3 Best Ways to Keep Your Spouse Happy

When it comes to home decor and fashion, I certainly don't pretend to be an expert. When it comes to relationships and understanding my better-half, I claim to know even less. Somehow, I seem to have mastered the 3 Best Ways to Keep Your Spouse Happy, at least as it relates to home decorating.  The single-most important of these is to just let them win.  I learned early in our 25-year marriage that Rhonda takes color and texture to heart.  I, on the other hand, do not...not even a little.  A survey I read about in the Chicago Tribune found that almost 60 percent of women think "managing different home decor styles" is one of the biggest move-in challenges for couples.  Read it here if you need further convincing, but trust me- they nailed it.  As I jump into my first blog and tackle this seemingly harmless issue at the same time, I'm feeling a tad bit intimidated- but I shall trudge on.

Very rarely do we, and by we I mean the husband half of the marriage, really choose to pick the home decor battle.  My guess is that it ranks somewhere between "Do I look fat in this?" and "My mom's coming to visit...for a month."  Once you get over the 'let them win' piece of this, choking down the rest is fairly easy.  Reason number 2 on our list of 3 best ways to keep your spouse happy is...drumroll please...buy her flowers.  Yep, that's it- buy your significant other flowers.  Not just roses, but bouquets of arrangements. Better yet, buy random flowers and arrange them yourself.  You won't do it right, she'll want to rearrange them, but you will look like a hero for putting in the effort.  Win-Win!  Now, as you get more experienced in the relationship thing, you'll start to see how these floral drop-ins become integral to completing her centerpiece displays. You'll have tulips in bud vases and roses in cylinders, hydrangea will fill your foyer. You don't have to understand the methodology grasshopper, only that there is a deep-seeded desire to make your indoors look like a greenhouse. You'll appreciate the smell if nothing else.

The final task in our 3 best ways to keep your spouse happy is to be the laborer.  That's right, you have to be willing to do the work.  My job is to carry the Rubbermaid containers up from the basement for the seasonal decor change out, then lug them back down, full of past-season treasures.  In case you were uncertain what seasonal means, it can be defined as anytime your significant other wants to add or remove decor.  Move the furniture around, grab a ladder, move the furniture again, change the wall decor (in my house 5-foot metal stars are the bane of my existence), move the furniture one last time...you get the idea.  My wife's job is to be the supervisor, stand back and critique, direct an inch to the right, an inch to the left, take everything down and start over.  It will start to feel like a cover shoot for Garden and Gun Magazine at some point.  This is when you know you are getting close and the work is almost done.  Until next month.

As I bring the first rusted fence blog to a close, I probably should mention a 4th way in our 3 Best Ways to Keep Your Spouse Happy.  This one will sneak up on you if you're not careful.  The 4th is to really appreciate what your significant other does.  Very early in my love of Rhonda, I realized she had so many talents, so many redeeming qualities, that I surely didn't deserve her.  One of her greatest gifts is her ability to pull a room together, to bring about a calm, a true "house to home" transformation.  rusted fence is a product of this talent.  It is an evolving vision, changing much like the seasonal decor in your house.  We want to share this process with anyone that wants to join us on the journey to uncover SIMPLE. INSPIRED. STYLE.

Please don't forget to sign up to follow our blog and join our mailing list to receive advance notice of upcoming promotions.