Once when I was a teenager, my mom looked like she was going to pass out at the kitchen sink. She had the 'flu. My dad was sitting there reading the paper. He was from the old school. He didn't do housework. I said, "Well, gee whiz, Mom, why are you doing the dishes? I'll do them." She went to bed and I finished doing the kitchen. When Jo Ann and I got married, it was no sweat, because I'd been helping my mother for some time.
We just celebrated fifty years' marriage in February. We've always worked together in the house and in the yard. That's why we've had a successful marriage. For our generation, I think our way of doing things was a bit radical.
We take care of things so that they last. The sofa, chair and carpets are fifteen years old. They're in pretty good shape. These two end tables were wedding presents. That hutch is fifty years old. If you have a system, the stuff lasts. Instead of buying all new carpets and spending two thousand bucks, we put that towards a trip. That's what we like to do. We're comfortable, but we're not rich. We'd much rather travel than to look at new carpets.
-JoAnn and Richard
Photos and text from the forthcoming book "Cleaning: People Talk About Housework"