Imagine telling someone going to the laundromat was a celebration. But that's what it felt like after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the end of the state's 15-week lockdown on Monday afternoon.

It was the moment I and so many others had been waiting for. Finally, we had freedom to do what we wanted (while being COVID safe, of course).

The problem was I'd forgotten what it was like to be free.

For the past four months I have lived by lockdown rules and only left the house for one of four reasons: food, laundry, emergencies and study.

Part of me imagined running down the street when the lockdown eventually ended. High-fiving neighbours, stopping at cafes for a coffee and seeing streets filled with happiness and laughter.

In reality, I ended up at the laundromat because it had become my outlet since July.

So accustomed I've become to Melbourne's hard lockdown, I've forgotten what I did before I stayed at home.

Walking to Woolworths has become a treat; meeting the UberEats driver at my building's front door practically a date.

For an almost uninterrupted stretch since March we've been allowed to leave home for four reasons only: to exercise, shop, give care, and for work and study that can't happen from home. I've become a Couch-to-5k convert and a supermarket hobbyist.

From 11.59pm on Tuesday, home-bound Melburnians like me will again be able to eat at cafes and restaurants, have a friend over for a visit, and leave home for any reason.

Five million Melburnians have been under strict lockdown for at least 111 days - residents of 10 postcodes locked down early even longer than that. A long, lonely winter spent inside, and suddenly - the end announced, and the sun's shining.

Those four reasons lift at 11.59pm on Tuesday. I'm free to leave home for any reason, at any time. But I can't remember what I leave home for.

For four months, my entire life has existed in the space between my one-bedroom flat and the cafe-turned-grocer on the corner. Loading up my laundry bags feels like preparing for a weekend away.

Trending jubilantly on Twitter last night was the phrase 'get on the beers'. A question Mr Andrews was asked as Melbourne emerged from its first lockdown in May morphed into a months-long meme about our social stasis.

Then, the premier said Melburnians couldn't get on the beers; asked again yesterday, he replied he would go "a little higher up the shelf".

But threaded through tweets about seeing friends, visiting the pub, and cracking open a cold one, was the simple word, 'Kmart'.

Retail closed in early July. The prospect of popping into Kmart crackles with Christmas Eve-like anticipation.

We're beside ourselves at the thought of seeing our friends and families again, of celebrating the collective public effort that saw new daily case numbers drop from 700 to zero.

But, we're also excited at the thought of life getting back to normal.