Have any of you seen the commercial that starts out with these women saying things like, “It’s time to get real about what happens in the bathroom.”?

No? Just me? Well, nevermind then, but it is time, you see, for an honest, real-to-life post about our bathroom.

Let me preface this by saying that for my whole life, I’ve never shared a bathroom with a boy. My sister and I had the upstairs bathroom to ourselves, and at college I lived in a co-ed dorm, but we had our own bathroom in our suite so it wasn’t an issue.

But when I got married, that changed, obviously.

Now, our apartment is small, a one-bedroom, so we only have 1 bathroom. And I love our little apartment, I really do. It’s just that I’ve learned some things about sharing a bathroom. With a boy.

1. He really hates to have my stuff all over the counter. We are lucky to have double sinks so I try to keep on “my side,” but my side also includes the middle, of course. He only has a few things anyway, so he doesn’t need that much room, right? But he did laughingly point out that I sometimes start to migrate over to his side, leaving things on “his sink.” Seriously though, this one is simple, but it leads nicely into the next one, which is…

2. He hates when I put his stuff away in “his drawer.” I don’t do this that often, only when I tidy up in there. So there’s always several days (mostly during the week when we’re busier) that I leave everything out. When I put my stuff away, though, I also tend to put his stuff away. And he doesn’t appreciate that effort. He doesn’t understand why, to me, “clean” means “hiding all our stuff so I can’t get to it.” (Those are his words.)

I agree, sort of. That’s why I don’t put it away every day. But sometimes, I just like to start fresh and put it all away. It isn’t like he doesn’t know where it goes. He has “his drawer,” after all, right?

3. His drawer is more than big enough for all his stuff, but I don’t dare start to “take it over.” See lesson number one for why that wouldn’t go over well. Especially because we agreed when I first moved in that we’d share the top drawer, (Qtips, nail clippers, etc. but my nail polish and face washing cloths are also in there…) he’d have the second drawer, and the bottom two were mine.

I have more stuff. It’s only fair. And he’s right, if I have more stuff than will fit in my drawers, I have too much stuff. So I respect his drawer boundaries…for now.

4. Sharing a shower isn’t all that easy. Not to give too many details, but sometimes, when we’re in a hurry, we’ve tried the multi-tasking route. Even with a big tub and shower area, there’s still only one shower head, so one of us tends to be standing out of the water, cold, getting splashed with water from the other one. Not so fun…

5. Sharing a toilet is okay. Luckily, we haven’t had a ton of moments yet when we both NEED in the bathroom at the same time. So we do fine at sharing. And yes, there are some unpleasant moments that can come from sharing a bathroom, but overall, it’s just life and we are getting used to it. Plus, a little air freshener never hurt anyone, right. We do keep things pretty separate, though. We want to respect each other’s privacy that way, even if we are in a hurry.

6. He dislikes things “for show.” So he hates that I keep the toothbrushes in their cup on my side of the sink instead of in the middle because it’s less out in the open over there. But the towels and the giant egg timer go in the middle! (We don’t use the timer for anything important, but it’s super cool, and we both like it, so it ended up in there.) He recently switched the toothbrushes and the timer because he says the timer is in the way in the middle and we both use the toothbrushes so it only “makes sense.” I haven’t switched it back, yet. But the change didn’t go unnoticed.

7. The same rule of my stuff creeping over to his side of the sink applies to our respective shelves in the shower. I do what I can, but I think we’re slowly moving to an “all shelves are fair game” sort of policy in there.

8. It’s nice that Hubs has already learned my “routine” when we’re getting ready for bed. If you’re a faithful reader, you know that I tend to be less sleepy at night than he is, so, sometimes when he wants to “hurry me to bed,” he’ll go in and get me started by turning on the hot water and then getting my toothbrush ready for me. (Yes, I know it’s wasteful to let the water run, but if I want to use hot water to wash my face, I have to let it run for a bit.) He’s sweet that way, even if he has ulterior motives, like sleep. Reason #55 that husband roommates are the best.

Thanks for reading about what happens in our bathroom. Care to share what happens in yours?