Helping Hubby help me

          A few years ago when Chris moved in with me to my place back when we were dating, I vowed to not fall into gender roles in our home. Fast forward to now and gender roles are the way of the house. Chris does a lot of home improvement projects, so I let him off the hook with most of the day-to-day cleaning, cooking, and shopping (food and toiletries).  He does vacuum, dust, and take out the trash and recycling, as well as cook breakfast for us on the weekends. Plus we each do our own laundry. But largely the cooking, cleaning, and shopping are my responsibilities (and honestly I don’t mind doing them). However, now that we are heading into my third trimester responsibilities are going to shift to him and being the control freak that I am, I still want things done my way. For grocery shopping the shift has already started, for the past few months he comes with me most of the time to help carry the items in. And the past month he’s also been popping in to the store after work to pick up what we need for the week. And no fail, every time he is ‘that husband’ who calls his wife from the store to either ask what aisle something is in or the specifics on an item on the list.

         I decided a while back that I would construct a master grocery list that includes the brands, flavors, and items we most commonly buy as well as organizing it (as best I can from memory) by the general layout of the grocery store (we shop exclusively at Market Basket but week to week we may hit a different location, so the layout of each one differs slightly). I’m picky, I’ll admit it. We buy the generic/store-brand of most items but there are a few that I’ve tried and just don’t like so it’s important for me to have a list of what is what. Also I think the list will help me as well- I plan on printing out two copies and leaving on in each of our cars to refer to- because I know I’m soon to have a lot more on my mind and I want to be able to remember his favorite brands/flavors of things when he asks for them when it's my turn to shop. This way we’ll still put together a hand-written list each week but we both will have this master list to refer to when needed.

 

                In terms of cleaning, I was actually thinking about making this master list even before I got pregnant just to give Chris an idea of what is done around here, often times when he is not home. Just so he can appreciate what is being done every week in addition to the home-cooking he gets. Now that I’m pregnant I thought it was a good time to finally put it together, so when I am tired during the last trimester and then sleep-deprived and cranky during the first few months, he can refer to the list and help out without asking what needs to be done. Or without me asking him to take care of a particular chore. I am particular about how things are cleaned (I’m particular about a lot of things) so I tried to be clear on the list. I also think this list will help me because everything is broken down into 5-10 minute tasks, expect the kitchen floor although it’s a galley kitchen the three step process takes a while but it’s the only way to not have water marks on the pergo floor,  so I can tackle things here and there as the week goes since I know finding bigger chunks of time to do a thorough clean will probably not happen as often in the near future.

 

Overall I am hoping these two lists will help us as we become first-time parents. I hope with a little planning, we can get organized on the shopping, cleaning, and cooking front. I have some plans for cooking that I have found on other blogs that I want to incorporate into our food plan, which I’ll discuss in another post. I also want to get organized about bill paying, as you can probably guess I am a fan of spreadsheets and I already have one that has our monthly bills on it. I’d like to make a cheat-sheet with when bills are due and which of us pays what and print it out as to not forget. Ultimately I know no amount of organization will prevent the chaos that is taking care of a newborn but a little planning now should help us out a little.