An On-going Domestic Dispute

The other night Benjy and I sat watching the show, Hoarders. He said to me, "Isn't it funny how, here we sit after 10 years of marriage, with another little one on the way, the girls are in bed and we are excited to watch a show about people hoarding." When we first started watching the show, I could see the anxiety building in Benjy as he watched it. Benjy's first priority with keeping a clean house is, "his floors," as he calls them. Second on his list would be the elimination of clutter. He considers most things to be clutter, decorations that sit around, especially. Benjy called me last week and said that he felt like a psychologist with one of his clients that he had been working with for a year. He said, "It just dawned on me after watching hoarders, that this person was a hoarder. So I used some of the logic that we have watched on hoarders and I think that it helped." Sometimes as we watch the show we enjoy bantering back and forth about which one of us is more of a hoarder. Then we would start naming the things that the other hoarded. He thinks I hoard paper work and junk mail that needs to be sorted through. I called him the t-shirt hoarder until today....I have decided I get to add another item to his list....TIES!

For years we struggle with what I call the, "TIE ISSUE." Benjy likes to leave his ties, tied so that he can just slip them on, without having to tie them every time. Which is fine for a little while, however what happens, which drives me crazy is, the tie starts to turn over. So I am constantly flipping his tie back around. I also think the top starts looking very thin, the knot too small and too tight. He also seems to have a hard time getting to his ties because they start to stack on top of each other. (see above picture, right?) So about every couple of months, I untie them, iron them and hang them in a color coordinated way. Benjy is not happy and definitely doesn't feel very thankful that his sweet little wife does this for him. ;-)So why did I feel the need to do this process of reorganizing and ironing this morning? On Saturday I was running to look for a dress for Kaydree, so I asked Benjy, "Do you need anything, like jeans?" He of course said, "I need some ties." Now... a little background. Whenever my family asks him what he would like for Christmas or for his Birthday, his reply always is, "dress shirts and ties." So on Saturday I went into the closet and said, "I don't think you need anymore ties, you just can't see half of your ties, how about some jeans, you only wear 2 pairs of jeans." He then must have gotten hurt feelings because when I called him from the store to see exactly what size neck I should get he informed me that he didn't NEED anymore ties. (Sarcastically)

Now Benjy is someone who really doesn't ever spend money... on himself, hobbies, clothes or anything, so I felt kind of bad that I reacted to his need for a new tie. So I bought him one which I am not sure he likes... however he just hit his 35th tie in his little collection. Maybe after he reads this blog, he will have time to adjust to the straightening of this little collection before he gets home tonight?

P.S. I turned on the comment section just for you, Dear, in case you felt the need to have a rebuttal to this post? Keep in mind that I love you!