Since moving into my apartment – my first ever – and living on my own which means depending on me for everything, I have come to realize that it takes more time and effort to “run” a household than I thought. I, honestly, feel bad about all the times I didn’t help my mom around the house even if it was with simple chores like vacuuming or doing the dishes. I make sure the dishes are done every day and have made a habit of putting them into the dishwasher right away, I also make sure to unload it promptly and not just open it up to get a clean dish out.
I’ve also noticed that I can’t stand for things to be messy…when I lived at home, my space was my bedroom and I was in control of how I kept it; yes, I’m not the most organized or clean person but when I do get to cleaning I make sure everything is put away and nicely organized, now I do that on a regular basis – I seriously don’t know how many times I’ve cleaned the kitchen counters and stove top or how many times I’ve straightened up the living room since I moved in even though the messes are not really big at all.
One of the bigger changes for me, however, is cooking. I never cooked before because I absolutely hated it, it was a chore that I didn’t want to take part in – the preparing, the cooking, the cleaning up afterwards. Ugh. But since moving into my apartment, I actually enjoy cooking a lot more than I thought I would. I’m still trying to figure things out and looking up different recipes to try out (I’ll definitely have to check out some easy green bean recipes), but in general I enjoy cooking for myself. It’s also something that I have more control over now since I do live on my own and I’m solely responsible for the foods I buy and put into my body; I mean, I had control over that before because my mom couldn’t force me to eat something I didn’t want too but if someone else is buying the groceries and they refuse to buy more healthy foods what are you going to do? I try my best to buy healthy foods and I can only see it get better from here on out. I’m really excited with how things are going in this area of my life. 
out every pan we have due to it being old and rusting. She wanted me to look for one of those silicon rubber ones (like in the picture!), you know where you can just put in your batter, cook it in the oven and when it comes out, pop out the muffins or whatever it is that you have in the pan without having to worry about liners or nonstick cooking spray; the damn thing was $10! So I opted for a regular ol’ metal muffin pan for $4. I never really paid attention to the cost of a 
