It’s a tough subject. Getting a man to do housework is not always easy. My opinion is that if both people work full-time jobs, both should divide household chores evenly because, after all, a house doesn’t have a woman’s face painted on it. That means, a home and the work that goes with it, should be a shared experience. Unfortunately, housework is rarely divided fairly.
It’s changing though. After circling the globe, and meeting men from around the world, I do believe that American men are the best men on the planet. Yep, American guys are the big Kahunas, the No. 1 of the male species on the globe – and you can’t change my mind about that. American men don’t slather us in yards of fabric “for our own protection.” They don’t kill us after we’ve been raped because we’ve tarnished their honor and, by in large, they’re more likely to be monogamous than men from other continents.
That being said, they also don’t pull their fair share of the housework load a lot of times. Sure, they’ll insist that they take care of the yard. But not every single day. Housework is an everyday affair. From laundry to meal preparation and clean-up, housework is always there, day in and day out. Now, before you can go accusing your man of not pulling his share of the housecleaning load, you need to be pitching in on the yard and helping him when he needs it, too. Then, you have a real reason to complain if your honey is a honey-don’t instead of a honey-do with a toilet brush.
So what does it take to get a man to pitch in around the house and help with the housework? Make housework and cleaning appeal to a man. If women put cleaning the house on manly terms, women are much more likely to get their hubbies excited about dusting and vacuuming. Heck, put housework on a man’s terms and women might find housework is more appealing to them, too.
It’s all about the tools
Men love tools. They want cleaning instruments that work and work well. Women will tolerate inferior performance and almost take pleasure in how long they can endure working with something that gives them substandard results. I would have been thrilled to marry “Tim the Tool Man Taylor” from ABC’s Home Improvement show. All that growling to rev up ordinary household items like sink disposals and vacuums was right up my alley.
Give a man the right tools to clean with and he will be excited to clean. Hand a man an old string mop and you’ll get a pitiful look in return. Give that same guy a microfiber mop that pulls up fistfuls of his golden retriever, Rusty’s, hair, and you’ll have a guy that will be happy to push that mop over your wood floor routinely. Why? He gets payback in filth for his efforts.
Microfiber cloths are another cleaning tool that men would love. They pick up dust better than any old t-shirt or towel. Microfiber will clean better than sponges, too. They get so much dirt that you can see that it makes using them a rewarding cleaning experience. Get an old t-shirt dirty and a man isn’t going to get excited about that; t-shirts are supposed to be dirty after all.
Microfiber outperforms almost any cleaning fabric you can buy. Purchase a pile of these and you’ll be all set for cleaning windows, dusting, cleaning bathrooms and almost any surface. And when you set your man to cleaning and dusting, give him a tool belt. That’s right a tool belt. Put the cleaning and dusting spray in one pocket and dust cloths in another. Put a plastic putty knife in one pocket to scrape up any soap scum or food particles stuck to the floor before mopping. A tool belt will instantly make him feel more serious about cleaning. I wear one while cleaning and it keeps me organized and not searching for the last place I set the dust spray down.
Visual gratification
It’s also no secret that men like are, ahem, visually-oriented. That’s why the Dyson vacuum could only have been invented by a man. No doubt, James Dyson, was frustrated when he vacuumed, as he says in his commercials, because his vacuum lost suction. But I bet what he was probably thinking was, “Show me the dirt; I want to see some dirt.” Thus, the Dyson vacuum was invented and it enabled vacuumers to see how much dirt and filth they were pulling up from the carpets (OK, and it didn’t lose suction). Ah, the glory of visual gratification. 
After having bought one of these beauties, I, too, will never be satisfied with a vacuum that doesn’t gratify my efforts will loads of nasty hair, dust, and debris. I just love seeing all that hair and dust and yuck swirl around as I vacuum. And then I get to dump it out into the garbage, satisfying my need for dirty. Your man could have this experience too. Where’s the satisfaction in a neat and tidy (not to mention expensive) vacuum cleaner bag? There is none. You can’t see anything and who knows if it’s even getting full? Buy a Dyson and your man will empty that vacuum collection cup time and time again, beaming with pride and enthusiasm to show you all the ick he’s vacuumed up. And, frankly, that vacuum is just plain fun to use and makes you want to vacuum. Think of it: a man who wants to vacuum. Tell him it’s indoor mowing and you’ll floors will be clean enough to eat off of.
Lessons Learned
What have we learned about getting men interested in cleaning the house? It takes the right tools. Women can learn something from men when it comes to tools. Invest in the good ones and using good tools makes the job better and maintains your interest in doing the job to begin with. We also learned that it pays to look at dirt. Giving a man the tools that are going to have him seeing dirty – and plenty of it -- will keep any man interested in chasing down dust bunnies. Lastly, we learned what does the cleaning trick for women doesn’t remotely interest men and that by giving men cleaning tools that reinforce him visually, women might also become more interested in cleaning, too.