[theqoo] TIPS FOR WOMEN LIVING ALONE

t/n: the post is a series of tweets, we will only translate the content + post pictures

Speaking of which, if you're being exposed as a woman living alone, you can easily become a target of crime, so I'm going to write down a few things. 

The reason I've been posting a lot is for people who have started living alone since last year or since yesterday can refer to this. 

1. Get a message board in front of your door saying "A child is sleeping" (t/n: I think OP refers to people living alone in apartments/condos more than houses)

2. For deliveries, write your dad's name instead of your own name. It's better to have a name that sounds strongly masculine including "Sik, Cheol, Gu' 

I recommend : Jung Woosung, Kwon Jiyong, not Daniel Henney 

3. If you're ordering at Chinese restaurants or chicken restaurants, use your own phone number once and the next time, use your friend's phone number. It's better to have two or three numbers per address on the list of deliveries at restaurants. I think I have a dozen of numbers per restaurant

4. It's a well-known method, but having men shoes in the entrance shoe closet. It's also good to have babies shoes

5. It is better to register your mail boxes as direct deposits or e-mail as much as possible so that there are no physical mail in your mailbox. 

6. It's good to not be overly friendly with your neighbors. People can easily slip when they're talking to other people about 'that woman living alone in # room'. And the rumors of you living alone will easily spread

7. If you're moving a lot, don't use pink or red luggage. We can quickly tell whether you're a man or a woman by the looks of your luggage. 

Ah and for beds, same thing goes, don't get a single red bed from Ikea, we can tell you're a woman right away

8. It's easier to use light absorbing curtains for your windows so that people from outside won't be able to tell the silhouette of your body even when the lights are on. 

They won't even be able to tell who is living inside

9. When you're going out on days where you want to wear high heels or those shoes that makes a lot of 'clicking' sounds, in the case of apartments with long hallways: 

Try heels that make as little noise as possible. There are crazy f*ckers out there who may live close by and get alarmed by the clicking sound of heels. You can never expect who may be living close to you 

10. Make friends who are able to visit you often. The more often your friends visit, the less people will be suspecting of you living alone. 

Even for independent women, please take notes~

11. On the night you move in, gather all your friends together. 

In windows where you can clearly see who is inside, make sure that your friends are also seen, no matter how far away. 

You should also validate how well others can see inside your house. 

For instance, how well the building across from your house can see inside your windows. 

If you don't have light absorbing curtains, validate how well you can tell someone's silhouette inside your house

We're living in a world where everyone has binoculars

If at night, you open your lights and you're able to see your clothes' colors when you're in the building in front, 

It's better not to leave all the curtains open even during the day. 

12. Invite your brothers, dad, friend or lover for a day. You can make them fix your computer outside your house or have your windows opened the whole day. 

We don't know how many eyes have already seen us. 

At one point, I had a foreigner guy stay with me the whole day and later, people around me thought that I was married to a foreigner

13. When you're purchasing a house, 

don't tell them that you're going to live alone, but that you will be living with your unnie or that you're living there as newly weds. 

Get close to the neighborhoods' ajummas and get to know every ajummas in the neighborhood by connection 

14. When speaking to the landlord, or when talking to someone when purchasing a house, and you find out that you need construction work because your house ran into some issues, don't even use "I" instead use "We" 

Say things like "I'll consult with OUR household first and I'll contact you later"

"WE're quite busy right now, so I'll visit the house by myself for now"

When you're purchasing new furniture for your house: 

"WE need to adjust our schedules, WE'll let you know later"

You will not give the impression you're living alone

15. This is a tip I've learned from my friends recently 

They've tied their nephew's old stroller in front of their house's stairs. I think this is an awesome tip 

16. This is a must for all women living alone. Slilocks (sliding locks for windows). 

When you're living your windows slightly opened, especially when you're living in floors that are close to ground floor, when you're sleeping with the door opened in the summer, you can open the door/windows slightly and put the slilock to lock it in place so that you cannot open the window from the outside

17. Women who order sanitary pads with shipping, it comes with the name of the brands like "White" and "Good Feeling" written on it right? When you throw them away, don't throw them in the same box, rather, use it and write "clay bowl" or "glass bowl" on the box when throwing it. 

18. Get a rechargeable electric drill and screwdriver

This is useful when nailing things to the wall or assembling furniture.

It's also useful for doing minor touches on furniture.

There are lots of good products that come with a drill and screwdriver functions all in ne

This one is the Bosch GSB 18-2-LI 

Having this was life changing for me

Get a cordless drill 

Hammer

Plier

Nipper

and Monkey spanner (12 inches)

You can get them for a good price at the super market

If you have leakage in your toilet bowl or from the sink or cabinets, you can find tutorials to fix it on Youtube. You should be able to fix those yourself

If there are men in your house, you should get them to fix all those minor breakdowns right away. 

If you ask someone outside to fix small things like that, you can easily expose yourself for living alone. 

Nowadays, you can easily drill holes in your walls using rechargeable drills, and they're good products. 

If you want to hang a shelf on your wall, you can easily do it even if you're living alone. 

If you have a copper drill or a screwdriver, you can also easily mount shelves. Buy premade furniture and assemble them yourself. 

This was a tweet from 2018. 

If I can add another one

This is what every woman who lives alone should purchase. They're the woman safety home set and you can also get it for free. 

original post: here

1. The sad reality in which we have to put so much thoughts into living alone..ㅠ

2. Sigh to the point even the local government is sponsoring theseㅠㅠ Damn 

3. I've had a few times in the past where the delivery guy was trying to become too friendly with me, He keeps asking me what my name in Hangul was and when I didn't tell him, he went to open inside my mail box to check. One day, he called me by my name in the streets, I got goosebumps 

4. That's a lot

5. What a risky life to live alone as a woman in Korea f*ck 

6. I feel like this was posted somewhere in communities before... But there's no one who lives while taking all those precautions. 

Most of the sexual offenders are people you know. 80% of them. Men you know are the scariest. It's not those creepy men chasing you in hallways or the postal guy who is going through your trash, rather, it'll be an ex-boyfriend, a school sunbae, a man you met while gaming, etc. Those are the people who have the biggest propensity to commit crimes. 

7. Don't put your strollers outdoors, it's illegal~~~

8. It's my 15th year living alone... I'm more shocked that so many people are living so carefully 

9. Sigh, to all the readers living alone, it's so annoying that I even have to say it, but let's live carefullyㅠ

10. It's especially inconvenient for you to subscribe to any delivery service when you have to use someone else's nameㅜㅜ

And it also makes it impossible to leave an order note at your doorㅜㅜ

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