Women are from Venus while men are from Mars. This book authored by John Gray talks about the individual differences between a man and a woman in terms of how they respond to certain situations. Due to its truest description, the book’s title has become a metaphor for everyone in their conversations involving the two sexes. I guess the same thing goes for our home. Even if you are shown a picture of a house, you can easily distinguish which is which by the color of the interiors, house décor, personal things, or even with just the feel of the house itself. What struck me as the thick line that clearly defined the difference between a man and a woman, are the bedrooms and the bathrooms.

Men don’t like a lot of frills. They are known to be tough and straightforward people.  Women are soft and sweet. Actually, both have the same stuff in their bedrooms: a bed, table, chair, closet, carpet, wall frames, and a lamp. The difference though is the ambience of the room. A man’s room is more subdued focusing on earth colors, while a woman’s room is bright, lively and heavily accessorized. Consequently, same is applicable in the closet. A man has less clothes, and shoes, but a woman seems to have more than enough. At times, women lack the space to accommodate everything, and these will eventually pile up in her closet, particularly, the shoes!

What’s next is the bathroom. Here is the area of the house where the most obvious distinction lies. When you take a peek at the bathroom cabinet of a man, what are the common things that you see?

• Shaving cream
• Shampoo
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Mouthwash
• Dental floss
• Deodorant
• Razor

What about a woman's bathroom cabinet?

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Mouthwash
• Dental floss
• Deodorant
• Feminine wash
• Facial wash and scrub
• Facial Creams
• Sunblock
• Moisturizers and a variety of lotions

See the difference? Men are content with the basic necessities but women, ah women…like me, are not satisfied with what’s important. The last bulleted item says it all. When women see something new in the market, we want to try it on us immediately even if we still have the existing item. We also have the tendency to hoard these items instead of throwing it away since we use these interchangeably to the point of making a collection out of it. Fascinating?

Therefore, when the two sexes live together, imagine what the bathroom cabinet will look like!  Obviously, the woman’s stuff occupies the entire cabinet, leaving about ¼ of it to the man. In that case, you can always reach a compromise to avoid little issues.