Do Husbands Share the Duty of Tidying?

The kitchen desk area

The household has always been my responsibility since I got married. But now that my husband is retired, I feel he should share in the work to maintain the household. We share in a variety of the household chores. Like doing dishes. I feel that if I am doing all of the work to prepare the meal, then it is my husband's responsibility to do the dishes.

Well, I have been able to keep MY items tidy and organized, but my husband has been a creature of bad habits as organization of his things is concerned. Since his retirement, he has started a business operated from home. His work space has been an eyesore. I had given him the "office" in the kitchen, thinking all he needed was a desk, computer, and a filing cabinet.

Little did I know that he would decide to make phone calls from the dining room and take over the dining table with piles of papers on a continuous basis. So, thinking I was making him happy, I delegated the dining room as his office, moving a full sized desk in there and creating a separation of space with 8 ft tall bookshelves. Yet again, he chose to spread out further and again chose the dining room table for storage and piles of paper.

So I decided to give in and give him a full sized (seats eight) dining room table for him to use, rearranging the furniture, yet again to accommodate his need to spread out.

This is a dining table that I think still looks best under the chandelier facing the pool.

And, again, he filled the space and started encroaching into the living area. So after extolling the virtues of organization and then training him through the clothing category, I was able to talk him into starting in on his work spaces. Because, by now he was taking over the kitchen and living room. Yikes!

So, we took all of his paper from both areas and from inside the drawers and filing cabinet and laid them out for him to see the mountain of paper.

My husband was surprised to see all of the paper he had accumulated.

After touching each piece of paper, making the decision on whether that piece was necessary, discarding, then sorting, we were able to start the organization of the "keep" piles.

The file drawer, once overflowing, was only half full. There was only a check book and keys in the kitchen drawer, leaving another drawer completely empty. The supplies were tucked neatly in desk top drawers. Most of the boxes of paper (brochures) were not necessary, keeping a portable file folder in the car with handy brochures and the rest on a book shelf. There was so much room that we were able to set the printer on the desk for convenience. We also found 12 pairs of his reading glasses in the process, about 15 note pads, 4 boxes of paper clips, and important documents that he didn't even know where they were, before this.

A Tidy Work Area

And now my living room and kitchen are livable again.

No more boxes in my living room.

My kitchen desk is no longer an eyesore

So, that's how I spent my Saturday with my husband (and Friday and Thursday).