5 days into Week One of doing Mike's chores and I have mowed and edged the front lawn , mowed and edged the backyard, touched up the front yard again, picked up poo, cleaned up the patio, vacuumed couches twice, and floors once. Not easy but I don't have to mow or edge the lawns again until next Monday. I walk around the front and backyard daily looking for weeds. I plan to pull them as soon as they peek their little heads out. We'll see. It will be me against the weeds. I hate weeding and in this hot and humid South Florida climate, the thought of being outside pulling weeds is not at all appealing and I plan to avoid it by preemptive strike. Same with the dog poo. I pick up poo daily, and before the rain, because, well, it's just easier that way.
How is Mike doing?
I cannot speak for him but just from my own observation, I would say that Mike is managing pretty well. He squeezes in an hour of housework here and an hour there. Here he is mopping late on Sunday night.
What I do in 6-8 hours a week, usually in two days, he is spreading over the course of many days. For me, the house never feels ALL clean, it just feels part clean which means something always needs to be cleaned. It's not my preferred way to tackle the indoor stuff but I have decided to make like Elsa from Frozen and just let it go. Mike is well known for his competitive nature and it is coming in handy for this experiment, even though it's not a competition. He doesn't want to appear to be flailing or "losing", so, he is going to make it work but I can also see that he just doesn't have the time to do a thorough job on a regular basis. I can see him struggling and racing to fit it all in with his job and his free time. Here is a load of towels that he rushed to wash and put in the dryer before he left for a 4 day work trip. He just didn't have time to fold them and put them away. Of course, I had to do my own laundry, and so, I had a choice...leave it in a pile for him to do when he got back or do it myself. I just did it. It was the right thing to do and under normal "non-experimental" circumstances, I would just do it. AND I couldn't stand looking at a pile of towels for 4 days. I have issues.
This is why we originally divided up the chores as we did. Being a stay-at-home mom, I have 10 or 15 minutes here and there to quickly fold some laundry and put it away. He travels out of town for days on end and is out of the house for sometimes 10 hours a day. So, taking care of the yard once a week seems manageable and quickly picking up some dog poo or vacuuming a couch seemed more manageable then all of the rest of the tedium. So, while he would never say he can't wait to trade back, I can't help but think he wouldn't mind.
I know that I am enjoying the break but will be happy to swap back. As difficult as it is to deal with tedium of indoor housework, and as satisfying as it is to work hard outdoors, I prefer indoor housework. I miss the routine and the order and the air conditioning...ALREADY. I really miss the air conditioning. However, I am enjoying my newfound free time. Yardwork is hard but I only have to do the hardest part once a week. It's a break and breaks are good.
Unintended Consequences and Early Discoveries:
1. Mike said to me, "Taking care of this house would be so much easier if everyone did their assigned chores. My chores wouldn't take so much time." Exactly!!! I've been trying to say this for years. It was one of those lightbulb moments for both of us. I was so happy to hear those words and can only hope that he remembers them when we swap back.
2. I am also starting to think that maybe we need to rearrange the chores or alternate on a permanent basis because I think we are appreciating the time away from our normal chores. It's good to shake it up. for everybody.
3. One of our dogs, Holly, who I will probably dedicate an entire post to someday, sheds...A LOT. There are four people in our family and 3 of us are assigned a day to Swiffer and Mike, right now, is vacuuming/swiffering twice a week (or is supposed to be). This picture shows you how much dog hair we are dealing with 5 times a week. And this is just one living room and dining room, not even the whole house. What are we going to do with her? Part of having a dog is taking care of the dog and taking care of the doggy mess that she creates. My youngest decided this week that Holly needs to be "shaved bald like a poodle" because "this is just too much hair to clean up all of the time". But clean it up we will and, no, we will not be shaving her like a poodle. We just love her too much and, if she could, I truly believe she would do it for us. She would do anything for us, so, we clean up after her until death do us part.
4. One of my favorite things about experimenting through life are often times the positive unintended consequences. This experiment is for my husband and myself but it has had an effect on our kids. As is often the case, yesterday, I had rushed to make dinner before the girls' volleyball practice and didn't have enough time to clean up the dishes. I just figured I would throw the dishes in the sink and clean them up when I got home, as usual. I was upstairs getting myself ready to leave and I could hear water running and what sounded like dishes clinking. It sounded just like someone was doing the dishes. I couldn't believe my ears. I walked down the stairs ever so slowly as to not ruin the moment. And sure enough, these little angels were doing the dishes...without being asked. They are expected to put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher and help clean after dinner but rarely do they do so without some grumbling and almost never do they do so without being asked or reminded. When they saw my face, they knew what a special moment this was and how proud I was. The oldest said, "well, I went to put my dinner dishes in the dishwasher but it was full of clean dishes, and so, I just figured that we should empty it and then why not just do all the rest." Why not. It gave me a glimmer of hope that they are learning something from this little experiment, too.
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