O/T but how do you get your OH to help around the house?

I dont do anything to make him help. If it needs doing and one of us is there then it gets done. It has to be done straight away with three kids making a mess allday long. The only thing we take in turns is cooking. Except Sunday roasts, Only he is allowed anywhere near the kitchen on a Sunday. But i dont mind his roasts are much nicer then mine.

We seem to have gotten in to a routine, that whoever gets home first in the week does what needs doing i.e washing up, hoovering etc.

And if we are both in we share the tasks.

I am however a very lucky lady as OH does his own washing and ironing. I always tell people thats why Im marrying him lol

We have no children so I suppose its easier to keep things order, that is until my step daughter to be turns up a weekends, she is like a tornado!? he he

A combination of bribary, nagging and sex.? hehe

Im a SAHM so i do most of the housework when he's at work, but there are a couple of things liek putting the bin out and the washing in when im getting LO to bed that he will do or suffer my annoyance all night. lol

My H is very domesticated but his downfall is the keeping the bedroom tidy..... i wash his clothes, they dry, i make piles for him to put away and the piles hit the floor...and the mountain grows and grows until its verging on the ridiculous..... he isnt good at cleaning a bathroom either but everything else im v v lucky......... and he cooks and irons.....

How do you want to get yours help?? tell him you dont want to marry a slob....... coz if you dont sort something out now that all he will continue to do.....

theres keeping a house tidy and keeping a house clean..... we try to do both between us

goodluck!

Beat him with a stick!!

No he is quite good but works 6 days a week so when he has a day off he loves to cook, he is at this moment in the kitchen cooking fajitas while I am working.

I don't really get him to help, i do do most of it but he does other stuff that makes up for it....

I do most of the cooking but he fill's & emptys the dishwasher, i do all of the washing and i only iron my own clothes he does his own as and when. I do all of the cleaning and my day off from work.

It works for us really, he works hard and long hours where as my jobs 10 till 6 jobby (nights).

H is better at cleaning and ironing than me so if you find how to make your OH's do the housework then he'd probably want to know the secret to get me to do some! ?

Actually, we split things pretty well. He's just done 2 weeks worth of ironing, I've done the food shop and made lunch and put a cake in the oven. He always cleans the bathroom and kitchen, I do 90% of the cooking. We both do jobs we don't mind doing / are good at and that way it doesn't seem like a chore.

I got pregnant!!!

OH would be quite happy sitting on his backside whilst I did everything, but once I was up-duffed, he couldn't do enough to help.

I'm quite OCD about cleaning, and I have set ways of doing stuff, so he's currently in training to get to my standards. His choice though, he said he wants to do it how I like it being done.

Quite often though I will go over the kitchen sides again as he never does them quite right ?

We generally share things out. At the moment I do more housework and the gardening but he does more DIY. He has two evenings when he cooks which I love! When the DIY stuff is finished (were doing up our home) he will take over some housework chores. I have to laugh at him though - he complained the bedding needed washing last weekend so I told him to get on with it (I was cleaning bathroom) So he took all the sheets off which I was impressed with 'til I realised he had then left the dirty sheets on the bed! Are they going to grow legs and walk down the stairs to the washing machine on their own!!

We also share out chores. We alternate days of the week where we cook or if one of us is feeling tired we will just do it out of kindness for the other. I generally do a lot of the cleaning but OH will surprise me sometimes. He's a terror for shoving clothes under the bed though which is most unhelpful when I do a dark wash which seems unusally light and then I'll look under the bed and it's stuffed with dark clothes. We both have jobs which are strictly jobs we do ourselves, like he takes the rubbish out (because I don't like the bin shed!) and I'll do the ironing (because he just can't do it right!)

Definitely not an option!

Sounds like everyone else has got this totally sussed. I need to get this sorted - it seems like such a trivial thing but it does drive me nuts. And I don't want it to grow into something huge and spoil things

Ahhh - this old age issue!! My ex was a lazy so and so most of the time - he lived in hotels a LOT due to his travelling around the world with his job and I think he sometimes forgot when he was at home, it was his HOME. He was great at the weekly shop tho' - much better than me and would often go whilst I stayed home and did 'chores'... but I did find it overall very frustrating and little would entice him to do more .... he did cook but not 'cook' as in from scratch, but I suppose food is food!

Bloke on the other hand is very domesticated. We share a lot but I do actually feel for the first time in an age, I do less around the house than he does. He does 99% of the cooking and its all from scratch home cooking - no ready meals for us. He is a fab cook. I never feel I have to nag him about anything althought I was very OCD about tidy and clean when I first moved in here, because thats how I was in my prev relationship, in a modern flat with funky decor and it being 'tidy' kinda felt right. But now, I live in the country, and its a much more laid back feel to life in general and this is reflected in my tendency to be less 'argh' about things not being tidy...

I'm not sure there is a hard nor fast way to make a lazy bloke not lazy sadly. Other than keep chipping away!

Well I might as well have done it myself! The kitchen looks like Bieruit, I think he used every pan, pot, dish & cutlery in the house!!

H2b is very good and i only have to ask and it is done the majority of the time, but he wpn't do the bathroom...

My H2B is really good with housework. I've been at work today and he's tidied the kitchen and done the washing up, hoovered the whole house, supervised the kids with their homework, bathed both of them, done the ironing and trimmed the rose bush. You can probably guess why I'm marrying him!

OH isn't great at the housework to be honest. Periodically he'll cook dinner or wash dishes, but a lot of time if I ask him to do something he'll 'forget'. It's easier if I do the housework myself to save nagging him!

To be fair on him, he does work longer hours than me so I have more time at home to do the housework.

When you find out, let me know!! This is my biggest gripe with H2B. He is SUCH a mummy's boy! His Mum would do anything and everything for him so he's gotten used to it (Not surprised his 32 year old Brother still lives at home, I wish their Mum would adopt me!!).

I allowed H2B to have one of our spare bedrooms as his office on the condition he kept it tidy as I will not step foot in there. Needless to say, it's now nicknamed "The Orrifice!" bloody dirty bugger. It's disgusting, every so often I hand him a binbag and force him to sort it.

I also refuse to do his side of the bedroom, the wash bin sits there empty and his dirty clothes are all over the floor - what the hell is wrong with him?! Since we moved in, his one job was to wash up as I have a thing about washing up water and clothes.. *Shivers* and we don't have space for a dishwasher He will happily leave it days til I nag him to death to do it.

He has taken on the job of chicken duty, letting them out in the morning and shutting them up at night, but apart from that, I do the rest.. Hoovering, tidying, cleaning, washing and drying. I asked him to hang the washing up once as I was off to work and he just slung it all on the airer without straightening it out so the creases would never dry!! He had no idea how to turn the washing machine on until about a month ago... He's 29 years old!!!

Last week though, I didn't have to cook once, I work longer hours than him during the week and quite often work two shifts in one day so he cooks for both of us, yay!!

I'm lucky I guess because I'm married to a 'neat freak' LOL! Although this does my head in sometimes believe me! Especially when I'm in the kitchen doing something and he's stood behind me with a cloth waiting to wipe up after me. Seriously though, when we got married, we agreed that we would share everything and it's worked for 27 years. I think when both people work full-time, it has to be a two way thing. There are some things which are 'his' jobs such as cleaning the bath because he does it better (according to him) and I'm quite happy to let him get on with it! He also cooks more than me because he loves cooking and I hate it. My Mum-in-law does all my ironing (I pay her though!) because she's one of those sad people who actually enjoys ironing ? The garden is his domain too. I don't let him anywhere near the washer or tumble drier - learnt that mistake early on in married life LOL! and although he does load the dishwasher often, he hasn't quite got the knack of realising that once it's full, you have to press a button to get it to actually wash the dishes. I also change the beds - he's no good with quilt covers!

Honestly it is not a trivial thing. My house is really important to me and it being clean and tidy means so much. My ex husband was a lazy, ignorant child and point blank refused to do any kind of cleaning or tidying. Hence the word EX!! OH now is absolutely amazing, nothing is too much effort. He puts the vac round, irons, makes pack ups, cooks me lovely dinners. He is fabulous.

Tell your H2B how much it irritates you before it gets out of hand.

he sounds just like my OH, isn't it wonderful?! So nice to know you can trust them not to be wallowing in their own filth by the time you get home.

Sigh - I got home from work just after 6pm today and OH had the day off. Three guesses who made the dinner?!

If you can possibly stand it, leave it all, don't do any cooking, cleaning, ironing for as long as you can.... this is what i did for about 5 days, even though it was driving me mad. my OH went to work on the Monday morning and when it got to lunch time thought he must have left his lunch at home, so he came home during lunch to collect his salad only to find there was nothing there, so he had to make his own. Whilst sat at sofa he took a look around - magazines all over the place, shoes on floor not tidied away, carpet needed cleaning, clean laundry in the basket not ironed or sorted, and then he clicked.

Now, I ask him to do something and he will do it, although not straight away, so I have to take a step back and appreciate the fact that he will eventually get round to doing it.

Additionally, if I'm home late, which I am on Tues and Thurs as i go to the gym directly from work, then I always ask him to cook tea - something simple mind.... Why don't you ask him to do tea one particular night and see if he comes up trumps!

If you keep cleaning up after him and running around doing everything for him, he will just keep on getting used to it.

If he leaves something lying around for longer than a day it goes in the cupboard under the stairs. It doesnt matter if it his clothes, paperwork, fishing rod if its in my way it goes in there, he got cross when he ran out of clothes but it works, he now not only knows where the washing basket is but he uses it as well.

I suppose Im a bit naughty as I dont "allow" my H2B to do anything, no-one cleans as good as me in the house so I do it, if anyone else does it I only re-do it again as they have missed something...

I do all the cooking, washing, ironing and put away everyones clothes, I love polishing and cleaning the (4) bathrooms!! but one thing I hate doing is hoovering, H2B sometimes does that for me though.

I get home from work, finish off my paperwork, cook dinner, they all help to clean up afterwards, I then go and put another load in the washing machine for the following morning, go sort the dogs out and take them out for a run.. by that time its about 9pm and SLEEP.... lol

Bribery with sexual favours usually helps ?

I have a printed out rota with the days and the tasks needing done that day stuck on to the fridge,folk are to sign it and score of a task when completed. I also have two teenage girls in the household so it is for them as well but mostly for my OH,he will do the very basic things but never anything more usually,we both work shifts and share childcare so what would happen is i would say clean and tidy on Monday,work 13 hour shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday and have to do it all again and more on the Thursday.

Rota works ish..at least it makes me feel like some sort of effort is being made.

This made me giggle because I'm the one saying that exact phrase to my OH!! If he had his way, he'd have an empty house with nothing but a tv and sofa so no clutter! I like my 'things' though!

I am quite lucky cause he does most of the tidying really. I hate it and am useless! i cook and do the washing and try and do some housework as much as I can. Neither of us live in a pit though, to him, a few things on the table or couple of clothes on the floor is a 'pigsty' - to me, it's living!

Never had this problem. My OH is obsessed with everything being clean and tidy and I'm such a slob in comparison. My OH usually has a 'serious talk' with me when I'm being too messy though and I will always make a special effort if I know it is bothering him - maybe you could try a similar thing with your OH. I think part of it is that they live their messy single lives for so long that they don't notice the mess or realise how hard you have to work to keep things nice!