When we think about stereotypes, girls are supposed to be the clean ones. In our collective minds, women are cleaning and tidying up in the house and urging their significant others to do the same. In reality, we can be as messy and gross as the guys. It's exhausting to keep a pristine home, so we dabble in the occasional weaponized incompetence, too.
We've compiled a selection of the most hilarious, irritating, and vexing pics of boyfriends and husbands coming across the messes that their girlfriends or wives made. Some of them include nasty habits – others are just fun quirks. But the bottom line is this: we can all be messy and weird, and the best way to approach it is probably with a healthy dose of humor.
#1 My Girlfriend Throws Her Daily Contact Lenses Behind The Headboard Of Our Bed
Image credits: FireRotor
#2 I've Watched My Partner Pick Her Nose While She Drives But Never Made The Connection Of Where She Wipes Her Snot Until I Drove Her Car
Image credits: chichi-lover
#3 My Wife Putting This Peanut Butter In The Trash Because "It's Empty"
Image credits: reddit.com
In addition to being inaccurate, stereotypes about which gender is tidier don't benefit either of them. Then one group are slobs, and the other has to face constant pressure to be 'the clean ones.' Is there any evidence to support the claims that either men or women are cleaner?
A 2012 study found that men's office desks tend to be "consistently more contaminated." Other research in the past has also suggested that men wash their hands and brush their teeth less than women do. And that's especially true when it comes to using the bathroom. A 2013 study revealed that only 77% of men whom the researchers observed at the Michigan State University campus washed their hands after using the bathroom.
#4 This Is How My Wife Leaves A Dish After Taking It Out Of The Oven And Walking Away. We Have Children And A Dog
Image credits: TeriasP
#5 This Was My Wife's "Trash Pile" From Destemming The Strawberries
Image credits: OuterSpacePotatoMann
#6 The Way My Wife Cuts Tomatoes
Image credits: flerbergerber
What were the numbers for women? Considerably better. 93% of women washed their hands after a visit to the bathroom. Out of those who washed their hands, 50% of men used soap, compared to 78% of women. And here's the bad news for all: only 5% of all people the researchers observed washed their hands long enough to kill all germs.
Another interesting phenomenon comes to light when we look at what cleanliness factors people say are important to them. Interestingly, both men and women (98%) agree that washing their hands after using the toilet is important. But only 84% of men believe this habit is very important, while the percentage for women is much higher – 91%.
#7 How My Girlfriend Has Her Car Every Time She Visits
Image credits: NeedsMoreBunGuns
#8 My Wife Never Fully Screws The Lids Back Onto Anything
Image credits: EchoJXTV
#9 My Wife Leaves Her Used Floss There For The Next Day
Image credits: itsokmomma
The same trend follows throughout the rest of the poll. More women than men believe that changing undergarments and clothes and washing hands after using public transportation are crucial behaviors. The same goes for habits like sanitizing mobile devices, living spaces, and work spaces: only about a third of men find these practices to be important.
#10 My Wife Doesn't Throw Her Trash Away Before Putting Her Dish In The Sink, So I Often End Up With This
Image credits: notanalien000
#11 My Wife Puts Her Hairballs Anywhere But The Trash Can
Image credits: Historical_Air_8997
#12 The Way My Wife Opens Things
Image credits: theDaninDanger
However, just because women say that cleaner spaces and personal hygiene matter to them greatly doesn't mean that they are, in fact, tidier or that they have better personal hygiene. Susan Michie, health psychology professor and director of the Centre for Behavior Change at the Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology at University College London, believes that such behaviors are socially programmed, not genetic. "Women are more focused on care than men – childcare, household care, personal care," she explained.
#13 I Think I Married A Sociopath. The Way My Wife Uses Her Magnesium Supplements
Image credits: rubber_otter
#14 My Wife Doesn't Get All The Ice Out Of One Tray Before Using Another
Image credits: jonnybanana88
#15 How My Wife Puts Away The Cutlery
Image credits: FGGF
The researcher who conducted the Michigan State University campus study, Carl Borchgrevink, suggested that men washed their hands less because they believe fearing germs is emasculating. "We did talk to some of [the men] and ask, 'Why didn't [you] wash your hands?' And they would look at us indignantly and say, 'I'm clean, I don't need to wash my hands.' They had a sense of invincibility."
#16 My Girlfriend's Kitchen, Everyone
Image credits: billybear0108
#17 My Wife Insists This Is Normal
Image credits: mgf1439
#18 My Wife Only Takes A Few Bites Of An Apple And "Saves The Rest For Later"
Image credits: MethIsntCool
Men and women also perceive their messy surroundings differently. In a 2012 UCLA study, mothers and fathers did video tours of their homes with researchers who observed their levels of the stress hormone cortisol. They found that the mothers felt more stressed in cluttered environments, and the fathers remained psychologically unaffected.
#19 Wife Didn't Want Anything From The Burger King, So I Got Home, Went To The Bathroom, And Came Back To This
Image credits: Punch_Your_Facehole
#20 Every Time My Girlfriend Gets Drunk
Image credits: Panderverse
#21 My Lunatic Wife Cuts Bananas In Half And Just Leaves The Top
Image credits: reddit.com
The mothers used words like "mess," "not fun," and "very chaotic" when describing their homes. The fathers, on the other hand, didn't mention the messy environments at all. "Fathers in their home tours would walk in the same rooms their wives had come through and often made no mention whatsoever of the messiness and were unaffected psychologically," UCLA professor of anthropology, Jeanne Arnold, said.
#22 My Partner Put My Laptop In The Freezer Cause It Was Overheating
Image credits: Hambino0400
#23 My Wife Spits Her Seed Shells Into The Door Handle Of Our Car
Image credits: slangin_meds
#24 Check Before Buying Groceries
My wife never checks if we have something or not before going to the grocery store or, even worse, ordering online. Case in point: about 7 cream cheeses. Varieties are nice, but we'll never use them up without bagels 3 meals a day. It's not really a money thing, but I just hate wasting food.
Image credits: namadio
But that doesn't mean that men don't notice the mess. In 2019, researchers showed participants photographs of messy rooms. They found that "men and women respondents do not differ in their perceptions of how messy a room is or how urgent it is to clean it up."
#25 How My Partner Leaves The Sugar After Making Coffee
Image credits: cheeky-ninja30
#26 My Wife Never Finishes A Bottle Of Shampoo Or Body Wash Before Buying A New Kind And Leaving The Old Ones
Image credits: reddit.com
#27 My Girlfriend Only Eats The First Bite Of Cookies Because "It's The Best Bite"
Image credits: ShallowBox
However, the respondents did care about to whom the messy room belonged. Upon hearing that a woman lives in the clean room, the participants judged it as less clean than when a man lived there.
They also thought that guests would judge the woman more and that she would feel uncomfortable having people over. And it was here that the main difference presented itself: we hold women to a higher standard of cleanliness than men.
#28 How My Girlfriend Doesn't Zip The Resealable Bag Closed And Puts The Bag Upside Down
Image credits: hunt103
#29 This Represents A Single Week Of Mugs And Glasses That My Wife Leaves In Our Bathroom. I Clean All Of These Every Week, And They Are Back The Next. Anyone Else Feel My Pain?
Image credits: newmyy
#30 How My Wife Loads The Dishwasher
Image credits: beastly13579
It's also worth mentioning that the conclusions of the study played into the stereotype that men are lazy slobs. Respondents said that if the messy room belonged to a man, he was less responsible and hardworking. Yet participants didn't think that visitors would judge the man. "There's no expected social consequence to that," one of the researchers, Sarah Thébaud, said. "It's that 'Boys will be boys' thing."
#31 The Way That My Girlfriend Eats A Pizza
Image credits: alarik98
#32 This Is How My Wife Deals With Avocados
Image credits: pelito
#33 My Wife Leaves The Empty Candy Wrappers In The Bowl Of Candy As She Eats Them
Image credits: SirDeezNutzEsq
#34 This Is What My Wife Does To Muffins
Image credits: kmkent51
#35 Things My Wife Leaves In The Fridge
Image credits: SnooLobsters8922
#36 Wife Asked Me To Put Some Gas In Her Car Before She Drives To Work Tomorrow
Image credits: Texas12thMan
#37 "It's Always So Cold In Our House. Our Furnace Sucks." -Wife In January 2020 When It's -32°C
Image credits: dfGobBluth
#38 I Went To The Bathroom And Came Back To Find That My Girlfriend Had Taken A Bite Out Of My Burrito
Image credits: AGreenProducer
#39 My Wife Never Replaces The Roll. This Is The Closest She Will Get
Image credits: kawikacosta
#40 My Wife Just Throws Her Kitchen Scraps In The Sink Instead Of The Trash Can Because "The Disposal Can Handle It." The Sink Disposal Is Not A Trash Can, Right?
Image credits: kirby5801
#41 My Girlfriend Leaves The Bath Tub Running Slightly 24/7, 365 Because Her Cat Likes To Stick His Paws In It
Image credits: reddit.com
#42 My Wife: "I Always Check The Lint Trap." Every Time I Check The Lint Trap, I Find It Like This
Image credits: stlredbird
#43 My Wife And Kids Find This Perfectly Normal And Acceptable
Image credits: Echo_Romeo571
#44 The New Jar Of Nutella My Girlfriend Tried To Heat In The Microwave
Image credits: aintx
#45 My Wife Dropped Peanut Butter Toast On The Floor. That Was 24 Hours Ago
Image credits: Hand-Driven
#46 The Way My Wife Changes The Toilet Paper Roll
Image credits: FunWithAPorpoise
#47 My Wife Kept Threatening To Throw Away My Favorite Pair Of Yard Work Shorts. Today I Found Them Like This
Image credits: buckeyespud
#48 My Partner Insists That The Scrub Mommy Is A Washcloth, And This Is How She Stores It
Image credits: Price-x-Field
#49 My Wife Leaves The Lights On For No Reason
Image credits: One_pop_each
#50 My Wife Keeps Using My iPad As Her Coaster
Image credits: JayTheSay
