Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we endorse marriage.  But through “research”, we’ve discovered that there are sometimes unrealistic expectations placed on various aspects of the marriage relationship.   (With that intro, you could probably fill a blog for years with content.)

One thing I want to address here today is the appearance of the interior of your house.   Both sides would agree that it should be kept fairly clean, even if no one wants to do the chores.  Things like dusting, vacuuming, and straightening up / removing clutter have to be done from time to time.  However, the needed frequency of such things is likely to be disputed.  So to help aid in that debate, I will present this bit of information to help clarify things:

It’s okay if your house looks like someone actually lives there.

Just that phrase, when applied properly, can help a lot.  It’s simply unreasonable to have your house always look like it’s a show home for a magazine.

But the application doesn’t stop there.  When you visit someone’s house, this concept also applies.  So if you go to someone’s house, and they have mail on the coffee table or dining table, and/or there’s kids toys in the floor, don’t judge them — it just means people live there, and that kind of thing is part of living.   Just because someone’s house doesn’t look like a magazine photo, it doesn’t mean they’re a slob or they don’t care.  Life’s too short to spend most of the time cleaning unnecessarily.

So there’s your free relationship advice.  It didn’t even cost you a trip to the Important Psychiatrist or a marriage counselor.  It’s free (and hopefully it’s worth more than what you paid).  But let’s be clear that you are liable for the response you get when presenting this info to your spouse.  🙂