Thursday, October 4, 2012

Honey, Where's the Paper?


Chores. Each household has them and for us, they're hard to manage. It probably doesn't help that I've never been super neat and although I can organize, my husband's lack of organization can cause some strife.

Our weekly conversation goes like this...

Me: (calling Phil at work) "Hey, Honey, where is that paper that you moved?"
Phil: "Uhhh, I don't know. Is it on the coffee table?"
Me: "No."
Phil: "On the pie safe?"
Me: "No."
Phil: "On the kitchen table?"
Me: "No! It's not in any of the usual places. I've looked on the coffee table, the pie safe, the kitchen table, on the couch, in the bedroom, on the night stand, on the dresser, and on the ottoman. Where else could it be?
Phil: "I'm sorry, Dear, but I don't know."
Me: "We need a better system. This is getting ridiculous."

Clearly, we have a problem with papers. We have a filing cabinet, two shredders, and a small mail thing on the pie safe for important things that I will need soon.

But, it isn't just papers. It's dishes, laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, everything. We are always behind. I stay at home, but honestly, it's overwhelming. I do what I can, but I really have to be careful with my back and not make sure that I do too much, which can be really frustrating. Plus, I'm the only one who organizes. My husband will sit there and look at the same papers forever while trying to decide what to do with them.

When I look around and know I can't do it all myself, I start to get upset. Then I think to myself...

Wait a minute.
  1. My husband is a wonderful provider and he works hard so that I can stay at home.
  2. My house is cluttered, but certainly not dirty.
  3. We have a two bedroom apartment that we are renting for a really decent price.
  4. Maybe instead of hounding my husband who works hard all day to get more done, I should try and get more done in smaller spurts throughout the day to help.
It's not always his fault, but mine too. How quickly I am to blame my husband for something not being done because I'm frustrated in the moment.
 
Yes, we need to come up with a new system, but I need to also remember that I can help more too. 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

He works all day to provide for you and you are somehow unable to clean a 2 bedroom apartment (??!!) and you are hounding him to get things done? If you just did one SMALL task a day like vacuum one day, dust another, then the place would stay relatively clean.

Give the man a break, no one can do everything, but he is doing a lot by going to work every day so you can have a comfortable life so do your part.