The Good (and The Bad) After Five Years Living Together
Yesterday marked SIX (!!!) years since Korri and I had our first "date" at a local place called Westside Drive-in, where I introduced him to the incomparable Idaho Ice Cream Potato! We go there every year (if we’re in town), but sadly they were closed yesterday, so instead we stopped by The STIL for ice cream cones. (Did you notice that year 2022 follows the exact same calendar dates as year 2016? Our first date was on Sunday, June 26—just like yesterday!)
I moved into his place in 2017 immediately after finishing my PhD and while I was frantically job searching. In 2018, a year after moving in together, I thought it would be fun to share the good (and the bad) after one year of living together, and now I figured it was time for an update! (Or not…since much of it is still the same LOL. Korri contributed to the first post but not this one because he said there’s nothing he’d change. 🤣) Leave a comment if you have the same quirks or if you’d like to share your experience living with your significant other!
The Good (and The Bad) After Five Years Living Together
Extreme temperatures
Similar to what I wrote four years ago (in our one-year update), Korri still prefers to avoid using the A/C (in the summer) and the heat (in the winter) as much as possible. Our A/C kicks on if the house temperature goes above 80°F; our thermostat is located upstairs where it is warmer, and it’s about ~5 degrees or so cooler downstairs (there’s no way to circulate the air unfortunately). It can get REALLY HOT in here, especially if he is not around since the Nest thermostat is connected to his phone, and it annoys me when I have to turn it on manually lol. We’ve been using a box fan recently in the late evenings, which really helps to cool down the upstairs.
I’m an extremely hot sleeper, so I just can’t sleep if it’s hot in the room! I have the ceiling fan running every night, and I cannot sleep in anything other than shorts (and a tank or short-sleeve tee) in the summer or else I will roast, and sometimes I still wake up hot and sweaty. In the winter, I wear a long-sleeve top and shorts. In the past few months, I discovered the wonders of bamboo PJs, and they are truly the best at keeping me cool (I even wake up cold sometimes in the winter!). I can wear a long-sleeve top + long pants in summer no problem!
Dishwasher disagreement
I load spoons with the handles down so the parts we eat off can get clean and not get stuck in the grate. (I learned all of my dishwasher-loading knowledge from my dad.) Korri loads them with the handles up. It's because he doesn't like touching the part we eat off when he grabs them to put them away, but if you just lean down a little farther it's not so hard to grab the handles. It’s now 100% my job to do the dishes, which is great because I always end up rearranging everything if Korri loads it LOL.
On a somewhat related note, I’ve been begging Korri to hire a house cleaner. We are both messy and lazy and hate spending our weekends cleaning, but he hasn’t quite come around to the idea yet. Even once a month would help us out so much and make our house feel not quite like the pigsty it is a lot of the time.
Paper, boxes, receipts everywhere!
(Korri wrote this section last time, and it’s still accurate. In my defense, I like holding onto boxes and packing material for Poshmark shipments, but I probably keep more than I need lol. I have the hardest time organizing paper and keeping it from accumulating.) Kimi loves to keep every SINGLE receipt, and they pile up everywhere. Over time the receipts accumulate across the house. She also keeps boxes, and the same thing happens.
Holy clothes and sneakers
I maintain that Korri has more clothes and shoes than I do! I find it hilarious since I’m the style blogger. I'm honestly amazed at how many clothes he (still) has, especially because he told me how much he got rid of before he even moved into this place. He keeps everything in random piles everywhere so I can't ever tell what's clean and what's not. He’s also recently started leaving giant piles in the guest bathroom (where he takes baths), which makes it really difficult to get into the bathroom/use it/open the cabinets.
His half of the closet is full of clothes he never wears; I know this because I turned all the hangers backwards to figure out what he actually wears. A few weeks ago I rearranged his closet and pulled all of his worn pieces to the front and moved everything he hasn’t worn into the section in the back.
Even though he has more clothes and shoes than I do, I know Korri gets annoyed that my stuff piles up in random spots in our bedroom. If I see a surface, I cover the surface! (We are both bad with surfaces and like to cover them lol.)
TV Takeover
Every night around 9 pm, Korri plays Xbox for ~2 hours. It’s fine with me for the most part (I’ve learned he has a standing Xbox date with a friend pretty much every night), but every once in a while I’ll be watching something and he’ll switch it to the Xbox without asking, even if there are only a few minutes left in my show. My parents claim the secret to a happy marriage is two TVs and we only have the one, so we should probably get on that!
Every night is like a slumber party with my best friend.
I know it sounds cheesy and cliche, but it's true! If we're not dead tired, or if he doesn't fall asleep before I get into bed, we lay there and talk and giggle like we're in grade school having a slumber party. Some nights we have to actively remind ourselves to stop talking so we can get a few hours of sleep. (I wrote this last time and it’s still accurate.)
Are we the same person?
I always look forward to coming home and spending time together. It's hard to be apart. We have so much in common that we may be the same person. Sometimes, I think she can read my mind. I like how she lets me be my own person. I can play Xbox, do my own thing, watch baseball, and she doesn't bat an eye. She also watches sports with me, and I have enjoyed watching some of the shows she likes on TV as well as some of her music tastes.
(This is true. I’m now a Seattle Mariners and Seahawks fan by association and will actually willingly turn the games on if he’s not around and I remember there’s a game on. I got him into college gymnastics—we play fantasy gym—and some of the shows I watch on TLC and Bravo.)
We are teammates!
I love having a partner in crime! I love watching TV shows together and munching on freshly popped popcorn. I love when we surprise each other with a drink from our favorite coffee place (most often Dutch Bros or Mocha Moose). I love that he loves my cats (almost) as much as me. I also love shopping for new things for our place even though he doesn't like that as much (haha). I love planning trips for us to take. I love having him as a travel buddy; somehow we don’t get sick of each other on long road trips. I still love doing life with him—all this time later!