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Study Explores The Truth About Living Together

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At some point in (almost) every relationship, the discussion about whether or not you’ll move in together will inevitably come up. Instinctively, we know that living with someone full-time brings us closer together, and increases the chances of seeing those big milestones. However, moving in with someone can be a huge and scary process, especially if you’ve never done it before. (Truth be told, it doesn’t exactly get any easier the more it’s happened – it’s just a bit different each time.)

Recently, we became aware of a study by Moshells about cohabitating couples and their preferences. They surveyed 500 people in live-in relationships to see how they felt were the important issues. They didn’t specify the sexual orientations of the study participants, but they did group the answers by (binary) gender and generation. Read on if you want a little insight into moving in with your girlfriend!


No one likes clutter.

When it comes to visiting your partner at her place (or living together, eventually), no one likes to see dirt and clutter. Men and women across the board reported that dirty bathrooms, piles of laundry, and dishes in the sink were all major turn-offs. Pictures and reminders of exes also ranked pretty high on the list – and we’re going to go ahead and call that “emotional clutter”.

When the results were broken down by generation, Moshells also discovered that baby boomers were turned off by cheap furniture and too many grooming products hanging around. Gen X’ers were more turned off by small beds and stuffed animals, while millennials were most turned off by roommates and smelly drains. (Although, who wouldn’t be?)


Having nice stuff is a good idea.

The number-one turn on for both men and women is a nice, big bed. Nice furniture and a good TV come in 2nd and 3rd place for women (3rd and 2nd place, respectively, for men). This isn’t too surprising, since you want to be comfortable – and there’s nothing comfortable about a twin bed, plastic furniture, or small, blurry televisions. Women also wanted their partners to have a way to wash and dry their clothes, and they wanted pets.

Again, the results by generation showed a slightly different picture. Baby boomers wanted to see art on the walls and books on the shelves, while generation X wanted to see high-quality furniture and nice liquor. Millenials preferred to see good computers and healthy food. (I think that all of these show that your budget is actually pretty important in the dating game, am I right?)


Once you move in together, you’re probably going to do more chores.

Most women said that they ended up doing more around the house once they’d moved in with their partner. 70% of women say they do more dishes, 77% cook more, and 80% did more laundry. Overall, 71% said they did more cleaning in general.


You might pick up some better habits, too.

Of the women surveyed, 31% woke up earlier after moving in with their partner. 19% spent less time in the bathroom, and 20% spent less time online. (Which really could just mean that they stopped scrolling through Instagram while indisposed.)

…or not.

42% of women said that they watch more TV now than they did before they lived with their partner. (But, to be fair, it’s way more fun to binge-watch a show with your girlfriend than it is by yourself.)


There will definitely be some challenges.

The biggest challenges of living together, in every group, were sharing a bathroom, and sharing household chore responsibilities. Baby boomer women in particular weren’t too thrilled about having to share their bathroom space, but over the course of their relationships, they tended to care less about sharing the bathroom. They also cared a little more about sharing their food (but, let’s be real – there’s only so much you can handle your girlfriend eating the last piece of cake).

Millenial women were the most concerned with sharing the household responsibilities (probably because the study showed they did most of the work!).


But, despite all the challenges, it’s still worth it.

None of these findings invalidate the fact that living with your girlfriend is awesome. Sure, it’s going to be scary and hard and you’re going to have to clean a lot more than you’re used to, you still get to wake up to her face, and fall asleep next to her. (Just make sure you’re being fair when you split up the chores!)

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the study here – there were a lot of other interesting finds, too!


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