9 Unexpected, Funny Things You Argue About After Moving In Together

May signifies the one-year-anniversary of a lotta things. Namely, graduating college, buying a house, and moving in together with my then-fiancé. #phew. We had had a *brief* taste of what cohabiting together would be like one summer when I crashed at his apartment so I could easily commute to my internship. I figured if we made it out alive after living in a 600 square foot box with both of us AND our two cats, we’d be in it to win it. 😉 Moving in together is not something to be taken lightly, in my opinion, so we knew it’d be an adventure from the get go.

If you’ve been around these rosy parts for a hot sec, do ya remember the days of J coming in to guest post??? Not even biased, but he’s a funny man and I am V LUCKY.

So, we sat down together to hash out our quirks and figure out the hot button “issues” we “argue” about ever since shacking up. 😉

P.S. This is also basically a walk down memory lane with our iPhone pics from MOVING DAY 2016…how far we’ve come. Ha!

 

The snooze button

To snooze, or not to snooze?

JAMIE: I enjoy the feeling of waking up and knowing I can go back to sleep for 8 more minutes… at least three times.  Some people enjoy working out; I enjoy snoozing.  (This practice dates all the way back to elementary school!)

ERICA: Can we not? I cannot snooze. I cannot doze. I cannot nap. I need my 8 hours, and that’s that. A 15 minute “snooze” suddenly becomes sleeping an extra hour and a half, sipping coffee on the couch with a book, full hair and makeup, and a workday starting circa noon. No bueno. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Also, why the HECK would you want to be woken up when you don’t even HAVE to be woken up yet, especially by an obnoxious beeping sound??? If you’re going to just slam it off anyways, actually turn the alarm off. Especially on Saturday mornings. OY.

Laundry

To dry, or not to dry?

JAMIE: I gotta admit: Erica sold me on the preservation of my clothes by not drying them.  I still dry socks and t-shirts, but hoodies and dress shirts now flank our house during laundry sessions.

ERICA: I grew up thinking that the dryer was like a death sentence for your favorite top and best jeans. Avoid it at all costs. Only things to go in there are towels and sheets – everything else can + should be hung up to dry on a clothesline. One time J shrunk one of my sweaters and almost lost a fiancée.

Also, HOW does one lose socks?!?! I don’t get it. Really, I don’t. Whenever I do laundry, miraculously, everything that went in somehow makes it out.

When J does the laundry…there’s an approximately 67% chance that everything inside is also coming out. It’s a sad days for socks everywhere in the Gwynn house when J is handling the load…

9 Unexpected, Funny Things You Argue About After Moving In Together

Leftovers

To be in the fridge, or nah?

JAMIE: My rents taught me how to finish a meal, so I grew accustomed to not wanting a leftover unless it was pizza, tacos or chicken noodle soup – it only gets better with time!  However, because I’m a financial nerd I have evolved into someone who now eats food five days after the fact to save money.

ERICA: OK OK, I 100% agree with J in that pizza, tacos, and chicken noodle soup are all STELLAR leftovers. In my opinion, there should always be leftover pizza in every fridge, always. Why do people rush for the milk-bread-eggs mid-storm when they should clearly be grabbing all the leftover pizza in sight? J always makes fun of me for saving ends of meals “for later,” but I swear to you this practice has probably saved us SO MUCH $$$ over the year. Like, so much $$$ that our future children can have the good meal plan in college.

Leftovers should be built into meal plans. That way, it’s less time cooking, more time eating, and more time making other things happen. Also SUPER EASY lunch for the next day that totally trumps a lunchmeat sandwich. Ya feel?

Throwing things away

Do I want my spouse’s love today or nah? LOL JK

JAMIE: Erica will evolve on this one since I have caved on other things.  I mean, if I pray about it enough it should come true.  I CAN’T STAND CLUTTER.  It literally overwhelms me emotionally since I’m way too analytical.  I can spot a finger nail in the carpet from a room away.  Legit.  Now magnify that with Erica’s clothes, shoes and daily packages…

ERICA: OK OK OK HOLD UP. Is it really rational to expect me to just THROW AWAY all of my personal belongings?!?! I mean, I also can’t stand clutter. I just have a lot of things and not a lot of time to go through them, so it’s a future summer project in the making lest I get a shoe shed. BUT. The real crux of this matter lies in J’s tendency to throw away things that should not be thrown away. Namely, the iced tea I was in the middle of drinking. Or, a tub of toothpaste that still has, like, 7-8 good dollops of toothpaste left in it. I reaaaaaaally don’t like being wasteful, so you best believe I’m using every. last. drop. Ironically, tho, a certain SOMEBODY hates drinking the last swig in a water bottle. So, I constantly find Deer Parks sitting around on random ledges with TWO SWIGS in ’em. Who does that?!?! I hate being wasteful + get waaaaay too much satisfaction about fully finishing something (ask me how many beauty products I have sitting on my vanity that have hit pan…), so I basically follow him around finishing the bottles and recycling accordingly.

Where shoes go

In the foyer? On the floor? In the closet?

JAMIE: Hah.  Shoes.  Erica will say mine are always out in front of the closet door.  That’s only because I have a three foot by five foot closet for my 10 pair of shoes.  Erica has an entire BEDROOM essentially for shoes and they’re still overflowing in our basement.

ERICA: *Not in the foyer outside the closet door. I mean, there’s a literal shoe rack INSIDE said closet, where shoes can be neatly stacked side-by-side. So what benefit is there to just leaving four pairs of shoes sitting outside the closet door instead of *inside* with the other shoes?!?! This is logic, peeps. I don’t get it. Also I have a shoe problem and I’m fully aware of it and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. 😉

9 Unexpected, Funny Things You Argue About After Moving In Together

Junk drawers

Are they allowed?

JAMIE: Clutter goes into junk drawers for two to three months and then ends up in the trash.  Erica misses the item once every ten tries.  The odds are forever in my favor…

ERICA: …Except for when he hides my Starbucks gift cards and Bath & Body Works coupons. Then nothing is in his favor.

Why do junk drawers have to be a thing? Can’t everything have it’s place? Every time I try to open the drawers I’ve neatly organized, somehow there is so much RANDOM ISH piled on top of the nicely organized ish. THIS HELPS NO ONE. Can we all just agree that junk drawers don’t need to be a thing?

Did Martha Stewart have a junk drawer?

Did Jesus have a junk drawer?

No? See? Unnecessary!

Blanket Stealing

I mean, what’s wrong is wrong.

JAMIE: Guilty.

ERICA: I’m gonna be totally honest here and say this is 100% all J. Do any of your men do this, too? They try to be sneaky by tucking themselves in like pigs in a blanket and then they roll to the side, taking all of the covers with them. Moose sleeps next to me now, and I think it’s because he’s a genuinely empathetic dude who feels my pain and is offering warmth out of lovelovelove.

Dishes

If you cook, do I clean? What if you break all of them first?

JAMIE: LOL.  I need Beauty and the Beast to happen in our household to get Erica interested in a dish.

ERICA: OH MY GOD HA. OK in my defense, yannnno how everyone has their least favorite chore? Mine is hands down doing the dishes. Especially when we have a perfectly functioning dish washer. The *worst* feeling is reaching into a vat of warm, cloudly, soapy water to grab what you *think* is a Tupperware lid but is *really* a piece of soggy half-eaten bread. I cannot.

Also, here’s the thing.

If you’re gonna advocate for hand washing the dishes, you at least have to be able to hand wash said dishes without any casualties.

I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve been on glass cleanup duty when SOMEONE doesn’t know how to open the cabinet door *before* putting the cleaned wine glass inside.

9 Unexpected, Funny Things You Argue About After Moving In Together

When is a good time to clean

Daytime? Midday? Nighttime? Any time?

JAMIE: You know how authors sometimes get “writer’s block” and then snap out of it and go on a binge writing spree?  That’s me with cleaning.  Once I get going, in any facet in life, I cannot stop until it’s finished.  Time doesn’t matter.  I always feel better when it’s completed.

ERICA: Except time does matter. When it’s 1 am and I’m tryna get a few beauty zzzz’s before waking up at 6 am to #werk, ain’t nobody got time to be startled awake by clanging pots and pans in the kitchen or the smell of bleach coming from down the hall. Don’t get me wrong…I could not be more appreciative of a tidy husband. J is always genuinely down to clean with me, which is AWESOME. It’s all about timing here. When’s a good time to clean? Saturday afternoon. Or a random Wednesday after work, when you need a little hump day pickmeup in the form of a clean + sparkling house. When’s not a good time to clean? 10 minutes before we’re supposed to be leaving out the door on a road trip to visit family, or – better yet – when we’re en route to the airport. I’m *all for* arriving back home from vacation to a tidy abode, but PLANNING, PEOPLE. Plan ahead. Y’all, watch. We’re heading to Mexico in August, and how much do ya wanna bet that the night before we’re set to take off, a certain husband will be up Swiffering at 2 am????

9 Unexpected, Funny Things You Argue About After Moving In Together

I’m also teaming up with my friends at Allstate to share some moving tips for y’all, in case any of ya are gearing up for big spring moves (hello, graduation + real world-ing) and/or are getting hitched soon and beginning that fun process of moving in together with yo’ partner. If you’re moving soon, start here at their Moving Center. The Moving Center walks you through the beginner schtuff, like figuring out whether renting or buying is best for you right now (important!). It also helps you search for a place, get hooked up with an agent, AND insure that the place you pick is all up to snuff during inspection.

Then, once you’re planning your actual move, head here to their hub of printable documents,templates, + resources. It’s got everything you need that I SO WISH we had had when we were going through the process to be less headless-chicken-ish, including a week-by-week moving timeline, moving company contact paperwork, a change-of-address checklist, home inventory checklist, moving labels, + more, all *printable* for ya. Bless up.

Allstate also has an *awesome* blog that acts as a fabulous resource for basically everything you need in life. Some of my personal moving-related favorites include moving scams to avoid, ways to eco-boost your move, and tips for moving with your pets. One of my favorite memories from moving in together was bringing Moose + Pumpkin into the new space; Pumpkin got out of her carrier and started *sprinting* everywhere since she finally had room to RUN! Ha!

What funny things do you argue about with your SO now?

J and I had a bit too much fun writing this together – we laughed until we cried. If you’ve got any similar sorts of “arguments” with your person on the reg, let us know in a comment below. And PLEASE tell me I’m not the only who’s anti-junk drawer and pro-leftovers??? 😉

P.S. Check out my first post with Allstate on mastering the 401(k) + retirement game NOW. Being smart with your $$$ now can have maaaajor pay-off (pun intended) in the future. As in, millionaire status – hollah!

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**This post was written as part of the Allstate Influencer Program and sponsored by Allstate. As always, all thoughts and opinions presented are entirely my own. As the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer, Allstate is dedicated not only to protecting what matters most–but to guiding people to live the Good Life, every day. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Coming Up Roses!