# Man To Man...how Do You Deal?



## louosten (Oct 31, 2015)

Wifey sez;

There's grease on the door knobs, dirt on the floor, my kitchen dishes & bowls are full of solvents, and you've substituted kerosene for Jade East cologne...it didn't used to be like this!

Looking for real solutions...in all the wrong places.


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## jim18655 (Oct 31, 2015)

That's the price she must pay for you staying out of her way. Fix or make something for her occasionally and she might learn to accept it.


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## Charles Spencer (Oct 31, 2015)

Get your own containers to use.  Dollar Store or Salvation Army.  Keep Goop and paper towels in the shop and clean your hands before you go into the house.  Keep a pair of shop shoes or boots that you change when you come in.

Happy wife = happy life.

PS You're still going to stink.  Take a shower.


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## middle.road (Oct 31, 2015)

Garage & Estate sales for containers, very good source. 
For a laugh, I came home with a bunch of stuff from a garage sale a few weeks and there were several pieces of Tupperware in my score.
Honey snagged a few of them for the kitchen... And they had lids! I was going to organize stuff. <whimper>
I also snagged a couple of heavy aluminum turkey pans, there getting used for oily / de-greasing stuff. All on the cheap.

As Charles said, keep the goop handy, and a clean shop rag in your back pocket to wipe down the doors and doorways.

As for the Kerosene just pick up some Mint, Menthol or Eucalyptus Oil and spiked it. A few drops and all will be sweet.


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## Terrywerm (Oct 31, 2015)

Like already mentioned, having a separate pair of shop shoes is invaluable. My wife is used to me smelling like all sorts of things over the years, but luckily I am not afraid of soap and water. The biggest problem we have is the occasional little piece of swarf that escapes from the shop and appears somewhere in the house. Since experiencing that problem, I have taken to doing a much better job of ALWAYS wearing my apron in the shop, ALWAYS take it off before going in the house, and ALWAYS changing to the appropriate pair of shoes. I also keep plenty of rags and paper towels in the shop along with a bottle of waterless hand cleaner.


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## louosten (Oct 31, 2015)

Forgot to mention, I use Wifey's oven to heat up metal parts, and dry paint...sometimes the smell is obvious.


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## alloy (Oct 31, 2015)

I have the same kinds of  problems, metal chips on the carpet, smells from the shop, air compressor making noise.  

She puts up with it.  I kid her and tell her it keeps me out of bars and from chasing wild women


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## RJSakowski (Oct 31, 2015)

Greasy hands; got my own sink in the shop area.  It is also used for all the nasty stuff that shouldn't go in the kitchen sink.  Need an oven; have two lab ovens in the forge. Tracking swarf; mats at the bottom and top of the basement stairs (still working on that one). All the noise from the machines; no answer for that one yet (try to work around her schedule).  You spend more time with your machines than you do with me; definitely no answer for that one.

I do keep work boots and work clothes in the basement so I can come up into the living zone looking somewhat respectable. Also keep grubbys separate from the rest of the laundry.

Bob


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## oldboy1950 (Oct 31, 2015)

Wow  you are really asking for trouble ( i have also used the oven for baking enamel but wait till she is of somewhere 


louosten said:


> Forgot to mention, I use Wifey's oven to heat up metal parts, and dry paint...sometimes the smell is obvious.


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## markknx (Oct 31, 2015)

Wife said much of this to me, Then said something has to change. I said how about your address? last we talked about it. I will say it may have helped that right after that I was able to fix her washing machine by shop time. and made her some hanging flower baskets.
Mark


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## Ulma Doctor (Oct 31, 2015)

I must be the luckiest man on earth,
my better half accepts that i stink ,after working or playing hard.

of course i have had to adjust how i think about things-
I do my best to not mess up her kitchen. she stays out of my shop(s)
you may just need a little forethought as to how to avoid the spat in the first place,
like not washing the gojo and dawn from your greasy hands onto White China, or putting your greasy coveralls in the "regular laundry".
she gets real cranky and almost downright mean when she gotta throw clothes out or turn em' into rags.

a tip i can give, use bacon grease/mineral oil for drilling and tapping- you'll smell better than using dark cutting oil
swap lacquer thinner for kerosene, the smell dissipates better  

think like the enemy, if you wish to engage


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## Terrywerm (Oct 31, 2015)

I don't know if this will cure the noise from the basement shop problem or not, but I am currently working on getting my basement shop set up. It's been a long slow process as time to work on it is hard to come by, but my future shop is directly below our dining room. I plan to put in suspended ceiling down there, which helps with noise issues, but I may also put fiberglass insulation between the floor joists, hoping that it will help dampen more of the noise.


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## T Bredehoft (Oct 31, 2015)

terrywerm said:


> fiberglass insulation between the floor joists,



It will, my shop has 8" of fiberglas above the drywall ceiling, I can hear herself thumping on the floor to get my attention, but she can't hear my (quite) machines. When I work Cast Iron, the kitchen floor gets black in spots.  I scrub them away occasionally. She still feeds me.


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## cvairwerks (Oct 31, 2015)

Only thing my wife really gets tweaked about is if I come home smelling like JP-5 and don't toss my clothes in the washer post haste and hit the shower. If I'm not in the shower within 10 minutes, I hear about from her.


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## kvt (Oct 31, 2015)

I guess mine is somewhat understanding.  (and I make her things every once and a while).   She understands the greasy smell and the gunk in the sink,  and has even put up with me using her dishwasher to clean stuff, oven to bake and heat stuff.  ad has found some of my parts cooling in the freezer.   But she takes it in stride.   I did a lot of auto work over the years, and the one time she got real upset was when did not have a shop while in England and we had just installed new carpet when the engine on my car had problems,  I pulled it took it apart, and sent it to a machine shop to have machine work done then when it was ready I put plywood and plastic down on the fore and check everything and assembled it in the living room floor.  Lucky for me I did not get any grease on the new light colored carpet. 
I keep a good supply of rags in a box, to wipe down and clean with, go jo hand cleaner to clean up with, and mats to help keep the swarf out of the house.   It does help.


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## coolidge (Oct 31, 2015)

Look women are naturally nesters and messing up their nest in the house well it would be less risky to carelessly handle explosives.


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## Charles Spencer (Oct 31, 2015)

oldboy1950 said:


> Wow  you are really asking for trouble ( i have also used the oven for baking enamel but wait till she is of somewhere



I was lucky enough to find a decent-sized used toaster oven for cheap that goes up to 500F.

The only machine that makes noise in the living area is the belt/disk sander.  That's because it is the only machine in the basement; everything else is in an attached tiny garage.  Of course, the reason that machine is there is because I seldom use it.  I have a smaller one that I generally pull out for smaller jobs.


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## kd4gij (Oct 31, 2015)

I use grime boss hand wipes in the shop. Get them cheap at Sam's club.


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## ogberi (Oct 31, 2015)

Uh, if  those are despensing units, I'll take a case.   Or three...


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## Billh50 (Nov 1, 2015)

I use hand cleaners and wipes on my hands. Make sure all chips are off the bottom of my shoes before leaving the shop area. For containers I reuse those small tubs the deli uses for the potato salad. They have a snap on lid so they work pretty good for cleaning small parts. Also I do make something for the wife now and then when I hear her talking about something she would like.

When the woman is unhappy everyone is unhappy.


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## VSAncona (Nov 2, 2015)

You guys are making me feel better about being single. Thanks.

Now I'm going to go degrease some more parts in the kitchen sink.


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## Billh50 (Nov 2, 2015)

I really can't complain about my other half. She let me build  a motorcycle in the living room once. Has had me rebuild carbs and motors on the kitchen table. So if I can keep some chips out of the carpet and grease off the door knobs it's the least I can do.


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## The Liberal Arts Garage (Nov 2, 2015)

louosten said:


> Wifey sez;
> 
> There's grease on the door knobs, dirt on the floor, my kitchen dishes & bowls are full of solvents, and you've substituted kerosene for Jade East cologne...it didn't used to be like this!
> 
> Looking for real solutions...in all the wrong places.


Make your hobbyusefull to her. Does everything in her life work?
Does she understand what you do? Do you Talk? Are you Best Friends?
Believe me, thirty years of happiness ......BLJHB


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## Fabrickator (Nov 2, 2015)

My wife and I have an understanding.  I keep out of her sewing room and she stays out of my shop space.  I don't get poked with lost straight pins and tag-along thread trimmings, and she doesn't get "swarfed".


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## Olddaddy (Nov 2, 2015)

I am fortunate to have a large shop, larger than the house, and detached by 15 feet from the abode.  My wife rules the abode and I inhabit the shop.  I wear a hard rubber clog from the back porch to out of doors and never enter the abode without first dousing my hands and arms with a pumice laced citrus scented cleaner and removing the hard rubber clogs.  I typically change shop clothes on the back porch and immediately place them into the washer and head into the bathroom and shower immediately.  I did not marry until I was into my 40s and now at nearly 62 have obtained a lasting peace by some well considered behaviors and maintaining her to do list at all times.   She is a wonderful woman, friend, companion, and a mean cook to boot!  Life at my house is good.


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## louosten (Nov 2, 2015)

I was wondering when the large, separate shop, complete with wash sink, shower, and separate clothes rack would factor into the equation...
although I've seen magnificently kept spaces much smaller than my garage.


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## Olddaddy (Nov 2, 2015)

I don't have a shower yet, but I do have running water......might need to think about that shower idea.

Also note,  I kept my 650 Triumph in our entry foyer for about four years before the shop was built.....knew then that she was a keeper (the wife!)


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