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In a relationship, there will be tough discussions about toxic traits and relationship red flags, but you may just as easily find yourself fighting with your partner about things like choosing the right coffee.
There are many silly, inconsequential, or random things that couples fight about, whether it’s squeezing the toothpaste wrongly, how to hang the toilet paper, and even choosing what to eat for dinner!
Here are 7 creative ways this Malaysian couple resolved their domestic squabbles. Laugh if you want to but remember: If it seems stupid but it works, it’s not stupid!
#1. Squeezing the toothpaste
Honestly, I’ll never stop squeezing the toothpaste from the middle. My wife squeezes it from the end. We actually fought about this, because she says it’s wasteful. I retorted that I roll up the toothpaste tube when it’s finished so nothing gets wasted.
In the end, we managed to come up with a simple solution about five years ago: Two tubes of toothpaste in the bathroom, with a clear agreement of, “You don’t touch my toothpaste, I won’t touch yours.”
#2. Hanging the toilet paper
Next comes the great toilet paper debate: which way is it supposed to hang? Forwards or backwards?
Some couples get separate toilet paper rolls. Others go the extra mile and get a bathroom for each of them at home. In this case, we looked up the original toilet paper invention, and this ended the debate forever:
Image via Google images
#3. Leaving the toilet seat up or down
My whole life, I’ve always thought it was unmanly to sit down while peeing. Then one night after a huge fight over pee stains on the toilet seat, I went out for a couple of drinks with the boys.
Coming home tipsy and sleepy, I wanted to take a pee, but I couldn’t stand straight. Whatever, no one’s watching, I thought. So I sat down to relieve myself. When I stood up again and checked for stains, it hit me: Despite being so drunk, the pan was spotless!
Suddenly, my anger at the whole “toilet seat up or down” debate evaporated, and I saw the error of my ways. As much as I enjoy the “manly” benefit of being able to pee anywhere on God’s green earth, this one I have to hand it to my wife: The most spill-free way is to sit down and do it.
The verdict is in, men: For a happy and stress-free marriage, leave the toilet seat down.
#4. Turning off the bathroom lights
I’ve got a blind spot on this one, and it’s 99% me: I forget to turn off the bathroom light after I’m done in there.
For this one, we spent a bit of money and actually installed timer circuits. Our electrician installed the circuit, so that the bathroom light will automatically switch off if there is no movement in the bathroom for 15 minutes.
Aside from a marginally lower electricity bill, it’s pretty convenient when you need to go in the middle of the night and you don’t remember to turn it off when you stumble back to bed, half asleep.
#5. Choosing what to eat for dinner
Whether it’s going out to an actual restaurant, or trying to order GrabFood or FoodPanda for delivery, this dreaded question would raise its ugly head at least three times a week.
While my wife is the picky eater, there are also places I won’t willingly go to either. So instead of trying to figure out where we should go and eat or order from, we reversed it: “What do you NOT want to eat?”
We take turns striking out what we don’t want to eat, which actually leaves a short list of 2-3 things we’re both ok with. And we just narrow the list until we get to a final choice that we can live with. We’ll generally toss a coin if it’s down to the last two things and we can’t agree.
#6. Deciding whose turn it is to do the dishes
My wife loves to cook, and since neither of us is a fan of clean up, we fought about who should be doing the dishes for a few years until we finally gave in and saved up for a countertop dishwasher.
The dishwasher gets the job done in about 25 minutes and uses six litres of water each time, whereas I used to take an hour and much more than six litres. It’s been an amazing time saver and I estimate that it has paid back its cost in about a year.
An added benefit is that we enjoy having friends over more often since I won’t spend half the night doing the dishes either. Plus, there’s a definite saving on my Syabas bill.
#7. Stealing each other’s phone chargers
Sometimes it’s convenient when you both have the same charging port. Unfortunately, this tends to devolve into a squabble about ‘stealing’ each others’ chargers whenever both phones are on their last 1% of battery life.
So we bought a ton of cheap chargers and cables from Shopee, and set up charging stations next to our computers in the home office, living room and on our respective bedside tables. No more fighting.
Then my wife switched to a new Android phone, so she can never, ever borrow my charger again. I’m going to say I won this one.
Fight about the things that matter, not the things that don’t
We love our partners, we really do, but sometimes we will fight with them about the most ridiculous things that drive each other insane.
Instead, why not take a step back and spend some time to figure out a solution together? In the long term, what matters more is how you resolve the fight, not what you fight over. The last thing we should be doing is squabbling about toothpaste and toilet paper!
What little things do you and your partner squabble about?
Share those with us in the comments!
Submit your story to this Google form or hello@inreallife.my and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: Society Says These 4 Red Flags Make For A Bad Partner, What Say You?
Society Says These 4 Red Flags Make For A Bad Partner, What Say You?
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