Woman Panics About Her Landlord Seeing Her Messy House, But Her Husband Doesn’t Think It’s A Big Deal
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In many marriages, there’s one person who cares more than the other about how neat and tidy everything is. This can cause tension in relationships on a daily basis, but it can be even more stressful when there are visitors. The neat freak will want everything to be put away and cleaned before company comes over, but the slob won’t see a problem with a messy house.
In this story, the neat freak is the wife, and the slob is the husband. The visitor is their landlord, or actually, the landlady’s son who does all of the maintenance work.
He needs to stop by to fix something, and she wants the house to be clean first. Is that too much to ask?
Let’s read the whole story to decide.
AITA for wanting the house tidy when the landlord comes in to do work?
My husband and I rent one half of a duplex.
The landlady lives next door and her son (alias=Eric) does all the fix-it work around the property.
My husband is the one who usually messages the landlady or her son when we need something.
They are very nice and promptly respond to issues when reported. Promptly, meaning, within a day Eric shows up whenever is convenient for him, without necessarily communicating beforehand what time he will be coming by.
Here are some details about their latest maintenance issue.
Our latest maintenance request was for the drawer in the fridge broke and keeps falling out.
Eric came at 630pm while we were taking a break to eat dinner from packing to go on a trip the next day. I had laundry going, clothes all over, and my toiletries all over the counter in the bathroom.
My husband asked if he could return after we got home from our trip.
When we did return, We got home late, I worked the very next day, and then started the process of unpacking and doing laundry.
Now we get to the real issue.
Again, Eric shows up in the mid afternoon when I have stuff from the trip everywhere, laundry hanging on racks to air-dry, while I am trying to catch up on bills and emails.
AITA for wanting the house to look decent when the landlord comes over?
My husband is of the opinion that guys don’t care what the house looks like, he doesn’t care about a messy looking house either, he just wants things fixed ASAP. He resents that I “make a big deal” over tidying.
I have asked that we tidy before messaging or that we request to schedule maintenance visits (Eric lives in the neighborhood and is semi-retired so I don’t think this is asking a lot). Am I being unreasonable?
Keeping a tidy house is more important to her than it is to her husband. Really, it doesn’t matter if Eric cares if there’s a mess. It matters to OP that there’s a mess.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person tells her to clean the house herself.
Another person agrees with OP’s husband.
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This person thinks the reason the house is messy makes a big difference.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who feels hoodwinked after finding out the sick father she’s been supporting has plenty of money of his own.
Nobody thinks she needs to worry about cleaning.
I can understand not wanting to have a huge mess when guests come over, but a maintenance guy fixing a problem with the refrigerator isn’t exactly a guest, and packing for a trip isn’t the same as having a messy house.
I get her point, but getting the fridge fixed needs to be a priority.
In this case, she may need to tell her inner neat freak to be quiet.
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