Between 2010 and 2020, the number of child-free, single-person households in the European Union increased by 20% (source: Eurostat). This is a quantum leap.
Perhaps females are becoming less willing to put up with testosterone-induced nonsense in their personal lives. Perhaps there is a strong correlation between this surge and the overall aging population.
One thing’s for sure: living alone truly has a multitude of benefits. I would argue the advantages far outweigh any disadvantages, even the most notorious of them all: potential loneliness.
Is Living Alone Lonely?
Loneliness does not necessarily have anything to do at all with living alone. You can be in a room full of people, or live with your spouse and/or children, or work with colleagues in an open office space, yet still feel dreadfully lonely.
Loneliness is a state of mind, and it’s subjective. It’s defined in medical literature as e.g. “a distressing feeling that accompanies the perception that one’s social needs are not being met by the quantity or especially the quality of one’s social relationships.”
Conversely, you can spend time alone, or live alone forever, and never feel lonely.
I’ve lived alone since I was 18, give or take two or three excursions to that popular, yet frequently disappointing town called Co-Habitation. For me personally, it was a form of living marked by disastrous experiences with the opposite sex and one which I’ve happily abstained from ever since.
Is Living Alone Scary?
The idea of living alone for the first time can seem a bit scary and may spark a bit of nervousness, especially if any degree of solitude is new to you. However, living alone doesn’t mean loneliness or fear.
For many, the first time living alone is a big decision – moving out of your parents’ house or saying goodbye to your roommates starts a new chapter in your life. Yet, this step is far from being a shackle. Instead, it offers an invaluable opportunity to grow, recharge your social battery on your own terms, and cultivate a lifestyle that better reflects who you are.
There’s nothing much to fear if you follow commonsense safety for solo dwellers. While it may seem daunting at the outset coming home to an empty place or suddenly have total control over your own house rules, living alone will quickly shift from being a bit scary to deeply satisfying.
I could likely fill an entire book as to why living alone is the smarter form of dwelling, at least until retirement, but I shall not burden you today, Dear Reader. Instead, here’s my shortlist of the six biggest benefits of living alone.
1. Living Alone Makes You Independent & Financially Savvy
People who live alone have learnt to rely on themselves and take care of their own place. They’re responsible because they have to be.
They can deal with a clogged up sink, electrical outages, paint jobs, and stupid-ass superintendents from the 19th century who crack snide sexist jokes.
They come out stronger and smarter than people who co-dwell, and are generally less needy because they have learnt to tap into their full potential and make decisions.
Ultimately, they have gotten to know themselves and are comfortable in their own company. Positive side effects: independent people are considered attractive and make better managers at work, too, particularly if they are female.
Living alone means you’re going to have to intentionally budget, and this builds your financial acumen. There’s no one to slip you ten bucks when you’re short on cash for the delivery guy, and there’s no one to help you when you’ve defaulted on a credit card payment.
You learn quickly to hold your money together, and over time this means you can gain a better grasp on planning for savings and investments.
2. Your Home Equity Is All Yours
Speaking of money, if you are paying your rent into your pocket by owning your own condo or house, all that sweet, sweet equity is going to be yours alone when you sell one day. Definitely one of the pros of living alone!
3. Personal Space Whenever You Want
When you live alone, there’s no one judging you 24/7. Go out when you want. Come home when you want. Or stay in and binge mindlessly on The Real Housewives of the City of Your Choice.
Invite a friend to come visit for the weekend. You don’t need to consult with anyone. You run on your own schedule, you make your own rules. And you can break them whenever you feel like it because there’s no one around to bug you.
Speaking of space, you also need less of it when you live alone. Nobody will mess it up, either. If you leave a clean place behind you when you head out to work or school, it will still be clean when you come home at night.
There’s no picking up after anyone else. Even working from home in these times is dramatically better when you live alone, because there is no one who will disrupt your physical or mental space.
4. Peace and Quiet (or Heavy Metal) in the Mornings
This is probably my personal favourite out of all the benefits of living alone. There’s really not a human in the world I want to acknowledge with any sort of verbal intercourse before I’ve had 600ml of coffee and a couple of hours of alone time in the morning. 😅
The early morning is precious, productive, and gives me a great head start on the workday. I enjoy doing rather administrative tasks during these quiet early hours, such as project planning, backend maintenance, or accounting.
For many years I also wrote morning pages: three hand-written sheets of a stream of consciousness. It helped me process a lot of emotional baggage at the time.
Figure out what works for you and how much time you need to yourself before work. Create your own morning ritual, and celebrate it each day without having to listen to any roommate’s background noise!
5. You Can Decorate Your Home However You Like
Another big benefit of living alone may sound banal at first, but I feel it’s a worthy mention because it really underscores the degree of personal freedom you experience at home. You can design your interior entirely as you like. You want an all-pink Barbiecore interior? Go for it.
There are absolutely no compromises you have to make and if you enjoy decorating, you really come to appreciate the creative liberty you have in your own space. You’re essentially only bound by your own time and budget constraints!
6. Meal Planning & Cooking Whatever You Want
I have to include the food factor in this list of benefits of living alone, if only as an honourable mention. For one, it’s just easier and more economical to do the grocery shopping and any meal planning for a single-person household.
Plus, if you spontaneously decide you don’t feel like cooking, you’re not obliged to. It’s only you, after all.
Cheese and crackers with a glass of wine for your #girldinner? Go for it.
Meal skipping? Totally.
Cold pizza for breakfast? Absolutely.
Pot roast leftovers four nights in a row? Heck yes, it was delicious after all.
Where Do You See the Benefits of Living Alone?
These were my personal six biggest advantages of living alone. Do you live alone, or have you in the past? I’d love to hear about your living situation and what your take is on the pros and cons of living alone.
I did try to think of some disadvantages to living alone while writing this, but I could really only think of two! There is no one around to help you lift heavy things when you need to; you always have to call a friend or pay for help.
And there is no one around to give you a spontaneous hug and cuddle when you usually need it the most.
Can’t have it all, I guess.
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