#are the toothpaste (peach iced tea flavor that is made for adults and its so fuckig good it tastes and smells amazing)

[night-creeps]

Experiment with soaps!

Try different smells of soap. Try different brands of shampoo and conditioner. Find a different flavoured toothpaste. Try a different hardness of bristle on your tooth brush. Try a different laundry soap. A different dishsoap. A different anything!

That's one of the biggest things I found about growing up. I'm allowed to get different things.

Struggle to do dishes? Try a different material of dish!

Don't like brushing your hair? Try a different size or style of comb/brush!

Forget about your laundry in the washer all the time? Try making a day of it and go to a local laundromat, set aside the time to do it and bring something along with you to pass the time!

There are an endless amount of things we forget we can do differently once we move out. Even if you don't mind the current way you do things, you never know when changing things up opens your eyes. There's an endless list of possibilities in how to live your life. Bed sheets, blankets, clothes, tissues, toilet papers, silverware, snack brands, flavours of tea, fruits you've never been allowed to buy, socks, shoes, lightbulbs, stationary, I could go on!

If you can justify it or if it's something you know you can't live without, like special foods or clothes or other sensory/dietary/allergy contributors, try a different kind once a month. Even if it's as small as trying a different kind of toothbrush or toothpaste (this was a big one for me) it can help you find ways to make life enjoyable and not just tolerable.

For any followers of mine still living with parents, guardians, family, or even just with roommates and who've never lived alone and/or fully on your own terms (whether ye be 16 or 60), I have TWO pieces of wisdom for you for when you eventually do:

You WILL discover that you were wrong about some shit you felt pretty strongly about before. Maybe you never realized how often your mom ACTUALLY cleans the bathroom and it turns out she asked for help really rarely. Maybe, much as it grates to admit, putting $50 into a different savings account every paycheck really IS the ONLY way to save any fucking money. Maybe that big rolling trashcan you resented your roommate putting in the kitchen, and got in that big fight about, really WAS super convenient and now you have to buy one for yourself after they move out and take it with them. Maybe blanching vegetables so they retain their color when cooked actually DOES enhance a meal, pretty food slaps actually, and the reason you didn't think it was worth the effort is because you were depressed.

You WILL also discover new shit that works SO much better for you than everything you'd been taught. Maybe you'll discover that dropping trash off at a recycling center at your convenience works way better for your brain than getting it picked up on a set day. Maybe you'll realize you don't actually hate tofu, you just hate how your family cooks tofu. Maybe you'll love being able to walk around the house naked whenever you want. Maybe you'll find you thrive in a space with giant framed nude photography, or taxidermy animals, or fandom themed Everything. Maybe you'll realize that keeping the thermostat set like 5 degrees colder (or hotter) than is typical makes you sleep better than you ever have before in your whole life.

The point of this wisdom is: Stay humble, but also, stay excited. There's no point pretending you weren't wrong about shit you were wrong about, just eat the crow and move on. But also, there's so much to look forward to about your own space-- even more than you could ever imagine when you don't have it yet.