An Intuitive Home

I'm coming to realize that part of a wife's job is to make her home at peace with her husband. This is a balance of making it intuitive to his habits, and giving him the proper tasks with the proper reward for performing them.

Another important principle is that a good wife must know the difference between female tasks and male tasks. You treat these tasks as differently as you would treat a female or a male person.

Each household is different as what would be called such.

In general, female tasks include:
Cleaning up behind someone (i.e. picking up shoes, throwing the teabag in the trash)
Child and Pet Care
Ridding the home of offensive smells (esp. when scrubbing is involved)
Chores that distress the husband psychologically (changing diapers, cleaning toilet, kitty litter)
Any task that requires you to be on hands and knees

Male tasks can vary greatly as long as doing the chore meets the following criteria:
Must elicit praise.
Preferably outside (so neighbors see he's doing a chore)
Must seem like it requires superior strength to perform (taking trash out, opening jars, etc...)

A wife whose husband supports her enough to be able to stay at home should be able to do almost all of the female tasks. However, if she has an extra burden, or added responsibilities on top of her home-making, delegation of some of these tasks will need to be made.

Asking a husband to perform a male task is relatively simple. The words must convey a dependence on the husband, as well as being favorably impressed with his abilities.

The following is a sample question that conveys these two points. Simply fill in the parenthesis with the appropriate word.

"I need you to (male task to be performed) because you're so (strong, skilled, smart)"

Notice the first thing the husband will hear in this sentence is "I need you". The last thing he hears is "You're so (strong, skilled, smart)".

With this wording, it makes the task he needs to perform seem as nothing to him. Following up his performance with lavish praise and loving treatment (especially physical) will encourage him to look forward to doing more tasks for you in the future. He may even do them without you asking him. It is a wife's duty to always recognize what a husband does around the house, and praise him accordingly.

The biggest challenge is to ask a husband to do a female task. Ideally, a house-wife would rarely need to do this. Unfortunately, circumstances such as chronic health problems, care-taking outside the home, or both partners being required to work full time, demand a delegation of the domestic tasks to the husband as well.

This is where making your home intuitive to your husband habits a real asset. Watch your husbands habits carefully, and switch things around so he only needs to make the smallest change to keep things orderly.

For example: does he throw his keys, pocket change and receipts on a table when he gets home? Set up a money jar there, and a key holder near the table. Then, you will only have to take care of the trash he's kept in his pockets. He will most likely respond to a request to put the items in the correct spot, since it's really not much different than what he was doing before.

Does he leave his clothes on the bathroom floor? Keep a hamper in the bathroom and your problem is solved. Even if he forgets to place his clothes in there, it will be easy for you to clean up.

Domesticity can be a joy when a good wife learns the proper way to put her husband to work, and to make the home intuitive to him. A peaceful house makes a peaceful family.