Like Any Business, We've Had Growth in Our Organization

Submitted by Clayton...

Having just read Jenn's latest post, I feel I have something to add on the subject.

The truth is when we were first married, we did have different views on tidiness and probably surprisingly to my parents, I was the tidier one.  It was not that Jenn's intentions were not good, it was that she left a Hansel and Gretelish trail behind her wherever she went.  When she came home, she opened the door, took a step, dropped her keys, took another step, dropped her jacket (oh so close to the closet too), step, purse, step, mail, step, coffee, step, etc.  Strangely enough an hour later with a straight face she would ask me if I had seen any of these items.  This happened every day.

After a few discussions on the subject, I decided that I had no more right to a tidy house than she had to a messy house and the house began to look like a half-harvested corn field.  There was a clear cut line on what was done and what needed work.  (I would've used canola in this example, but the piles were corn-stalk high).

Jenn was someone who preferred to do a deep and through cleaning twice a year and I preferred to put the empty can in the garbage when it was empty.

The bedroom was actually quite funny and there was a reason the door was usually closed.  My side of the room was hotel clean and on the exact other side of the obvious but imaginary line, Jenn's side looked like an episode of Hoarders.  The line down the centre was as perfect and straight as crime scene tape.

That was the beginning of our marriage and we've grown together over the years so that the police would now be unsure of which side of the tape the crime occurred on.  The truth of the matter is we've met in the middle and we both have small reasonable mounds of clothes to dodge when we grope to hit the snooze button in the morning.

The rest of the house is tidy at 10 pm and messy at 10 am just like most other families with young children. Jenn has developed spots to keep all her things and although she still loses things at a similar rate as before, it's not for lack of tidiness or organization.  Her bills go on a shelf on the coffee cart, her camera stuff goes under the coffee table, her books go on her night stand and her keys go in the outside of the deadbolt.

Clayton