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Well, the time is officially here. After two years of living with E in Chicago, I’m officially moving out on my own. Just me against the world. By myself. A lone wolf swimming in a sea of botched metaphors.
That’s right. Come May of this year, I’m going to be moving out into my own solo apartment, marking a new chapter in my life. As much as I love living with roommates, I’ve been finding myself enjoying my alone time more and more, and my current roommate and I have both decided that it’s best for us to live on our own once our lease is up in our current spot.
In fairness, I was nervous at first. I’ve never lived alone before, and the thought of being alone when you’re at home is a pretty daunting one. But the more I think about it, the more excited I get. This is the first place that I can officially call my own. Somewhere that I can design however I like with no input from others, however I like it. And now that I’m officially looking, I’ve decided to put together a list of criteria to judge my new place by.
Must be walking distance to the essentials.
After selling my car back in January, I’ve had to make a lot of life adjustments. I can no longer pick up bags upon bags at the grocery store and I can’t rely on Uber to get me all over the place because frankly, that gets crazy expensive. So naturally, I’ve been walking a lot lately, which is a trend that is going to have to continue until I get a car or move away from the city of Chicago.
So what are the essentials? You might be thinking things like “grocery store” or “doctor’s office,” maybe even “public transportation.” Nah. I rarely ever go grocery shopping and I’ve been on what I call the cross-your-fingers healthcare plan for the last three years. To me, the essentials are a well stocked liquor store, a bar I can shamelessly get hammered at, and a hole in the wall taco joint. I’m a simple man, I know.
Less bugs.
It’s no secret that my current apartment has had its fair share of unwelcome guests. I’m sure part of it comes with living in a ground-floor unit, but nevertheless, I don’t want to deal with that shit anymore. Put me in an apartment building, somewhere high up that the ants can’t reach and birds accidentally fly into my windowpane. Somewhere new. Clean. And if there are bugs, it would be nice if the property management company would take care of them instead of waiting until winter and saying “looks like they’re gone!”
Wacky neighbors.
I’m not asking to live next to Kramer, but, y’know, it would be nice to have someone across the hall or next door that I can hang out with when I get bored. Not saying I would be a nuisance to these people, but I’ve never really had neighbors that I felt comfortable talking to or hanging out with. If I’m going to be living on my own, that almost seems like a necessity. Plus, if it actually works out and I get some friends out of the deal, could you imagine how fucking whimsical that could be? Life would be like a damn Friends episode every day.
Lively doorman or front desk attendant.
Picture it: you had a long day at work, or maybe a late night out, or even just went for an afternoon walk. You begrudgingly open the door to your apartment building, dreading having to actually cook dinner, and who is there to greet you but none other than Boris the Doorman/Desk Attendant! Boris asks you about your day. He tells you about his kid’s baseball game that’s coming up and you tell him about your office gossip, and then he asks you about your coworkers by name because you tell him about them all the time because you trust him, because he cares.
All I want is to be able to come home to the same people greeting me day in and day out, but not have to actually live with them. A doorman fits that criteria perfectly, and adds for a nice Suite Life of Zack and Cody vibe.
Or maybe I should just get a dog or something. .
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Charlie
Using sarcasm as a defense mechanism since 1993. At any given moment I'm either tired, drunk, or stressed out. Get at me at charliepgp@gmail.com or whatever.
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This made me so excited because I JUST signed my first solo lease, moving in June. Downtown and close to work too. I’m excited for the lame stuff like decorating and cleaning my own way but I also can’t wait for the comfort of knowing that I’ll basically never need to wear clothes.
Same! Just signing mine this weekend. Can’t wait to have a *nice* place to my own for once! Bye bye 3 roommates!
Big moves! Congrats!
I realize that a lot of people in big cities don’t have vehicles but if I’m being honest the thought of not having my own vehicle gives me severe anxiety
Having not had my own car until this past year(long story), doing errands on a bike/public trans is doable but having a car is so liberating.
Did errands on a bike for a long time. Sure is nice having a car after experiencing all that.
Haven’t regularly driven a car since high school, it’s great. No expense, nothing to keep track of, and when everything’s within a walk or quick subway it’s easily the way to go.
Do y’all just not go places on the weekends? You just hang out in your own city all the time?
I have friends who have cars and it’s a good trade off. I have a nice place in the city they can pregame/crash at on the weekends since they live in the burbs and they return the favor by driving on our weekend getaways.
Plus, anywhere I go out I’m drinking, so I would have to uber anyway.
If you live in a city like Chicago public transportation can get you everywhere, or if you need to drive somewhere renting a car is less than $100 for the weekend
You can rent a car or take the train. Went up to Vermont over Presidents’ Day weekend and splitting the rental cost isn’t bad. Trains to DC or Boston are easy. Within NYC it’s really much easier to not have one.
That is because you’ve never had to pay for parking/ parking tickets in a big city.
Spots go for an extra $250-400 a month depending on where you live. My $2,000 Jeep is not worth that (sorry, Black mamba)
Grew up in a small town, moved to a big city and realized after 2 years it was a waste of money to pay to park it at my apartment. I walk everywhere and take the metro to work. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it but its nice to save the money.
Till you find out that Boris is actually a war lord in his home country and escaped to America for asylum
I was so much more productive living alone. I’d get off work and clean or pursue a hobby. Now every day after work my roommate throws me a beer and there goes my evening. Peer pressure is everywhere.
Charles, as a fellow Chicago dweller and someone who peruses apartments just for the hell of it, let me know if you need assistance in your apartment selection.
When I finally move into my own place, I’m gonna be naked 95% of the time. Thats easily what I’m looking forward to the most about living alone.
Am I only person who has little desire to be naked all the time? I feel like zero barrier between your ass and your furniture is gross.
Same, plus unexpected door-answering paranoia.
Looks like I’ll be living through you on this journey. As someone who’s never lived the solo life, I’m extremely jealous.
Been living alone for over a year and a half now, such a big lifestyle upgrade. My place is in my ideal location and you definitely want to be walking distance to everything, make that a top priority. I gave up some space for the privlidge (~500sqft 1br) but it’s plenty for me, especially in the context of NYC apartments.
As a longtime solo apartment-dweller, the only criteria I’d add is try to find an apartment complex with some kind of place to meet people (fitness center, pool, volleyball court, dog park). Maybe that’s a pipe dream in Chicago, but good luck.