Housewives

My husband is a much better housewife than I am. He says he gets it from his mother, which I believe as she always has a clean, put together house regardless of how many houseguests she’s happened to have. It’s habit for him. But it’s also just how he likes his house to be. Clean. Put away. Organized.

I on the other hand, just don’t care as much. I mean yes I vacuum, dust, do laundry and dishes on a regular basis. All of the stuff that is necessary to keep my children happy, healthy and clothed. But until just a few months ago I had never once thought about cleaning the baseboards. And I can confidently say that I never would have completely emptied our garage just to sweep the leaves out. And I have always hated cleaning bathrooms. When living by myself, I’d do it, but now that he does it so easily (and frequently) it’s just not something that I think about anymore.

I don’t mind piles. I don’t mind having to dig through a laundry pile to find a particular shirt. I don’t mind having a few dishes piled up in the sink. My husband on the other hand, had been home for about 10 minutes before he was cleaning. Keep in mind that he had been gone for close to 5 months. And what does he do the moment he arrives? Clean. Put away. Organize.

It drives me crazy sometimes. I mean, yes, I’m grateful that he’s so on top of it. But there just seems to be better ways to spend our weekends. And every time he steam cleans the carpet I feel like I should be wearing a giant sandwich board that says “I’m a horrible housewife!”

It’s just really not that high of a priority for me. I like to have a clean house, don’t get me wrong. But there are plenty of things that I like more. Probably I should just put my sandwich board down and walk away. Simply be grateful that my husband likes to clean. Or I could purposefully make more piles for him to organize. But that would be mean wouldn’t it?