I forgot my tip for helping housework get done for people who hate housework - keep the supplies you need where you need them. If I have to go upstairs to get a broom to sweep the litter downstairs, it just ain’t getting done. By the time I’m upstairs I’ll be distracted by something and not go downstairs again - “Oooh - shiny!” I’m thinking about getting one of those electric brooms - my friend has one, and she swears by it.
I’m sorry to hear of so many couples who don’t share the workload. Dave does all of the cooking, the dishes, any yardwork or handyman stuff. I do the laundry, and general tidying. I can’t do certain things while pregnant (like the bathroom - the chemicals make me woozy), so they get done when Dave does them.
My last relationship, he mowed the lawn. That was it.
Re. pet hair – you can cut down on the shedding problem by brushing your pets, especially in the spring, when they’re shedding. Not only does that lessen the mess, but you’ll cut down on the hairballs the cat coughs up.
I brush my chocolate Lab EVERY FUCKING day and doesn’t cut down on the hair in the house one tiny bit. It seems he has an unlimited amount. And he sheds constantly- spring, summer , winter, fall, whatever.
My girlfriend had her ducts professionally cleaned, and she said she didn’t need to dust for three months. I’m thinking about having it done.
I don’t mind doing dishes, and I actually find it’s a lot easier and faster to wash your dishes immediately after cooking/eating. Of course, I was them by hand, so doing the dishes immediately stop the crud from becoming cement. That said, I’m really sloppy at putting things where they “should” be. Hey, they aren’t in the way, so they’re right where they’re suppose to be. 
Not married yet, but I’ve got a flatmate that is HELL with dishes. There are dirty dishes on the counter from literally when term started, which was three freaking months ago. I feel like throwing out his dishes in the trash someday, and denying knowledge of where they went.
My definition of laundry, though, is when I no longer have any underwear left. I have 7 pairs, so I get to do laundry once a week. Neat, yes? 
Some of us menfolk have the opposite problem. I never considered myself a neat freak, until I moved in with my wife. As far as I was concerned, the floors should be cleaned when the cat begins having problems walking on it. The kitchen shouldn’t stink, and the bathroom was a place to become clean, so as long as it was cleaner than I was, I was happy. (At the time, I worked in a very messy manufacturing job)
I soon discovered that she’d never dusted or mowed before. The kitchen got cleaned only as far as was necessary to make the next meal. We cleaned the bathroom of her apartment 3 times in the year prior to us moving in together. So long as a pile of clothing or papers didn’t fall over on her, she would ignore it, for years if necessary.
She didn’t own any tools, and had never changed a tire or checked the oil in her car. Spring cleaning is a foreign concept, and so far as I could tell, cleaning the bathroom also fell into that category.
So I do the yard work, including 95% of the snow shoveling and 100% of the mowing. I fix broken things, or contact a professional if it is out of my league. Spring cleaning, mopping, dusting, and dealing with “icky stuff” is all my turf.
But I draw the line at litter boxes, gardening and cleaning her office.
And on the pet front, I’ve got three cats. A light grey/white, a dark grey/black and a orance calico/white/black. I’ve got cat hair that clashed with EVERYTHING…
:smack: :smack: :smack: