Politics
My man’s dirt blind – I do ALL the chores & spend a day a week cleaning up after him, he doesn’t feel bad about it
WHEN it comes to cleaning, most of us will have ditched traditional gender roles, insisting that our blokes chip in with the housework.
However, for Charlotte Clarke it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Charlotte Clarke is responsible for all of the housework in her house[/caption]
Since moving in with partner of two years Steve Lewis, both 28, Charlotte has found herself taking on the brunt of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing as her ‘dirt blind’ partner watches on.
In fact Steve’s only jobs are to take the bins out and the washing up, well, stacking the dishwasher.
But Charlotte, from Torquay, Devon, had no idea about her man’s slovenly ways until after they moved in to their first home together in March last year.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous Digital, Charlotte said: “Because we were saving to buy the house, I was living with my nan and Steve was living with his mum.
Charlotte moved in with boyfriend Steve in March last year[/caption]
Charlotte describes her lovable lad as “dirt blind”[/caption]
“While he wasn’t the tidiest of people, I just assumed his bedroom looked messy because he had a lot of stuff.
“I thought once we lived together and he had the whole house to spread it out it wouldn’t seem like so much.
“I made him throw a lot of his junk away but I quickly realised it wasn’t his stuff that was the problem.
“He just never puts anything away.”
I spend about four hours in one day cleaning and then maybe an hour here or there just tidying and doing bits and bobs
Charlotte Clarke
In a bid to keep their love nest spick and span, Charlotte quickly becoming Steve’s personal Mrs Hinch.
She said: “I’m a victim of the Mrs Hinch effect.
“I enjoy doing housework. It’s almost like Steve is ‘dirt-blind’, he just doesn’t see it.
“He came home one day while I was hoovering and he asked me why I was, and I said ‘because it’s dirty, it needs hoovering!’”
Charlotte, who works in publishing, now dedicates whole days at a time to clearing up after Steve.
Charlotte says that she has become a victim of the Mrs Hinch effect[/caption]
“I’ll try to do all of my cleaning in one day and I’ll blitz the whole house” she said.
“Then throughout the week I like to have things tidy. I would never just let things pile up as much as Steve would like to.
“He’s started doing this really annoying thing where he puts all of his clothes on the floor and I’m sick of putting them away so I put them all under his pillow as payback.
“I spend about four hours in one day cleaning and then maybe an hour here or there just tidying and doing bits and bobs.
“I don’t think he feels bad at all.”
And while Charlotte is busy playing Cinderella, Steve is keeping himself busy with a project of his own.
Steve’s only jobs are to take the bins out and to load the dishwasher[/caption]
“We’ve got a garage in the garden which he’s been making into a man cave so he’ll been out there doing stuff”, says Charlotte.
“I think in his head that’s him doing something around the house so it’s fine that I’m doing something around the house.
“But I’m cleaning up after both of us and he’s just in there doing what he wants.”
It’s not as if Charlotte has not tried to involve Steve in some of the housework and he does have to help out with a few jobs.
She explained: “To begin with we had designated jobs, I decided before we even lived together that I wasn’t doing everything.
“He has to do the dishes but we do have a dishwasher now so that’s a lot easier for him. I do all the cooking.
Charlotte says that she enjoys cleaning as it’s in her ‘nature’[/caption]
“He tells me he can cook but he has made me one meal which was a chicken curry which had bones in it so I would argue otherwise.
“So my stipulation is that he has to do the dishes and he also has to do the bins, and put them out on bin day and they’re literally the only jobs he can be trusted with.
“He’ll find any excuse, he will tell me the hoover is broken and doesn’t realise that he’s missed a bit.
“I don’t like tidying and constantly having to put stuff away and the thing that does annoy me is when he leaves his clothes out.
“Last weekend I organised all the drawers, I folded everything, I threw stuff away to make space but the following day there were clothes all over the floor again.
I would disagree with the statement that you can’t be a feminist and do those things
Charlotte Clarke
“That drives me mad and that’s something that I will nag him about.”
Perhaps Charlotte’s biggest gripe is when Steve brings friends over who contribute to the mess.
“He does like to have people round and oh my God they drive me mad with the amount of mess they make” she says.
“It’s not just making a mess – they’ve broken chairs and stuff before. It’s like living with a teenager.”
But while Charlotte has her hands full keeping her home intact, she says doing the housework has nothing to do with her gender.
She explains: “I enjoy cooking and I like cleaning because I like to have a clean house not because I necessarily enjoy the process of cleaning.
“I do those things because they’re in my nature, not because I think women should do them or because a man should come home to a clean and tidy house.
“I would disagree with the statement that you can’t be a feminist and do those things.
“I would never force myself to do it if I didn’t feel like it.”
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