Tips for Moving Back to Hometown: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward

Moving back to your hometown can be exactly how you picture it in your head, or something entirely different and even a bit surreal. Either way, choosing to go back to the place where you grew up will be an adventure that has the potential to change your life forever.

One thing is certain – returning to your hometown after years or even decades of absence will most likely be a potent cocktail of mixed emotions and definitely a nostalgic walk down memory lane.  

Interestingly, while you’ll notice that some things have definitely changed in your hometown since you moved away, you’re likely to also get this peculiar feeling that much has stayed exactly the way you remember it.

These tips for moving back to hometown should help you cope with the initial shock, if any, and ease the transition to a life that you once knew but chose to forget.

But first, let’s say a few words about the pros and cons of moving to hometown. After all, the last thing you’d want is to find out that the whole idea to move back to your hometown was a mistake and soon after the move, you’d come to regret your decision to move there.

Pros and cons of moving back to hometown

Have you already made up your mind to move back to the town or city you grew up in? Or have you been toying with the relocation idea, unsure whether or not you should actually take that decisive step to move back to your roots?

Either way, check out the major advantages and disadvantages of moving back to your hometown so that you get mentally ready for the familiar yet somewhat strange sights, sounds, and smells of your past.

Pros of moving back to your hometown

Moving back to your hometown can easily prove to be one of the best decisions you’ve made in a long time. Why? Simply because the choice to move back to where it all started has a number of benefits that are difficult to dispute:

• You may be able to save money. That’s true especially when you’re moving back in with your parents temporarily or indefinitely. In fact, financial difficulties are a major reason for adult children to move back to their parents’ house where they’ll be able to actually save up and hopefully overcome their financial problems.
• You may find yourself a better job. While it may not always be the case, going back to where you know plenty of folks may help you find a good job through friendly recommendations. Asking a close childhood friend to pull some strings for you should not be ruled out either.
• You will fulfill a moral obligation or keep a promise. Going back to your hometown to be with your parents or siblings may be a way to come full circle and fulfill a personal obligation or keep a promise to be with your loved ones when they do need you to be there.
• You will get plenty of emotional support. Moving back to a place where you have family members and plenty of good friends will give you the moral support you may desperately need to get through a rough patch. For example, you may be struggling to get back on your feet after a painful divorce or break-up, or after a heavy financial blow.
• You will reconnect with childhood friends. Moving back to your hometown, regardless of whether it’s a big city or a small town, will give you the unique chance to reconnect with old friends with whom you’ve lost contact over the years. And as you know, reminiscing about old times never gets old.
• You will get precious time to rediscover what’s important. Going back to where things used to make sense can help you gift yourself more time to reassess your life and figure out your priorities. It should all feel like taking a tactical timeout in a fierce race with life.
• You may start to see things differently. Moving back to hometown after years and years is likely to help you see the ways in which you yourself have changed, thus potentially altering your perspective on the world around you.

Cons of moving back to your hometown

Having to move back to your hometown can also have its share of disadvantages depending on your situation and the major reason for going back to that city or town.

• You realize things have not changed much after all. You’re hoping to find radical changes in the place you left years ago but when you actually move there, you get reminded that some things never change for the better.
• You bump into the same people, over and over. Funnily enough, all of a sudden you start bumping into the people you tried to get away from – the same old faces you’d be glad to not have to see again. The obnoxious high school bullies could still be hanging around there too.
• You feel it’s a step back. Once the move brings the past back into the present, you may be in for a disappointing clash with reality. One of the worst feelings when moving back to your hometown is the sinking sensation that you’ve made a big step back in your life.
• You fall back into your comfort zone. It was the brave decision to step out of your comfort zone that made you leave your hometown in the first place. Now, with things being roughly the same as before, you may not feel challenged in any way to continue your personal growth.
• You may feel limited in many ways. Depending on where you move to (a big, big city or a small, small town), you could feel rather limited after the move, not sure what to do or how to do it. The awful feeling of being trapped is enough to make you pack up your things once more.
• You may get advice you never asked for. Moving back to your hometown can actually mean moving back in with your parents. And should that be the case, then you’re likely to get many pieces of advice that you never asked for. You may even get lectured on life, who knows.

Your Guide to Moving Back In With Your Parents

Tips for moving back to your hometown

Now that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of moving back to your hometown, you should be able to make an informed decision about what’s best for you at the moment. And if you’ve already made up your mind to proceed with the move, then you should definitely use some good advice along the way.

Pay attention to these tips for moving back to hometown and you should be alright in the end:

Double-check your decision to move back to your hometown

First and foremost, make sure you’re moving back to your hometown for the right reasons.

You may be moving back to your hometown to be closer to family – parents and siblings.

You may be moving back to your hometown after retirement – to enjoy your Golden Years in a place full of good memories and old friends.

You may be moving back to your hometown after college in order to look for new opportunities in a setting that’s familiar and where you feel comfortable enough to be happy.

Whatever the major reason for going back is, double-check it, then triple-check it before you do it. While nobody knows exactly how things will pan out in the future, it’s important that you don’t end up regretting your decision shortly after the move.

10 Signs It’s Time to Move to a New City

Reconnect with family and old friends

Even before the move takes place, it’s a good idea to get in touch with old friends, (extended) family members, and acquaintances who happen to live in your hometown. Besides restoring old friendships that may prove to be very useful to you, reconnecting with your buddies will help you re-adjust to the place you once knew so well.

The easiest way to find your good old pals – if they are still there, of course – is to use the power of social media networking. For this particular task, Facebook is known to be the best outreach tool you can use.   

Keep your mind open to new friendships

The thing is that your hometown may feel kind of the same to you, but you’ve certainly changed during the time you were not there. And while it’s essential to reconnect with your friends from the past, you just have to be open to new friendships as well.  

One effortless way to form new friendships after the move is to meet your friends’ friends and make them your friends too. Easy, right?

Another good way to find new friends is to be more sociable and accessible at work in the hope of getting to know your co-workers better and bonding with some of them as time goes by.

If you feel stuck, then maybe a mobile app such as Meetup can help you meet new people in your hometown.

20 Brilliant Ways to Make Friends When You Move to a New City

Be mentally ready for the change, or its lack thereof

Don’t neglect the mental aspect of moving back to your hometown.

Sure, you’ll have to tackle the logistical side of the house move first – finding good movers, packing up your things, taking care of all the pre-move details, etc. However, you just have to make sure you’re mentally ready for the emotional rollercoaster you’re likely to ride when you get there.

It can be hard to predict how the whole Expectations vs. Reality thing will affect you. If you expect things to be the same way they were when you left the place, then you may be shocked by all the radical changes during your absence. On the other hand, you may get genuinely disappointed by the fact that absolutely nothing has changed in all those years.

Rediscover the charms of the “new” old hometown

Once you’re back in your hometown, you’ll be presented with a great opportunity to explore the town and city you used to call home and see all the ways in which it has changed while you were away.

The fun part is that you can turn those exploration trips into a game of comparing what you remember with what you see right now. As long as you’re ready for a few unexpected (culture) shocks along the way (often the case), you can easily have fun trying to bring out those memories of the past and matching them with the reality of the present.

As a rule of thumb, the longer you’ve been away from your hometown, the greater the shocks can be for you. And yet, discovering the charms of that place once again can be pretty satisfying.

8 Compelling Ways to Explore Your New City

Stay alert for signs of relocation depression

Going back to your hometown may prove to be more challenging than you think. You may think you’re doing just fine… until you start to exhibit the typical symptoms of relocation depression such as excessive sleep, uncharacteristic tiredness, lack of desire to socialize or willingness to leave the house, and clear apathy towards most things around you.

It’s quite possible that you don’t fully understand the exact reason for feeling depressed after moving to your hometown – it could be that you’re missing the friends you’ve left behind or you may be feeling trapped by going back to where it all began for you.

Either way, the important thing is that you have to do all in your power to cope with relocation depression before it’s too late. Follow the link below to learn how to do it.

How to Cope with Relocation Depression

Give yourself more time to adjust

Is moving back to your hometown a good idea? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, you shouldn’t forget to give yourself more time to adjust to life in your hometown which, in the majority of cases, will be rather different from the life you had prior to the move.

The post-move adaptation period can last anywhere from a few days to a few months, or even more, and will depend on how quickly you adapt to new environments and the time you plan to spend in your hometown. Needless to say, if you intend to stay indefinitely there, you may have to go through a much longer adaptation spell.  

How to Adapt to a New Environment When Moving

How to move back to your hometown

One judgment error you could potentially make is to assume that since you’re moving back to your hometown, the house-moving process will be much easier and somehow less stressful. Bear in mind that such an assumption can be too detrimental to the success of your upcoming move.

Ideally, you will treat the move back to your hometown just like any other house move you’ve completed in your life: with plenty of planning and careful analysis of each relocation step.

Luckily, one thing hasn’t changed much since the last time you moved – the way you approach the important task of finding reputable movers to help you reach your desired destination.

Use our Moving Cost Calculator to start the hunt for top-rated movers near you. The moving companies that get back to you will all be properly licensed and adequately insured so that you can have the peace of mind that your move back to your hometown will be in good hands.

How to Choose a Moving Company in 31.5 Steps