What My Husband Gives Up… or… When Beer Comes In A Juice Box

When I met my husband, he had a lot of space to keep his things.  I suppose I did too, but then our relationship grew and both of us adapted to having less space for each of our things.  Eventually there was the purchase of joint things, the adoption of 4 legged things; then there was of making of thing 1 and thing 2… which also acquired more things. Regardless of how many things we have, the organization of said things is inevitably the cause of sacrifice.

All of us make compromises but I have to throw a shout out to my spouse for not hampering my love of organizing and being a willing participant in the spatial definition in the house.

My husband's pre-married life offerings started small, the smallest drawer in the kitchen actually.  He was on deployment to Iraq when, with his permission, I tackled the unfinished items in his house.  The patched wall that had not been painted and the light switch face plate that did not match the others were only a couple of items on the TODO list – the list was near half a page long and in the process of checking them off, I filled in the rest of the page with things that I accidentally completed.  

I accidentally un-junked his Junk Drawer.  That was the first of his sacrifices, although I think now that he appreciates the idea of a “No Junk Drawer Household”, I don’t believe he felt that way when we first met. 

Two kids, two cats, and a larger living container later, his contributions to the cause “Organized Home” are impressive.  He does it without comment or complaint and I love him all the more for it.

One concession was his private adult beverage cooler.  It had been a gift when his bachelor fridge was overrun by actual cooking supplies and he could no longer cool an entire case of beer without using ice and an igloo.  

It currently resides near an exterior door; so in an attempt to make things accessible for the offspring and take one task off of mom’s plate, I made room in my husband’s beer fridge for juice boxes.    

It’s at the right height for the girls to help themselves (after asking) and near the door that I usually shoo them out of when they are holding the squirt’able paper cubes.

Outside of the jabs his poker friends give him when he hosts game night, I think he is agreeable to the compromise.  He even allowed the back stock of Wisconsin Cheese to be stored there as we could not fit the 50lbs of cheese AND vegetables at the same time in the main fridge. 

Now that the kids are old enough, I could possibly give him back his beer fridge, but the convenience of the Juice/Cheese/Beer fridge is too much for me to let go of.