After four years of living with roommates (most of whom were super great) I decided that, for my last semester of college, I would live in a one bedroom apartment. Alone. By Myself. And I’m pumped about it.

After my three roommates from this past year moved out at the end of spring semester, I learned what it’s actually like to live alone. Spoiler alert: it’s awesome.

But throughout this summer, I’ve learned about a few rules that you should make for yourself when you live alone in order to keep yourself sane.

1. Don’t buy cable.

It’s expensive and unnecessary, and you’re talking to someone who lives for T.V. Cable packages are way more expensive than na account with both Netflix and Hulu Plus combined, and everything else can probably be found online somewhere. Trust me, you’ll be fine.

2. Don’t go to bed with dishes in the sink.

This is going to make your life 100 times easier. No matter how tired you are, you have to do your dishes before you go to bed. This way, they won’t pile up and you won’t spend an hour doing all of the dishes you left sitting there for longer than you’ll probably be willing to admit.

3. Set aside one day a week to clean your entire apartment.

Do your dishes every day and clean everything else at least once a week. I’m talking sweeping, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, dusting; the whole nine yards. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself if you keep your space clean. Turn on some music (my preference is Taylor Swift) and you’ll be done cleaning in no time.

4. Decorate your place however you want.

When you lived with roommates, chances are, you compromised on some decor (or maybe you just didn’t have much at all). Take this opportunity to decorate your apartment exactly how you want to. You won’t have roommates to make your space feel like home, so why not do so with some prime interior designing?

5. Be optimistic about it.

Maybe it wasn’t your first choice to live alone. But think of all the plus sides to it. No one else’s messes, no one waking you up early in the morning or keeping you up late at night, no one to bicker over the usual roommate stuff with, you can have whoever you want over whenever you want–you can literally do just about anything you want (you never even have to wear pants). Living alone really doesn’t have to be all that bad!