Trying to understand

Our house is laid out so the kitchen island is directly between the back door and the office. This is SWMBO's fault. She seems to be in a constant state of turmoil due to small tractor and dozer parts that I leave for a short while on the kitchen counter, along with parts lists that out of necessity have to accompany all parts. I usually take heroic efforts to clean most of the grease and oil from said parts, and besides, the counter is black granite and does not show dirt. I can't help it that I clean most parts with gas and it smells bad. SWMBO says that I have 2 barns and 2 garages to leave parts, and I frequently find my parts moved to an undisclosed location. I certainly hope that others on this forum are not working under such unreasonable conditions. I wonder if Sweetfeet has an opinion. Thanks, Ellis
 
You are not alone.
Wife cannot stand anything sitting out on a counter or anyplace. I open all cabinet doors and closets very carefully, because something will fall out.
It is so bad, we still haven't found those small blow bubble things that she bought for our wedding almost 5 years ago. My office and shop may be a mess,
but if asked to find something, it may take a minute or two, but I know real close to where it was.
 
Yeah sometimes they got no sense of priority. My wife never does understand when I just have to boil out a carburetor in the crock-pot. I admit the next roast has a taste to it ....
 
I don't know any women that won't complain about greasy parts and smell of gasoline in their kitchen and its probably a valid complaint. Kitchens aren't met to be work shops. My wife complaints if my hands smell of gas when I come in the house. As far as your black counter tops not showing dirt, odds are real good some of your grease and crud is contaminating your food, even if you have wiped it off.
 
Balancing your deposits with their location convenience might be tedious, but failure to account for her value added contributions to your general welfare might be contraindicated. Jim
 
Well did you ever notice that women constantly try to hide any evidence of a man ever being in 'THEIR' house, whether knowingly or unknowingly to themselves.
 
Fifteen years ago the EX said "congratulation, you won the S ..t wars." Good riddance. Being a pack rat can have it's benefits.
 
You may have made the mortgage payments or are making the mortgage payments, but it is HER house. Accept it. If she leaves you and there are papers signed, it will still likely end up being HER house. I doubled the square footage of our home about 10 years ago. I have a modest amount of space I can set up for my office, but since it has the computer, it remains mostly HER space. For the past 15 years I have wanted to have a place where I can put my stuff and have an office. I need a fair amount of "flat space" for organizing bills and records for my own personal records, the farm records, and four other organizations I am involved with. I used to laugh about all those guys my dad's age who built "man caves" in their garage, or in their farm shops. I now have a much better understanding and appreciation for those efforts.
 
LOL!!

I do find parts on the kitchen counter-top or sometimes hanging in our basement waiting for paint in wintertime... but after some "kind advice" early in our marriage - he is pretty good to set them on a piece of newspaper/in plastic bag or throw down a paint cloth when painting. But the parts are always pretty well cleaned up. :)

There are however, some enduring splotches of John Deere green and yellow over-spray on our rustic concrete basement walls (a heinous crime committed during our early years)... for which I have never been fully able to gain a "true appreciation of". Hee-hee!
 
Baked a manifold that was sprayed with a ceramic coating in the oven once-once. Really stunk up the house.
 
I put some brake discs on a cookie sheet in the oven one time to try to boil the oil out of them. She wasn't home at the time of course.
 
Kinda like hauling livestock in an SUV, the cleanup can take longer than the original task and the smell still lingers for weeks.

Old kitchen ranges, old clothes washers and dryers and old dishwashers are available cheap or sometimes free. RV antifreeze can preserve washers though cold winters in unheated spaces. If you have the shop space consider installing the most pirated kitchen appliances in the shop.
 
I guess if she's not hanging her unmentionables in your shop to dry than she might have a point.
 
You are correct, those are unreasonable requests.

Moving your parts to an undisclosed location is inexcusable!

Best you can do is try to get her into counseling ASAP!

While she's gone, make the best of your time in the kitchen.

As a compromise, you could set her up a Coleman stove in the living room, and a wash tub for the dishes. But let her know right up front, "NO MORE COMPLAINING"!
 
You know I read this and I see that I am not the only person who dose this. Back when I was young and lived in a very big town I had tried dating girls. I did good if they did not come to my house I say. It was clean and very nice but the fact is I had tractor stuff all over the place. for years I had put like a dash to the JD 70 Diesel tractor in the living room all painted up look great. I even had converted a hay cart over to be a full sized bed in my room. I had a truck step side bed in my guest room made in to a full size bed. Girls hated it but man I liked it. When I sold my house and moved I had a yard sale man I sold every thing I made and guess what I had made a lot of money for it. I did not know I was before my it on this stuff. Yes that is right I am old now and still single ladies missed out on a good person like me.
 
My projects get no further than the utility room by the back door. My office planned when the house was built but I constantly have to defend from being a catchall of things from other rooms. As long as she leaves the shop alone its okay.
 
I must admit my wife puts up with a lot. Parts new and old oils, the chainsaw and more loose bolts from my pockets and such. Never really complains though I know she would like for me to not bring these things in and not have them leave for day/weeks at a time. Though I have never tried some of the things you guys write about like carb cleaning in her rot pot or using the oven to heat pats. I did use moms oven to heat a couple of bearings to put on once though.
All in all she is a good egg about things like that. She even lets me help with canning. I do get my share of pies too.
 
Mine has a nose like a bloodhound and allergies. I am lucky if I make it in the house if I smell like gas or oil or many other things. My shop is a couple miles away so parts do not migrate.
 
Bake them too. I have my cat crew and the only cra...p they give me is in the litter box. Snuggle up in bed and purr me to sleep.
 
I have an opinion, but don?t we all. Just think of it as if she came into your work area and started mixing cake or bread and got flour and sugar all over your ready to assemble transmission or engine parts. I don?t think you would be very happy to have to clean it all up again before assembly. You need to move a part office in the garage or barn Where almost all the paper work gets done till it is filed for good. One must look at it from the women?s point of veins sometimes.
 
My Mom had this "BOX". She always told us that if we left anything out, it would go in her "BOX" and we would NEVER see it again. We never saw anything we left out, clothes, toys,shoes,etc. Our whole life we lived in fear of leaving something out and never seeing it again.
 
My shop is several hundred yards from the house, so I normally don't have a problem with intermix.

On the other hand, my father was only marginally housebroken, and I recall him doing some serious maintenance on a chain saw in the kitchen one winter evening, including starting it up.

My mother, bless her heart, just shrugged it off. I guess she got conditioned to it after a while.
 
I get the same thing and I have a walk-out basement, so nothing ever gets to the kitchen. But I still hear about the "stink" (gas, diesel, other solvents) even in the basement. I started using Purple Power to degrease winter projects but I have to scrub out the laundry tub after the hot rinse. It's really no different than the toilet seat issue.
 
Ellis, I think it's right smart of you (or her) to choose a black countertop that will not show the grease.

I have, in the past, found tractor parts in my bedroom top dresser drawer, lying right on top of my tighty whiteys. I did not put them there.
 
If I was fixing her vacuum or some other appliance, I could do it on the kitchen table and she would not even raise an eyebrow. A tractor or car part and holy smokes would that raise her hackles:).
 
Dont worry about it Ellis,,,the new husband will keep the counter clean,,you will have to work on the tailgate of the pickup..thats all you will own,,lol,,,,you cant mess up the cab of the pickup..that will be were you will have to sleep.....lol
 
My wife and I are still living in two houses together. Some nights her house, some nights mine. When I get this addition finished she will finally move in here
It does allow me a little leeway about what I can have in my house here.
We have an unfinished bedroom on the back end of the house. I use it for storage and a semi heated work shop.
Two weekends ago I wanted to put the tires back on my freshly painted rims but they were outside in the cold and snow. So I brought the tires in to the kitchen to warm them up a bit and well, it's a good thing she didn't decide to stop by then.
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....John Deere green and yellow over-spray on our rustic concrete basement walls (a heinous crime committed.....
Easily covered with Farmall Red.
 
My second wife had a habit of taking anything I left in the kitchen and putting it in a drawer she'd reserved.
I looked in there the other day. it appears wife #3 has picked up that habit as well.
 
Back in the days of my British Sports Car addiction, I took a 4 speed w/overdrive transmission apart in my Mother's kitchen over Thanksgiving Weekend. Due to having to ship the repair parts from Jolly Olde England, It was the next March when it went back together.....Dear Old Mom was not too happy with me.....Then, because I put it together wrong, I had to take it apart the next winter.....Did not have to wait for parts that time....
 
Yeah, whenever I breakout the Shooters Choice bore cleaner, the wife informs me about the "stink", even though it's down cellar. I kinda like the smell myself.........................................Now SC copper remover definitely does not smell pleasant. I usually use that when she's not in the house...................................
 
Greg1959

My late wife was some thing like your mother was, when she got her hands on some thing that was the last any body ever saw it.
 
I thought of another thing to do. I work in commercial kitchens so when nobody is looking.....take your dirty tool and dip it into the 375? deep fat fryer. INSTANTLY cleans all of the crud off. ZAP!!!
 

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