Surviving the First Year: 3 Essential Tips for Moving In Together
One of the biggest fights my husband and I ever had was over a paper towel dispenser. We had just moved in together (like, the day before) and had survived an epic trip to Bed Bath & Beyond where we’d purchased, among other things, a wall-mounted paper towel dispenser for the kitchen.
Before moving in together, we’d been seniors in college, living in a large house with about six of our friends in Los Angeles. Now it was just the two of us on the other side of the country in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, and my husband was about to reveal himself to be completely deranged.
Screwdriver in one hand, plastic paper towel thing in the other, he reached up and prepared to screw an actual screw into the laminate side of the kitchen cabinet.
“What are you doing?!” I screeched. “You can’t put it there!”
He shrugged. “Why not? Look. It’s right over the sink.”
I burst into tears.
I gestured wildly at the cabinet. I started four different sentences I never finished. I turned away from him in disgust and then back around again in despair. “How can you not know that you can’t put that there?!” I wailed.
Okay, okay, fine, I’ll admit that, perhaps, it was me who was the one who was completely deranged. But, in my defense, I was 3,000 miles from home with a man who thought it was totally fine to put holes in the laminate cabinets of an apartment we didn’t own.
The point is (yes, I do have a point here) that moving in with your husband can be stressful. (Full disclosure: it may not have been the paper towel dispenser I was actually upset about. At least, not entirely the paper towel dispenser.) Moving in together is exciting, sure, but it’s also a huge step. A step, one would assume, towards living together forever (if you catch my drift) and that’s a big deal. Plus, to paraphrase Monica from Friends, you’re going to have to live with a boy. And boys are weird (no offense boys, you’re also awesome).