Things my spouse or partner does that drives me nuts!

[TonyR]

OK, sometimes we all need to vent or tell someone something before we explode. Our close friends, neighbors or relatives may be tired of hearing it. So if your spouse or partner has a habit or does things periodically that drives you up the wall, post it here....you never know, letting it out it might save your marriage or partnership....or criminal charges.

Here's my complaint: We have a pump liquid hand soap bottle at all 4 sinks in the house. The one in the kitchen is a tall one. My wife turns on the sink faucet, soaks BOTH her hands with water then pumps a squirt or two of soap in one hand, washes her hands, then turns off the water. Sounds OK, right? WRONG! The soap bottle is now drenched with 2 handfuls of water, water runs down the bottle and floods the sink and the base of the bottle. It looks like a 3 year old took a bath in the kitchen sink. One would expect to find a yellow rubber ducky nearby.

I frequently (at least 2 or 3 times daily) feel compelled to pick up the bottle and dry it and the sink off with the dish cloth. But here's the clincher....she says this is how she was taught to wash her hands in nursing school (she was a RN, and a very good one, for 25 years at 2 hospitals in NW AL).

What's YOUR gripe?

 

[David L]

Yep, the wife does something similar but not so much washing her hands to do dishes but when handling food. I do the same, clean up after her. Ours is glass and water gets underneath. We have stainless steel sink so water spots. I mainly clean it not for me but if we have company.

Man you opened a can of worms here, lol, glad the wife is not on this Forum but she has heard my grips though. To put the record straight, she has 10 times more grips about me than I do of her.

Here are a few on my list:
1. HAIR, HAIR, HAIR, everywhere. I know she can't help this but she is at the age where she is losing as much hair as our dogs, haha. I find it everywhere. In the food she cooks me, in my toothbrush (yes we share the same toothbrush cup), dang just figured it out, I need my own cup Dare I say anything or I will get an ear full, well you can cook your own food, lol, or that hair looks like your hair, honey my hair is not a foot long, lol. I have learned to just not say anything anymore and not try to get my money back when I find a hair in my food...haha...

2. Leaving the lights On everywhere she goes. I have turned her closet light Off a thousand times now. I know, I know, they are now LED lights, but I grew up where my Dad would drag me into a room I left the light On and ask me if I see anyone in there so it is instilled in me. I mean EVERYWHERE, outside lights after she lets the dogs out, lights in our other buildings, laundry room lights, oh yeah and fans too, several hours after she has finished doing the clothes, again I don't say anything anymore, just go behind her and turn everything off, haha, well you can just do your own clothes, haha. But honey if I did all of this what do I need you here for...HAHAHAHA, NEVER, NEVER say that, HAHAHAHA

3. Dishes, she has a bit of OCD, No Dishes are allowed to be left overnight in the sink. Ok, ok, but if I forget to do them after I have agreed and she finds them in the morning here first words out of her mouth are not Good Morning my Handsome Husband, lol, they are commands, Boss words...this one I can only blame myself, she is clever though, while I am in the middle of doing something she will almost whisper, can you do the dishes, of course I nod my head not really knowing what I am nodding for , oh and guess what the last words from her mouth are she heads off to bed while I am again in the middle of doing something, don't forget to do the dishes. LOL

I have several more but will save them for more post...

 

[bigredfish]

My biggest one is Mrs bigredfish telling me I need to accomplish some task I said I was going to do last Monday and it’s only Saturday. The week is young!

 

[The Automation Guy]

I'm OCD about how the dishwasher is loaded.

I'll even move stuff that has been loaded by someone else in our family to the way I like it. Now there is a reason for this. Using my technique (it's not rocket science either), I can get about 30% more in the dishwasher than anyone else. I'll hear, "the dishwasher is full, we need to run it" and I'll move some things around and literally have freed up enough space for another half dozen plates and half dozen bowls.....

 

[David L]

My biggest one is Mrs bigredfish telling me I need to accomplish some task I said I was going to do last Monday and it’s only Saturday. The week is young!

OMG, why can't I rebuild an engine on our kitchen table? Haha, just replaced our Over-the-Range Microwave, even got her one of those expensive Air-Fryer/Convection ones
Ok, so it took me way longer than if we would of hired someone, lol, but this is done right, Right? To my defense, had to do a bit of carpentry/cabinet work/painting, which I am not real good at, the Microwave was hanging on stripped threads, plus they butchered the shelf venting going up to the roof. I also added some LED under cabinet wire (in tubing) for some COB LEDs I am installing. Ok, so this took a month, and I had all my tools/stuff on the kitchen table and kitchen island at times...I get it, but now she/we can have crispy Wings, expensive Wings, lol

Here are a few pics of this project...something I knew we would have to eventually do after we bought the house...2 years later it finally came up on my long to-do-list

BEFORE:
Microwave was hanging from one stripped bolt...the left one pulled right out, was just there for looks They put the blocks on top of the shelf instead of on bottom of the recessed shelf/cabinet which bent the Microwave top/nuts so bad it stripped both bolts. And Who put the Outlet in? Right where a possible Vent would go? This was a very botched up Microwave install, they even removed Cabinet trimming and left the bare wood exposed.


The vent hole cut in the shelf was pretty bad along with their tape job. Get this, I found out the shelf was being held up Only by the front stables, they removed the two side shelf support boards too, ???, no joke. I really did not know how bad this was until I removed the Microwave. So this was anything but an easy Microwave replacement. I pulled out the old microwave by myself, fun at my age.


Got the new shelf and support boards cut, stained, sprayed with a clear coated, wife found the matching stain which was Great! Installed Tubing, ran LED cable/wires for future under Cabinet Lighting. Used Tubing incase I want to run new wires, presently only have 2 wire cable, may one day go to 3 or 4 wire for RGB strips.


Finished vent hole shelf cut, a nice clean cut. Painted back wall, installed shelf/support boards and L brackets for extra support. Used 3/8" round felt self-stick pads on top of Microwave mounting bolts to mark drill holes needed by putting paint on the felt pads, found this trick on YT. Worked Great!!! The new Microwave has three bolts...the Microwave holes matched Perfect. I even drilled the shelf holes bolt size for a tighter fit instead of the recommended bigger size...


AFTER:
Installed Microwave (Took two people, microwave weighs 80 pounds)...reVenting was a fun job but I am pleased with the final results. You can see the Huge improvement from the last two pictures compared to previous install...


Sorry got a little

 

[IReallyLikePizza2]

Solved this problem with a family law office

 

[TonyR]

I'm OCD about how the dishwasher is loaded.

Hey, that's just being logical!

Put all the short cups in the second most top tray to the left side so when you pull the tall glasses from the right side to put in the cabinet (also to the left) the glasses clear the SHORT cups ...no banging and chipping of cups or glasses....easy-peasy, right?

Put the long spatulas and wooden stir spoons in the special top most pullout tray...don't take up spaces for 5 or 6 cups in the second most tray...and so on.

Similarly, put the dishes to the far right of the bottom tray and put the shorter saucers toward the left......big dishes have less trouble clearing the smaller saucers.

Wife just puts stuff in in chronological order....doesn't rinse them at all either. I rinse and even use soap if food is stuck. The 20 year old Whirlpool we replaced last year smelled like it was new inside. The digital timer took a crap.

 

[TonyR]

Solved this problem with a family law office

You mean as in "divorce" ?

 

[VorlonFrog]

ADHD spouse here. She just cannot complete something before starting something else. I typically find myself finishing things or picking up and putting away things.

 

[TonyR]

2. Leaving the lights On everywhere she goes.

Is this a female thing? Or is it heriditary?
My daughter did that. Didn't have a son so I can't say, not enough empirical evidence.
My ex-wife did it also.
Both of them could turn a switch or device "ON" but it seem neither knew about the "OFF" position.
When I still lived in the Silicon Valley, Kalifornia I'd leave my house right before dusk on a trouble call and upon my return about 10PM every light in the house was on, garage door up, I swear it may have been brighter than San Jose airport, only 4 miles away....expected Ellison's private jet in the driveway any night.
I always expected a "Thank You" card from Pacific Gas & Electric.
When the family busted up with divorce in 2003 I imagine PG&E had to lay off a few people.

Wife # 2 is much, MUCH better at turning off stuff that she turned on.....thank you, Lord.

 

[bp2008]

I have many of the same gripes but not from a spouse or partner. I live with two brothers. One of them is a big-time germophobe, so he almost can't walk past a sink without washing his hands. That would be fine, except he gets water everywhere because he always goes for paper towels before turning off the water (can't touch the handle with bare hands or else he'd have to wash again). We can't use the countertop to the right of the kitchen sink for anything except the paper towel roll because 12 hours a day it looks like it just rained on that countertop. We got a touchless faucet a while back thinking it might help with this issue. Spoiler: it did not help.

For hand drying, we use paper towels almost exclusively. He uses 2 pieces every time. You'd think this would mean his hands are dry afterward, but no. Instead of drying his hands with the 2 pieces, he just kind of squeezes the paper before tossing it onto the damp white mound sticking out of the nearest trash can. Hilariously, half the paper will be soaking wet, squeezed into a tight little ball. The other half will be sticking out from that ball, more or less flat and dry. Like the wings on a moth. This exercise only dries the palms of his hands, not the backs or between fingers, so there's usually a trail of water on the floor leading away from each sink he uses. The trail is especially easy to follow if he's just been to the fridge for a beverage can or bottle, or, worst of all, a veggie tray. Because each of those is only fit to consume if the packaging has just been thoroughly rinsed with water, and he's worse at drying these off than he is at drying his hands. Fortunately it is not usually too hard to dodge the water on the floor, because he always leaves the lights on.

 

[bigredfish]

Is this a female thing? Or is it heriditary?
My daughter did that. Didn't have a son so I can't say, not enough empirical evidence.
My ex-wife did it also.
Both of them could turn a switch or device "ON" but it seem neither knew about the "OFF" position.
When I still lived in the Silicon Valley, Kalifornia I'd leave my house right before dusk on a trouble call and upon my return about 10PM every light in the house was on, garage door up, I swear it may have been brighter than San Jose airport, only 4 miles away....expected Ellison's private jet in the driveway any night.
I always expected a "Thank You" card from Pacific Gas & Electric.
When the family busted up with divorce in 2003 I imagine PG&E had to lay off a few people.

Wife # 2 is much, MUCH better at turning off stuff that she turned on.....thank you, Lord.

My wife is the opposite. She's anal about lights.

She'd live in a dark cave if she could

 

[David L]

All this talk about water everywhere reminds me of our two Boxer dogs, after they drink water our tile floor becomes a slip-n-slide I have told them to stop many times but they ignore me like they are teenagers...or maybe they don't understand English American , lol