What To Do When Your Spouse Wants To Tidy Anything.

First of all, be happy...

It is not really the everyday cleaning routine I mean, but the extra ordinary procedures. I can only describe them as being a heavy stone in my backpack of " Should-be-done-stuff ". Yet not so heavy that I need to take them out !

When I first met Bob, he showed signs of being a neat freak. Hurray, it was like winning the dating-lotto. Even my Mum, who then lived on the other side of the world, rejoiced. She straight away pictured a pristine and tidy household...which she sort of accepted would never happen with me alone !

In the beginning, whenever Bob used to come over, he would try to neaten things up. Looking back now, I understand that those moments of tidiness were in a way courting rituals ( you know those things you never see again after you become a couple ). Who hasn't made themselves appear more of something, in those first giddy dating days ?

Luckily for me, every now and then, Bob gets a bee in his bonnet and wants to tidy something major. From experience I have learned to leave him to those flashes of brilliance. Interfering would only get responses of : " If you thing you can do it better, maybe you should do ..."

When we came here from South Africa, we basically only brought our clothes and books. Everything else we gave away. Reading is a passion for us both and that saw us send a gazillion boxes of books over. In fact the poor postman needed to be given a huge tip, for carrying them. Interestingly enough, the cost of sending one box filled with 10 kg of books, cost only the price of 1,5 books.

When we finally got to move into our house, we just unpacked one box after the other and put books as they emerged from the boxes on the next available shelf. For a " hidden " neat freak, it must have been rather torturous. Bob would have liked to put books in sequence and possibly alphabetically too. But for me, being a Gemini, I just was happy to unpack and shelve where ever there was space.

It snowed all day Monday and thus Monday was the day, Bob finally had had enough and decided to sort out all our books. With clever foresight, I took up station on the couch. A good perch to watch the proceedings. I must admit, just watching Bob do his thing sort of tired me out...enough to fall asleep and thus not be tempted to interfere !

Well now, we have the books lined up by author. Bob " sternly " insisted that from now on, I must put the book back in its right place. I think that by now, he is well aware that I am not to be trusted with keeping things neatly in order. Life would be boring if we did everything our spouses wanted...? !

Biggi

A man on a mission...

Nice spot to watch the action !