How Cleaning Can Save Your Marriage

At last, the secret to a happy marriage has been revealed.

And it's not hiding between the sheets.

It's in straightening them out. And emptying the wastepaper baskets.

And maybe pushing a vacuum cleaner around?

A new survey out of Britain's London School of Economics says the most successful marriages are the ones where husbands help clean the house.

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And you thought that sign in your granny's kitchen was just a joke. How do you think they made it 50 years?

It's purely anecdotal, but I've watched my friends whose marriages have crumbled -- their husbands were most often the Archie Bunker type, willing to come home from work, plop on the couch, and watch her wash the dishes, make dinner, throw in the laundry ...

Not to toot our own horns (OK, maybe a little), but our household is the exact opposite. I'll throw a load of laundry in; he'll fold it. I'll scrub the toilet; he'll sponge down the tub.

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A coincidence that we'll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this fall? I think not!

But then again, one of the reasons I married this man was because I knew he valued my time and my life as much as his own.

And the benefit of two people pitching in on cleaning up a house over one? There's a lot more time to spend between the sheets.

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