Whether you moved away for college or are finally renting your own place now that you have a paying job, the time comes when you need to say goodbye to your good old single bed and step out into the big, bad world.

Here are a few things you'll only realise when you're living out of home…

1. Laundry doesn't do itself
And, even worse, it's VERY time-consuming. All that washing, drying and ironing, only to wear your clothes and get them dirty again. It's a vicious circle!

2. Food is VERY expensive
Since when did chicken breasts start costing approximately 1 million euro apiece?! Your mum might have turned her nose up at the Tesco Value products but they'll do just fine for you, thank you very much

3. Not only that, food goes off way too fast
You had such good intentions for that bag of lettuce and those bananas. But now they're all slimy and stinky. How did your parents keep your fridge constantly stocked with fresh food?! It's a mystery.

4. Bathrooms get dirty very quickly
Oh… so the toilet doesn't stay clean forever. And what's all this grotty stuff on the shower doors? Can I move home now please?

5. A cosy house = heating = bills
Your new place never has that warm and inviting feeling when you walk in, because you're terrified of leaving the heating on for too long. Sure it's grand, you can just throw on a jumper… over your jumper.

6. Your mum is a kitchen hero
Cooking for six people with different tastes… every night? Without retreating to the sitting room and crying? You can barely manage to feed yourself, let alone the entire house.

7. Housemates can be HARD WORK
Either they never, ever wash their own dishes, or they love having people over at 3am on a Tuesday. There's always something that'll grind your gears. And as they're not your little brother or sister, you can't start shouting at them. Boo.

8. Nothing beats a cheeky weekend trip back home
All the food. All!