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Saturday, July 24, 2010

A Clean Sweep: An argument in two or more parts

Disclaimer: I love my husband, Brian. I also do what I can do not to be a nag. That said, let's discuss the cleaning arrangement around here. I thought you'd all like this argument since many of you seem to enjoy listening to us argue every Thursday.

Shared Duties

Brian does some things around the house and I do other things. He really gets into vacuuming and doing the dishes. He also prefers to do his own laundry and he takes care of our Florida room because he has pretty much taken that room over for his Hot Wheels.

Since I'm a teacher and I get a summer vacation, I don't ask him to do as much around the house since I'm home and he works all day. During the school year, however, I expect him to pick up the slack. I think this is fair. There are some exceptions to this and he needs to clean more. Today was one of those days.

Guests

The house was not in too bad of a state but we had friends coming over for dinner so some things needed to be done in a short amount of time. I was cleaning the kitchen (which entailed washing and drying dishes, mopping and sweeping the floor, cleaning the table off, and a few other tasks) and he was cleaning the living room. Cleaning the living room meant vacuuming, putting remote controls away, and throwing away a pop can or two. A dog, not sure which one, also took the liberty of vomiting on the floor so Brian also cleaned that. Despite the throw up, I think I had more to do. I was slightly annoyed to find blankets on the chair and some other things that needed to either be thrown away or put some place else. His response?

"It doesn't bother me."

And it doesn't bother me either if we were just cleaning for ourselves. Today, though, we're cleaning because we're having company and I'm sure they don't want to move our stuff around. Am I being unreasonable to ask that a room be cleaned entirely? Is it that hard? Considering that I'm the only one who scrubs our TOILETS on a weekly basis, I think he can manage to stick some blankets in the closet. I also want to point out that he frequently does half-jobs when he cleans. Examples: He dries the dishes but doesn't dry small utensils like measuring cups. You're drying the dishes anyway, just dry everything! He will also vacuum but he skips the steps. Do those not have fur and dirt on them as well?

I've made my case

Your turn, Brian. Defend your lazy cleaning ways!

1 comment:

Brian on the Defense said...

Meh.

Funny thing about the blanket case, however, is that when the friends came over that night and were sitting downstairs, they WANTED the blankets. So frankly, leaving them out would have been better. I think having common needs out for people to use if perfectly fine, like blankets, pillows, etc. I want people to be comfortable and "feel at home" when they visit.

What's embarrassing about a blanket?

Shy of that, though, I don't have any defense for lazy cleaning. I'm lazy.

When people are coming over, things need only be in reasonable order. Trash thrown away and nothing impeding normal walking paths, and that's how I "clean". A random this or that laying out on a table or desk is fine. I don't strive for spick-n-span.

And when I say "it doesn't bother me," it's more or less saying, "it doesn't bother me so why would it bother them?" It's not like we're having the pope over or anything - these are people we know. When I go over to others' houses and if I see a blanket out or magazine laying about, it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is staright up filth, not clutter. And our house is not filthy, it rarely is.

We should just accept that I'm a poor cleaner and you're a poor organizer, yet I organize well and you clean well. So together we're a good team.

And before I forget, lets not forget who poop scoops and mows the lawn too. And you've seen Roxi's piles, so you know that's like 30 pounds of crap. So add all that to the list of "stuff he does" too :)