13 Unexpected Hardships You’ll Face When Moving Out Of Your Lebanese Family Home

Lebanon is relatively new to the concept of its children moving out and having lives that are independent from their parents’, but more and more people are making the move and taking control over their own lives. With the move, though, comes many realisations that one wouldn’t expect…

1. Getting Rid Of Trash Is Hard

Thoughts include but are not limited to, “What am I supposed to do? Just leave the trash bags outside my apartment? Take it down and look for a trash disposal? Do I even have a natour? Why didn’t I think of this?!”

2. Finding The Water Service For You

Did you think you would just pay for municipality water? LOL. Research some water providers, ask your neighbours, and pray to God you will get water when you open your taps, and not murky sad liquid.

3. Finding The Electricity Service For You

What does it even mean to “t3al2e khat?” What is the correct way to ensure you won’t suffer in darkness in the middle of the day without paying a small fortune every month?

4. Trying To Be Healthy

You buy healthy wholesome greens and bananas because what’s been holding you back from reaching your healthy lifestyle potential is your parents’ cooking, not that you are a trash person. But lo and behold, eating one apple and leaving the rest in the fridge for a month doesn’t fix your life. Nothing will.

5. Cleaning

What are the necessities and what is just overboard? Do you need more than one soapy product for your floor, dish washing, and laundry? Why? How do you learn about this stuff without the expensive and soul crushing process of trial and error?

6. Going Out

When you need to cook, clean, take care of actual things in life like work and university, and you can drink for much cheaper, why would you ever go out?

7. Figuring Out Gas

Okay so, you have a gas canister already installed, and one day, it just runs out. How do you go about changing it? Where do you even buy canisters from? Should you just get takeout from now on? Probably.

8. Losing Things

If you lose something there’s no one to blame but yourself. Months after moving, your mind will still try to convince you that you lost your favourite shoes while moving, not because you’re a messy bitch.

9. Toilet Paper

The trouble with toilet paper is two fold (haha): for one, you have to actually buy it and it doesn’t just appear in your bathroom anymore. You are guaranteed to always forget to get toilet paper when you go shopping. On another hand, if you’re in the toilet and didn’t realise that you had run out of toilet paper, you’re kinda fucked. No one’s going to help you out, deal with it.

10. Medicine Cabinets Aren’t Magical

As much as you want to believe that you are an indestructible human who never needs medicine, you have a medicine cabinet with one pack of Panadol. But, when you need any kind of anti-biotic, cough syrup, or bandaid, you’ll realise that your medicine cabinet doesn’t have some kind of magical Narnia-like power connecting it to a pharmacy. Prepare for the worst.

11. Clothes Stay In Their Place

Fun fact: no one’s going to pick up the clothes you throw on the floor. They just keep on piling up!

12. No Excuses

You can no longer claim that your parents are making you visit a family member or that they won’t let you go out. Prepare a few new excuses or be doomed to a lifetime of horrible plans you can’t get out of.

13. Death Is Highly Likely

You could choke, get poisoned, get a FLU!! No one is there to take care of you, you can easily die. Have a nice time at your new place though and enjoy your independence!