Wednesday, August 7, 2013

In My Opinion (IMO by KNH)...Cleanliness & What It Means to Men

Originally I was going to make this a Facebook status update, but honestly this topic deserves a permanent blog post. This weekend, I visited a female acquaintance' home for dinner. I went to wash my hands in the bathroom, and was frankly impressed by it's cleanness, especially the fixtures--toilet, sink, tub, etc. I congratulated her, and she expressed that this was normal due to her military training. I shared a couple things with her. a) Men look at different things when looking at a woman as possible "Wife Material". Cleanliness of a dwelling is pretty important.


If you invite us over and you have urine or other stains on the toilet, the sink is full of grease and soap scum, bathtub has a ring etc. you just X-ed yourself out of some of our lives. A man who has been around a minute knows that if you can't take the time to take care of little details, then you're not his future. It literally takes about 5 minutes each to clean your toilet,sink and bathtub, less if you keep them up at least a couple times weekly.

So you go to work, return home, don't have any children in the house (or you do, but they're of age to take care of themselves), and you can't find 5-15 mins to clean your fixtures for the sake of hygiene and keeping the germs down? But you can quote scenes from Basketball Wives, Hip Hop Wives of Atlanta, The Game, etc which you watch for hours on end once you get home, and hit all-night happy hour on Thursday and Friday. And don't tell me it takes too much time when you spend 1-4 hours in front of a mirror dolling up for events. I'm not saying your house has to be absolutely spic and span with absolutely no dust on the back of your TV, but if you can't keep a man who's willing to marry you, then it may be because we've noticed the small things, and we didn't tell you because we know you should know better by a certain age. If you can't take care of your house, how are you going to take care of our house and children? b) I told her that while military discipline is invaluable, I do know a good number of military vets among friends or family who are not necessarily the cleanest in their civilian life.

As I'm known to say, "If the shoe fits, wear it. If not, put it back in the box." In plainer English, if this post describes YOU, then do something about it. If it doesn't, then you're doing well, and no need to be mad. I was successful in getting a passionate discussion on this topic started on Facebook, and I would love to hear of any horror or success stories out there...