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"Over the holidays my friend told me about a couple who has always been at odds because he&amp;#039;s neat and she&amp;#039;s messy. It was driving the husband crazy until he created &amp;quot;messy zones&amp;quot; in each room. His wife could clutter up those special areas, but she had to keep the rest of the room clean. This worked great for them: She was less stressed about keeping everything tidy and he was happy because he felt most of the house was clean.  My husband and I have pretty equal standards when it comes to clutter we&amp;#039;ve both accepted the fact that we&amp;#039;re incapable of keeping the whole house spotlessly clean. We usually just concentrate our energies on the living room, where we spend the most time, and make sure it&amp;#039;s always neat and orderly. Because that one room is super-clean, I have the illusion that the whole house is just as spotless.  My sister (the messy one) and her husband (the neater one) have worked out a loose system where each person does the stuff the other one doesn&amp;#039;t want to do. She&amp;#039;ll take on the laundry, but he cleans the kitchen; she vacuums, but he make sure the bathroom is spotless, and so on. On Saturdays, her husband sets up a time to clean together. He brings over a box of miscellaneous clutter that my sister has put off dealing with. Since it&amp;#039;s a team effort, going through it seems like a less ominous task.  I think this is the way most people cope with their chores. We don&amp;#039;t have the time or energy to make it perfect, so we &amp;quot;compromise clean.&amp;quot; It gets the job done as good as we want it.  Have you and your family worked out a system to cope with the endless task of keeping the house clean? I&amp;#039;d love to hear your ideas in comments. Also, starting this week, I&amp;#039;m on the lookout for the &amp;quot;Tip of the Week.&amp;quot; Post your ideas in comments and I&amp;#039;ll choose a winner in next week&amp;#039;s blog. (Unfortunately we can&amp;#039;t pay $50 like we do in the magazine, but you will be the reigning domestic diva of WomansDay.com for one whole week!) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a40546/divide-conquer-6975/>