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I came across this excellent post the other day from Jen Bishop over at Interiors Addict and it made me think: How my home was growing up affects how I live now.

The first thing to note is that I still live at home so am still confined to the habits I was raised with, but that hasn’t stopped me from mentally developing my own habits for when I move out (aka when I can control my finances better)

The second thing to note is that I know I have had a very privileged upbringing, the daughter of a highly corporate banker and a highly dedicated stay at home mum, it has been rare that I have ever really had to fend for myself. In saying that though, I would say myself and my two sisters are far from being spoilt brats as we were raised to value our things, work hard for what we want and to have good manners in every situation. We were never given anything for free there was always a lesson attached.

Speaking for myself I would also say I am much less of a brat and rather more so just plain useless. But my efforts are not without heart. No I don’t know how to use a washing machine- the thought actually scares me with how much I could ruin all my clothes. I was informed the other day that even when I try to hang clothes on the line I still do that wrong – I didn’t even know there was a right way!

 

We did chores when we were younger for pocket money but that was after the hard part was done for us, like unloading the dishwasher and putting away the washing up- I can do all that! However at 25, I can use a dishwasher (hesitantly) although I can’t stack the dishes properly. I can wash up although my sisters always have to re-do it because apparently I am just not scrubbing hard enough. I make my own bed getting easily sweaty and frustrated with how annoying it is to keep walking around to get to each corner. Instead of sweeping I dust bust. Every Saturday I clean my own room and literally can’t begin the weekend until it is nice and fresh! My dad has now implemented the one thing in, three things out rule when I go shopping (nice plan, hard to action).

Having had my parents away on holiday for the past ten years(7 weeks whatever) self-sufficiency has had to kick in and oh my- what an effort! Don’t get me wrong, people do this every day and I am not playing victim but I was never aware of how much goes into just running a household.

 

Firstly our LED long light bulb/globe/stick blew out and neither sister knew how to change it. Then a kookaburra moved into our fireplace. Then our oven broke and it was a week of stir fry meals to be had. The floor doesn’t sweep itself. The benches are dirty so easily. The pantry and fridge contents lessen and don’t refill. The bunny doesn’t feed himself. Meat doesn’t come out of the freezer and defrost on its own. Dinner takes time. Shows don’t automatically tape themselves and rubbish doesn’t empty and replenish itself. We have pulled through all these issues and the house is still standing and for the purpose of this post while I may not be able to do the ‘bigger’ things, how I was raised shines through how I act today.

For example, I would never dare bend the corner of a book page to mark where I am at. As one of three sisters we always had our own things so admittedly I am not great with sharing because I was lucky enough and even still today, to have an overwhelming amount of things that I rarely need to ‘borrow’ or share. When I stay in a hotel room it will always look like how I first walked in I keep all my things neatly together and “put it all back where it came from” words which, when I was younger used to receive an eye roll but now is instilled in me. When I was younger and went mental with plastering tv hits posters all over my wall now resonates in always needing to be surrounded by colour and inspiring pictures (JTT poster is now swapped for small pic of One Direction).  My punishment as an early teen used to be getting  banned from watching Home and Away and that had the effect of a smack with a wooden spoon- I would be gutted. Now I am addicted to buying dvds by dozen so I can watch them whenever I want.

 

Im not totally useless, I love to cook and have even made a copy of mum’s homemade recipe book for the fantasy day when I become a loving time abundant housewife. I do like things clean, I once got picked up from a sleepover because the girl’s house was a dumpsite and I couldn’t stay there! I value all my belongings, perhaps too much, yet in a way that if I ever borrow from anyone I return straight away in the same condition and I get anxious when I feel like I’ve had it for too long. I believe I am handy I just am better when left to my own devices. I can’t wait to be super house proud when I have my own place, and being orphaned has brought out a little of the domestic skills I will need to use which is daunting yet exciting. But for now mum and dad are banned from any more holidays!

*I also didn't realise plants need watering