Our own places to go
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- May 23, 2023
- 753
After several years of marriage, Taller Half and I decided it was a good idea for us to have separate bathrooms. My neatnik tendencies were driving him crazy while he isn’t particularly neat, and that was sending me straight up the wall.
We agreed I would have the master bedroom bath and he’d have the hall bath. We also agreed we each would be responsible for our own bath’s cleaning. And he did
promise to keep his bathroom neat and clean. That was especially important because he had chosen the hall bath, which also served as our guest bathroom. Turns out our ideas of a clean and neat bathroom were totally different. To be honest, I was not at all shocked by that revelation.
The difficulty here is bathrooms are generally small rooms crammed full of fixtures — every one of them equipped with running water. The resulting moist atmosphere encourages the growth of all sorts of nasty organisms: germs, mold and that bane of all bathrooms, mildew. Let that stuff get a grip on your grout and you’ll be sorry.
While walking past the hall bath one day, I noticed Taller Half’s bathroom was a bit messy. His shower curtain was crooked, and a towel was draped on the edge of the tub. I stepped in to hang up his towel and happened to look into the tub. I almost screamed. That tub had a wet washcloth hanging on the shower knob, and there was a bit of mildew on the sides of the tub. Taller Half had not lived up to his promise.
When confronted, he said he had been in a hurry to finish his ablutions that day and just didn’t have time to do any cleaning. But I was not to worry; he’d take care of that mess as soon as he had time.
I saw the handwriting, rather the mildew, on the wall and decided to make my bathroom the guest bath.
So now I make it a point not to look into that hall bath whenever I pass it. What I don’t see I can ignore, and I’m happier, by the way, so is Taller Half.