I know, I know…. I’ve been a little MIA. That’s because I’ve been traveling for work and, with meetings starting at 8:00am and running through dinner, it’s been a bit difficult to find time to blog.
Whenever I travel for business I always wonder how my home is faring without me. I wonder how many soda cans have accumulated in the kitchen, how much toothpaste is in the bathroom sink and if the dust bunnies from our dog’s hair have woven together to make a new carpet for our hardwood floor.
Hubby does his best to “clean” the house before I come home. As you may know, my definition of clean and hubby’s definition of clean are somewhat disconnected but… he does indeed put in a commendable effort.
The one thing that’s a given anytime I travel for multiple days is the status of our mail.
Mail is an interesting thing in our house… It’s one of MY chores. Not the bringing in of the mail… this is generally a shared activity (depending on who passes the mailbox first). “My” chore begins after the mail has arrived on my kitchen counter.
Now, you should probably understand that one of my other chores is paying the bills and general organization of our financial paperwork. So, I suppose it makes some sense that a secondary responsibility for me would be mail. However, it becomes somewhat comical whenever I’m away for any number of days.
If I’m home and hubby brings in the mail, he plops in on the counter and the entire stack waits for me. And, if I’m away for business, each day hubby brings in the mail, plops it on the counter and the entire stack grows & grows as it waits for me to get home. You’d probably say, well what are you complaining about… this system makes sense. It’s your chore and hubby doesn’t want to risk “screwing anything up” so he creates this pile and allows you to handle it as you choose. And on some level, I’d agree with you.
HOWEVER…. and here’s where hubby’s behavior starts to get fun… if hubby spots something in the pile that’s particularly interesting to him. He may actually decide to open it. It could be personal mail for him (a b-day card etc..). It could be mail pertaining to his Giants season tickets. It could be mail that appears to relate to his hobby of scuba diving. If it’s something that catches his eye… he will take the initiative and open it. BUT.. after it’s opened, the mail as well as the ripped envelope, returns to the pile. And, even if it’s junk mail, it all gets returned to the pile (another example of his inability to do a full task ?????)
This is the part of this story that makes no sense to me.
When hubby realizes that the scuba diving mail is actually a new credit card solicitation (ie junk mail) why does it return to the pile? After hubby opens the envelope that appeared to be personal but was actually the local lawn care company trying to solicit our business (ie junk mail), why does it return to the pile? So, when I finally get home after being away for 5 days…. I have a stack of mail on the counter to sort through INCLUDING all the opened mail that hubby has deemed unimportant garbage but hasn’t actually thrown away (it must be those damn Last Three Feet again!)
So, as I stand there sorting through the stack of mail (85% of which could have easily been tossed the day it arrived) I can do nothing but shake my head as I throw away already opened junk mail. And, don’t even get me started about how many times I’ll need to move the important mail that hubby did actually receive from the Giants. Because apparently, the correct permanent location for this mail is our kitchen counter. Unfortunately, I know that I’ll have to clean around it and move it several times around the kitchen for weeks & weeks, until I finally ask hubby why the hell HIS mail from 3 weeks ago is still sitting on the counter.
Yet another battle that I cannot seem to win!
OMG …. are you sure that you aren’t describing my house and my husband?
It’s good to know that it is not just my husband that is missing the gene that deals with mail (amongst other things like shoes and worn underware).
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Mendi… when hubby saw your comment he got all excited! He said “See, I’m not the only one.. other men do this too”. Obviously he believes there’s strength in numbers.. but what he doesn’t understand is that two wrongs do not make a right! (insert exasperated sigh here…)
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You are, quite simply, narrating my life.
I think that the key word here is FOCUS.
Hubby (yours or mine) sees mail that looks interesting and the FOCUS button goes ON. He opens it. It is not important. FOCUS button OFF. Dump mail at nearest point.
End of story.
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All I can say is: yes.
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[…] The Hubby Dairies […]
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We’ve all been there! I feel your pain.
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Thanks for your comment Shannon… misery loves company you know 🙂
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I solved the problem by reducing the physical mail to about 1 letter a week. I unsubscribed from a bunch of stuff, got all bills electronically and opted to receive magazines via iPad vs paper. Problem solved!
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