When The Man and I were preparing to move in together almost five years ago, we set about discussing who would do what in the household.

Having been responsible for cleaning the bathroom at his parents’ home, he volunteered to keep doing that (SCORE!). On the other hand, I don’t mind doing the dusting because I can arrange things how I want. We agreed I’d take care of vacumming the upstairs floors while he’d mop downstairs and I’d wash the clothes while he’d do the sheets and towels.

Some things were based on skill/interest (I’m more interested in cooking so I plan the meals) and others based on logic (he takes care of the car since he’s the one who uses it every day).

Bigger and more frequent jobs such as shopping, cooking, dishes and finances have been shared responsibilities.

Overall it’s worked really well, but over the last year we’ve both had increased work commitments so our previously smooth process developed a few bumps. Mail would pile up and each of us would secretly hope the other one would deal with it. After a long day we’d forget to ask if the other one had paid that bill.

None of which is conducive to a properly functioning household (or marriage, for that matter).

So we sat down and had a chat one day recently and divvied up a few of the shared tasks. A word of caution: Do not attempt this when you have done the dishes for the twentieth night in a row and are resenting it.

Giving each person more individual responsibilities might seem like a strange thing to do to deal with being so busy. But in reality, it was a huge help and I noticed a difference in not just my actions but my outlook overnight. No matter how busy I am, I know that it’s now up to me to manage our receipts. On the flipside, I don’t have to worry about the cleanliness of the kitchen floor because it’s not my responsibility.

No more silent stand-offs or building resentment.

I definitely prefer having 100% responsibility over 50% of chores rather than 50% of responsibility for every chore. How about you? That’s not to say we don’t communicate with each other about the household (even if one person pays the bills we still regularly discuss finances) or that the system is not flexible (The Man will throw on a load of washing for me if I’m having a particularly hectic weekend).

The balance will vary between couples, of course, depending on your commitments and lifestyle, but I do think it’s helpful to have a clear set of expectations and responsibilities. Otherwise you risk falling into the trap of doing certain chores and end up getting stuck with that expectation and start getting resentful of your partner.

I know we don’t talk ‘relationship’ type stuff here very often, but I firmly believe that a well-oiled household routine is as much a part of a beautiful home as how you decorate it, so I thought it was worthwhile dipping our toes into these murky waters.

Now that I’ve shared how we handle chores chez Parsons, I’d love to know how things work (or perhaps don’t work!) at your place.

I’m going to be honest: I’ve been having a hard time keeping up with housekeeping.

Growing my business and writing this blog take up an insane amount of time. And of course I have a marriage and frienships to enjoy and maintain. After all that, there is only so much else I can squeeze in to what remains of my 24 hours each day.

So this week instead of getting worked up over the fact that the house was chaos and I didn’t have time to do everything, I just picked one thing – making the bed – and make sure I did it.

Sure, there were still clothes on the floor and you certainly didn’t need to do a white glove test to notice the dust everywhere, but with just that one change I feel more in control and on top of things. The added bonus is that you might even find you’re motivated to do another few quick jobs while you’re about it.

I picked making the bed as it takes up such a large amount of real estate in the room so it instantly makes the entire room feel neater. It doesn’t have to be the bed, though. You could try:

• Keeping the kitchen table clear
• Doing the dishes before you go to bed
• Keeping the bathroom clean (actually this is my ‘one thing’ when guests are coming)

What about you? Do you have a ‘one thing’ that you try to do every day if nothing else?

I’m always ready for a spring freshen up when the warmer weather arrives. But this year even more so since I’ve had such a busy winter and let’s just say I wouldn’t be passing the white cotton glove test.

With that in mind, my guest picks this month are all about spring cleaning.

Click to read the full post on Houzz.

We already have a pretty good small space ironing solution (a tabletop ironing board) but this ironing mat from Solutions takes it one step further.

We’re friends, right?

Good, because you’re getting a peek at something I doubt too  many people would be volunteering to share on the internet: their toiletries drawer.

Lately things have been so hectic with work and social commitments that I admit I’ve let things slip around the house and have not been following my rule of leaving things as you found them. My bathroom drawer is just one such example.

I was just shoving stuff in there until it got to the point where I couldn’t find anything and stuff was falling over the back of the drawer into The Man’s below. I know it’s only a little problem, but when it was causing frustration at least twice every day and would only take a few minutes to fix, I had no excuse.

Eek, right?

My method? I started by taking everything out of the drawer and wiping it out.

I laid everything out on the floor and grouped similar items. I discovered I had not one but FOUR wide plastic hair combs (which would be overkill for anyone but ridiculous for me since I rarely even use a comb). I also found two brand new boxes of hairties, the second one of which I bought not realising I already had one somewhere in the depths there. I kept the hairties because they wear out quickly but ditched all but one of the combs. Also in the bin went the bent bobby pins and the pink bobbly hairties (which I have no idea why I owned in the first place). The gross makeup-covered headband went into a bucket of bleach.

Believe it or not, these drawer dividers were actually in the before photo (scroll back up and see if you can find them, Where’s Wally style). I got them years ago and they’re really handy.

Ahhh, so much better. It literally only took five minutes but has made my morning and evening routine so much smoother. Bonus: I should save money but not buying duplicates of items I already own.

Remember those heinous tiles in the kitchen? They’re baaaack and rearing their stripy head in the laundry. Nothing that our trusty tile paint couldn’t handle though. Plenty of putty and white paint hid most other sins.

After:

Despite attacking it with white paint, I didn’t want it to look too stark, so I added a pop of colour behind the shelves. Unfortunately the laundry serves as the only thoroughfare between the inside and outside, so the splash of green also helps the areas flow together.

With no shed or garage, the laundry had to have adequate storage for gardening gear, paint, tools and hardware in addition to cleaning gear. We called in the professionals to install some overhead built-in cabinets, while hooks on the wall rescued the cleaning gear from the pile on the floor. I actually wasn’t intending to have any blue in here but every item of cleaning gear we bought ended up being blue so I figured I’d the universe was telling me to just go with it.

On the opposite wall, a set of rails keeps small and frequently used items handy. The lanterns and cutlery (of which you can see the green handles poking out of the white ceramic pots) we use when eating dinner in the courtyard. With everything out in the open, friends automatically know what to do if they want to help out by setting the table – handy if The Man and I are busy with the barbecue.

Since it’s not a room that we can simply close the door to hide everything, it’s nice to now have our laundry easy on the eye… all for a price that was easy on the wallet.

P.S. Remember the kitchen cabinet desk from my office makeover? Head over to Ikea Hacker today to see it, plus tons of similar projects.

Image source

There are a lot of people who think that anyone daring to put fake plants in their home deserves a visit from the Decorating Police and charged with Grievous Tackiness. I suspect that most people in that camp are only there because they are having flashbacks of the dust-covered, cheap artificial roses in their auntie’s house.

To avoid the same fate, skip the ineffective duster and the messy wet cloth and use a lint roller to dust your faux plants.