Pamamahay

After getting married and settling into a new home (assuming you've made the choice to live independently from any relative or family side), the newlyweds would find themselves in a totally new scenario, living together.

During the boyfriend/girlfriend and engagement phase, you'd probably be together only during dates, social events, parties and out of town. Other than that, you'll go to your respective homes once the day has ended. This time it's different. Ideally, this is going to be the first time both of you would be together for practically the longest time. After all, you just vowed to each other to be together for a lifetime.

And so whatever you were used to when you lived separately will have to be tested whether it would work or not. If you were accustomed to preparing the dinner table and only that, you'll have to rethink your entire habit especially if no ones gonna wash the dishes. Did you used to clean your room only once a week ? Well remember that now it's not just you living alone. So may be you'll have to clean up more frequently.

Pamamahay is the term one writer mentioned to us during a cooking demo. It's basically the couple getting a feel of their new home, new living conditions and new lifestyle and staying home to adapt to the new life together.

The moving-in is the first step, with both bride and groom bringing in their own sets of stuff. The more stuff you have, the more unpacking, organizing and arranging needs to be done. From there, you have to figure out what you don't have and need for the house. You're likely to realize this as the days go by and you suddenly find out that something that was conveniently available, isn't now. In my old house, we had 5 can openers. I was used to opening cans with any of them. It slipped my mind one day when we were going to open a can of pork and beans for lunch that we didn't own any can opener at all. What we thought we had based from our separate old houses was something we needed immediately. Good thing some other cans conveniently have a built-in latch for an easy pull-to-open mechanism.

Is it best to throw out the garbage every night or wait for it to be filled ? Do you keep the frontyard lights on or off during the night ? Do you hang your clothes or fold them ? Would you both like to have a pet or not ? Which brand of soap or detergent would both of you agree on using ? As the weeks go by, things will just fall into place. You would have decided which works best for you.

Both of you will get a hang of things and will do things more efficiently, may it be as big a task as doing the laundry and cleaning the house or as simple as slicing an onion and fixing your bed. Whether you discuss your roles in maintaining your household or just simply do what you do best and help out in the other chores, this will be mastered within months and soon enough, what seemed be impossible and take forever to accomplish may be a like breeze in the park after your pamamahay stage.