Married to Mr. Clean

Ages ago, when I was in hot pursuit of Mr. Right, I read a magazine article that suggested to envision “the one” and list down specific details about his looks. Write down every thing you want him to be, from the color of his hair to his shoe size. Being the hopeless romantic that I was then, that really got me all giddy! I grabbed my pen and pictured Mr. Right on a piece of paper. Of course I had an exhaustible list. We’re talking about Mr. Right here! I inserted the list somewhere and completely forgot about it.

A few years after that, I found my list again. By this time I was already married to Peewee, my husband. I showed him the list and he thought it was cute. I threw the paper out after that. I was trying to recall what I had written there to be included in this blog post, only three items came to mind:

Preferably wearing glasses, connotes intelligence (duh)

Must have hairless arms (I’ll explain later)

Must look and smell clean

Sadly, Peewee does not wear glasses, that’s okay. At least he has 20/20 vision and is really smart!  When I met him 12 years ago, I did try to smell him secretly and I knew he has wearing men’s perfume 🙂 When we sat down to chat, I noticed that he did have smooth, less hairy arms! What’s with the hairless arm? I’m just not a fan of androgynous male species.

I knew that my husband was a neat freak because when we first got married, he used to spend countless hours on the car cleaning and detailing it. Even before Meguiars detailing in car wash became a hit, he was already detailing every nook and cranny of his SUV.

In fairness to him, when it comes to cleanliness, he really is Mr. Clean. He will clean the entire house from the bedrooms to bathroom. If the kids’ toys needs scrubbing, he would be enjoying every moment with the soap and basin of water. He would also brush their Crocs too with an old toothbrush.

We have different sets of slippers at home. We have house slippers and slippers for going out. And when he sees you wearing your outside slippers inside, you will surely get some scolding, yes, even me. Every time he arrives from school, before even settling in, he would make sure every thing is packed away or in their proper places. If he sees the bathroom floor wet, he would grab the mop and dry it out.

When you look at our closet, he only has two three stacks: going-out shirts, house shirts and shorts and they are all pristine and neatly folded. While mine looks like a dog tried to find it’s favorite bone there somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sloppy. I do clean the house daily and tidy up too. I do general cleaning when I’m angry (that’s another post right there) But I’m not too obsessed with cleaning.

What’s the downside of being married to Mr. Clean? Honestly, I do get insecure at times. You see, Saturdays are my rest day, since I don’t teach the kids on weekends and I don’t have to wake up very early. It’s my lazy day. I don’t want to do any chores on weekends. But as soon as Peewee finishes breakfast, he grabs the broom and starts sweeping,  wiping, and scrubbing. And he will not stop. This annoys me at times so I end up cleaning too because I feel guilty seeing him doing the chores while I relax on a Saturday morning.

One time I told him about what I was feeling, that I feel bad for taking some time off on a weekend. He said he will not take it against me. He just wants to clean. He can only relax when he knows the house is “sparkling”. There were times, when I just let him clean all he wants while I do other stuff not related to cleaning or tidying up the house.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my husband. He is not perfect, neither am I. But there are just some things he does that annoys me at times. But that’s part of the deal right? You’re marrying the Mr. Right…Mr. Right for you 🙂

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis 2:18

22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said,“This is now bone of my bones     and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’     for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:22-24

It’s 3 P.M. here and he will be arriving in an hour. I have to finish this blog post so I could tidy up before he starts cleaning again.

scrubbing the kids' study table in our old apartment

scrubbing the kids’ study table in our old apartment

Does your hubby have some habits that sometimes annoys you? Share with me.

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