and connections,” Lada says. “It’s [probably] one of the most important takeaways from the uni experience.”

Your Best Mates Don’t Always Make Good Housemates

If you’ve decided to hunt for housemates, it seems like a no-brainer to hit up your best mates. But Junkee’s own Krissi Amiet suggests treading carefully.

“I wish I’d known that living with your friends isn’t the same as hanging out with your friends,” she says. “A friend’s tendency to be late for everything or their inclination to let their laundry pile up on a chair for months on end might seem charming from a distance, but when you’ve gotta live with it, it can put huge strain on your friendship if you operate differently.”

Luckily, there are places out there like Urbanest that are totally set up for student life without all the hassle. If you sign up with a friend, you have loads of communal areas and activities to give each other space. If you sign up on your own, you can make so many new friends (ones who won’t be too offended if you tell them to pick up their dirty clothes)!

You Really Gotta Learn How To Clean Up After Yourself

“I wish I’d realised sooner that it’s so much faster to clean up after yourself as you cook than it is to leave everything for later,” says Junkee’s Alana Young. It’s true: there’s only so many times you can lie to yourself about “letting the dishes soak” before it becomes a problem.

“When I first moved out of home, I’d just dump all my dirty dishes in the sink while I ate … Now I’ve realised that washing things as you cook saves time, space, and everyone’s sanity – and you get the satisfaction of realising that there’s nothing left to clean up after you’ve eaten!”

Do Your Research

Sabrina Leung moved into her first apartment this year in Melbourne’s CBD. It’s an amazing location that’s close to her uni, but she says it was a real struggle to get in. “I wish I knew how quickly apartments are rented out,” she says.

“[You should] definitely start doing research on apartment prices early, and be prepared to fill in applications when you get there,” Sabrina says. “[Owners] prioritise people who can move in as early as possible, people who can do longer contracts, and people who have all the required documents ready in their application.”

Being prepared is always good advice, but make sure you’re also splitting the prep and research evenly between housemates. You don’t want to be the only name on all the bills because your friends didn’t get their act together in time.

Choose A Good Location

The uni experience is way less fun if it starts with a 90-minute commute each day. Make sure you check out all the public transport options around your new place before you lock it in. Could you realistically make it in for an early morning tutorial? Would it be a huge hassle to get home from a uni party or late-night social event?

Picking the perfect location is always a balancing act between convenience and cost. But, whatever your budget, Lada suggests “moving somewhere with a wide variety of people of different ages and cultures”. After all, moving out is all about experiencing new things!

The good news is Urbanest offers the best of both worlds: awesome inner-city locations and countless opportunities to meet new people. Right now they’re even offering rooms from $11 a night in Brisbane, $20 in Sydney, $16 in Melbourne and $13 in Adelaide through the Scholarship Beds program! Get amongst it.

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Looking for a place to call your own? Urbanest has the student accommodation of your dreams, now at an even lower price.

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Lead image: Karolina Grabowska / Pexels