It's funny how it's easy to get caught up in the "right" way of doing things. I'm noticing this a lot with the whole moving-in-with-the-Man thing. I happen to think, for instance, that the toilet paper roll should be oriented so that the paper comes off the top of the roll. The Man seems to have no preference. I also think that when you run out of toilet paper the obvious thing to do is replace the roll immediately. The Man seems more casual than me about this, too.
The Man is kind enough to take out the trash and recycling at the appropriate time. He doesn't, however, feel rushed to replace the bag/liner in the trash can. And when I noticed this, when I had my hands full of raw chicken part castaways and no free appendages to replace the bag, I was a little irritated.
But.
You know what? Just because I would replace the bag right away doesn't really mean that's the only way to do it. I do think that when you live with someone it is the most courteous way to proceed... because the next person throwing something in the trash may have their hands full (of raw chicken bits). But the Man has probably not touched raw chicken in the five years that he's lived in that house so why would that ever come up?
Why am I going on about this? Well, because I tend to be rigid (What? Oh goodness no, Leslie, you are the picture of chillaxation). And I tend to see my rigidity as right...er than the way lots of other people do things. I know: it's a flaw. If you don't do things the way I do them, I will probably think you're wrong.
But (again).
I have softened on this (no really, people who know me, I have). I know that it's not my way or the highway. I know that there are lots of right ways to do most things. Mostly, people just need to meet somewhere in the middle so that everyone can be pretty happy. I don't mind that you don't push in chairs so that they are equidistant from their surrounding table legs, so long as you don't mind that I do. You can lay things at weird angles on tables but if you come back and notice that all of the angles are right angles, please don't judge.
We can work together on this. For the good of living together.
I promise to loosen up if you can replace the trash can liner when my hands are covered in salmonella.
3 comments:
But DON'T mess with the magnets...
DUDE. I have a system. You know this.
We fixed the garbage bag thing by this genius little system - keep lots of new bags in the bottom of the can. That way when someone removes the old bag, all the nice new bags are right there for the taking and super easy to install. It's never been a problem since!
Can't help with the toilet paper though, I'm pretty lackadaisical, let-the-empty-roll-sit-in-the-thing-while-the-new-roll-is-somewhere-within-reach-for-a-few-days kind of a gal.
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