8 Ways to Cure Homesickness When You’ve Just Moved to a New Place
After you’ve finished obsessing over where you’re going to put every last item from Anthropologie’s latest home catalog in your new apartment and successfully wowed your coworkers during your first day on the job, the excitement of moving will likely begin to fade. Trust us: You don’t have to be a college freshman cooped up in a dorm room to miss home. Without distractions, homesickness can become debilitating, so it’s critical to get ahead of it. Make the most of this new life — that at one point, you were invested in enough to pick up all your belongings and move across the state, country, or maybe even ocean for — with these eight tips that are almost as comforting as a hug from a friend.
1. Experience your new environment. All it takes is a few minutes of Google searching to realize how many untried restaurants, unexplored museums, and untapped trails are waiting to be discovered by you. There is likely at least one aspect of your new locale that made you excited to move there in the first place, whether that was a job, a significant other, or something about the city itself, so it’s fair to assume there are other things that will make you equally enthusiastic about this new destination all over again. Once you’ve identified them, go do them.
2. Make your house a home. Bare walls and a frameless bed are surefire ways to feel isolated. Think about what made your fondest homes of the past, like your childhood bedroom or your cozy college apartment, feel so loved and lived-in, and try to recreate that. Only this time, it’s you who gets to make all the interior decorating decisions. Score!
3. Break out your favorite keepsakes. Well, maybe it was the blanket your grandmother gave you when you were born that made your childhood room feel like home, or the flag of your now alma mater tacked onto the living room wall that made your college apartment feel like where you belonged. It’s totally acceptable to include those elements in your new place too. Having these reminders of happy memories will help ease you into your new environment.
4. Stay busy. Boredom will bring you down every time. Keeping a full calendar might require stepping out of your comfort zone (it’s not easy to strike up a conversation with a stranger in your yoga class), but in the end, it will help you in two important ways: It’ll distract you from your feelings of homesickness, and you’ll likely make a few new friends in the process. Consider volunteering, joining recreational sports leagues, or attending meet-ups for young adults in your area. You’re not the only one who just moved!
5. Shut off social media. Don’t panic — it’s just for a day or two. Obviously, social media is one of the most effective ways to stay connected to everyone at home, but it can also become all-consuming. In a new area where you might not know anyone, seeing your friends and family members from your old hometown enjoying themselves without you from afar can result in next-level FOMO. By vowing to stay off Snapchat or Instagram Stories, even if only on the weekends, you can save yourself some serious distress.
6. Welcome visitors. One way to avoid missing home is by simply bringing home to you. Make sure family and friends know you have a comfy couch that’s perfect for crashing. Plan these trips far in advance so you have a scheduled event to look forward to. Plus, a visitor in town will force you to figure out the fun things to do nearby, because even though you might be down to lounge around your apartment all weekend, they’re probably not.
7. Stick to your routine. Something that brings many people comfort is the regularity of their lives, i.e., their routine. Getting transplanted to another place might temporarily disrupt that routine, but identify the most-loved steps in your day-to-day that can be performed anywhere, and get back into that same rhythm. You can do your fave morning stretches and make sunny-side-up eggs every day for breakfast no matter what your address is. Just because you’ve moved doesn’t mean your life has to be totally different.
8. Be patient with yourself. Right now, when you’re missing home, it might seem like the good old days of busy weeknights and booked weekends are long gone. This won’t last forever, but there will be days when a good cry on the phone with mom is necessary, and that’s okay. After you’ve let it all out, remind yourself that you moved for a reason, and then be persistent in finding even more reasons to stay.
How do you beat the homesickness blues? Tell us on Twitter @BritandCo.
(Photo via Getty)
