Hey, š
Back in the day, when I used to live alone in a cramped room, it was much easier to clean, organize belongings and even budgeting. Since renting, I basically erased the need to keep track of electricity, water bills, and all these utilities obligations. The only bill I paid was only the rent itself.
Convenient isnāt it?
There is more than just paying bills when it comes to household management. Think about repair issues, cleaning a lot more areas, a place to store household items.
Then, the most challenging part is when you have a job but somehow is still responsible to clean it too. I guess, it makes sense for young family to have a smaller house, it's easier to manage, clean and such. But now, I understand why so many hands-me-down houses around my area is unkept and looks dilapidated. If they're like me, it can get so overwhelming to clean all the nook and crannies of it. But, this used to be so doable and I wondered, how do people actually do it ?
I know, some privileged ones would hire a helper but what about the rest of us without that privilege?
Sometimes I wonder how my moms do it and even young people out there with families do it. Back in the day, I watched a lot of videos on homemakers and those perfectly curated houses. The thing is, it has been about 6 months that I am trying to figure out how to run my home with its complexities.
These past 6 months, I've met with a lot of challenges. More often than not, it's a make-do situation and what even frustrating is when I finished cleaning, there will be more stuff. It's almost like the house is lived by a big family while it's not.
Managing a home indirectly taught me to be more responsible with my finances and life too.These days I have to think 3-4 times before upgrading to new stuff or going outside for the sake of it. And my mom even commented
Itās easy to live far away from home and not see all the things needing to be repaired but now that I am here, thereās always something to repair and also something that needs to be carefully planned.
This is why I think itās not an easy task to actually manage a household but at the same time I wonder how our parents survived without some type of home management knowledge. As for me, everything has to be carefully planned and I need to know a bit of theory about this to actually learn properly how to manage it.
Then again, not every theory works, right?
But in 6 months of my attempt in managing the household, Iāve tried to practice all the theories I had learned. Not everything works, as a theory for sure but the theory I learned was like the northern star. My challenges are mostly related to energy because I donāt have that much energy most of the time. I was thinking about hiring a helper but so far, I couldnāt find any even when I offer a good compensation for them. So, tough luck!
Now, I am managing a lot more areas compared to the previous one and it can be so energy consuming. Itās almost like even after itās done, there will be more things to fix and clean. But it is what it is, because in the end, this is the responsibility that was entrusted to me. Practically, this was my dream back in the day but now that I am getting it, I actually find so many new things and challenges to learn for managing a household and being a home owner. For example, have you heard of the HOA (home owner association)?
Where I am from, while it is not private and they are part of a government body, they have the ability to enforce things around the area. We have to pay monthly fees, waste management fees, and other fees relating to living in the place. During festival months, they are also collecting funds from the residents.
These things donāt happen when you rent a place because itās always covered by the owner of the house. So, nowadays, thereās also funds located by that one.
Oh, remember back in the day? I think when it comes to my parentsā era,they werenāt so overwhelmed with a lot of information on how to manage a home. They basically donāt have that much expectations or even comparison that weāre seeing today. For them, the comparison is either their neighbor or more successful family members. Thatās why, when decorating their space and managing their house, they stuck to something more popular and accessible. These days, even with so many apps, it still can get overwhelming.
When I was renting, I wasnāt this much responsible. All I had in mind is basically just making enough money so my family could eat for the next day. Nowadays, I feel like an extra seat in my brain is added thinking about the complexities of owning a home, cleaning and maintaining it. But if thereās one thing I learned is that, I am now a lot more responsible adult than I have ever been.
This is such a relatable reflection although I donāt own a home and the responsibility/bills of owning a home in my country is slightly different.
I actually do understand that owning and managing a home really does change the way anyone sees responsibility. At that point it wonāt just be all about paying bills, but about energy, planning and constant upkeep.
I like how you pointed out the difference between renting and owning though, especially the hidden responsibilities like repairs, HOA fees, and the endless cycle of cleaning. Itās true, our parents seemed to just āmake do,ā but now with so much information and higher expectations, it feels overwhelming. Still, the way youāve embraced it as part of growing into a more responsible adult is inspiring. It shows that even with the challenges, youāre learning and adapting.
There's a lot of hidden responsibilities that we have when owning a home. It also feels overwhelming because we see a lot of pretty curated home. I am still learning a lot.
Managing a house is seriously not so easy, managing my room is already hard how much more if its a whole house, no matter how small it is, its still hard haha. But yeah, like how, how our parents can easily do that. I can never, lol. Anyways, I can only imagine the stress and the sweat while you are managing more areas now. Is there actually a time that you're actually too lazy to do all of it? Its understandable if you ever feel suffocates by it.
Sometimes I am lazy too because there's just too many things to do. So, there are times when I wanted to actually hire domestic helper. I sometimes feel suffocated by it too but complaining won't clean the house itself haha, so I just do it sometimes with a bit of willpower š