A Reddit
user asked, “What little things have you done to improve the quality of
your relationship with your significant other?” He get flooded with
responses and got really great tips that people were actually doing in
their own relationships. Here’s some of the most up-voted responses.
#1. Let them have the last bite.
“I always give my significant other the last bite of anything
we’re sharing. Especially dessert. No matter how amazingly delicious…I
insist.”
#2. Spend more time together in the mornings, even if it means less sleep.
“My significant other gets up around 5:30 every morning. Instead
of staying in bed, I wake up make coffee for him before he hops in the
shower. I get everything ready the night before even the cups with sugar
and creamer and just hit the brew button when I jump out of bed, then
we have coffee and breakfast together when he’s out of the shower. Seems
like a small thing but it gives us 5 extra hours together a week and
it’s some of the best moments of my day.”
#3. Cook together.
“We cook dinner together every night. She usually makes a salad
or the vegetables. I do the meat. It’s 30-45 minutes a night we work
together to make something, and it’s every night.”
#4. Take their parents to lunch.
“This is an even bigger gift to your significant other as your
parents get older. Having one, often lonely parent, is a burden.
Sometimes, I show up at her Dad’s house and take him out to lunch. He
loves it, but she loves it even more. I do whatever I can to take some
of that burden off her shoulders.”
#5. If you don’t mind doing it, do it.
“I make the bed every single day. I’ve never really cared about
whether the bed was made because you just sleep in it right? My wife
told me early in our relationship how much she liked to get into a made
bed at night and that she thinks it makes the room look neater, but I
didn’t take much notice and just kind of kept leaving it messy. One day I
made it on a whim and when she came home from work it meant way more to
her than I had realized. She had had a bad day and just that little
gesture made her cry happy tears. I started making the bed every day and
it’s such a small thing but she’s told me a few times how much it means
to her!”
#6. Take pictures of her when she’s not looking, and then send them to her during the day.
“I take random pictures of her and the rest of the family, then I
just send them randomly to her during her day. So out of no where
she’ll get a nice pic of our kids, or the two of us somewhere. Then I
basically tell her each time how lucky I feel to have her and the kids. I
don’t overdo it. But just a subtle ‘I’m a very lucky man…’ and then a
picture, but I never forget to do it, and I hope she knows I never take
for granted the great things I have.”
#7. Give yourselves some “igloo time”
“For five minutes a day we huddle under a blanket, pretend we’re
in an igloo, and discuss our high and low for that day. I don’t know why
we make like it’s an igloo. There was probably a reason for it when we
first started the practice and we’ve both forgotten about it by now.”
#8. Take his towel while he’s showering and do this.
“I like to steal her towel and put it in the dryer. Then when I
hear her shut off the water I know I have about thirty seconds befor she
opens the shower door cuz she has little wiping her face off and
pushing her hair I back routine. So I open the door and wrapper in the
hot towel, kiss her cheek while her eyes are still shut and walk away.”
#9. Leave love notes for each other.
“We have very different work schedules and he leaves for work
before I even wake up, so every night I write him a note (a funny story
or joke, thanking him for something he did earlier that day, etc.) and
leave it by the coffeepot for him to read so it’s kind of like we get to
‘talk’ in the morning. In return, he makes coffee and opens all of the
curtains so I can wake up to fresh coffee and natural sunlight.”
#10. Lay down together and just talk.
“At one point, we realized we’d had sex about three times in 2
months, so we started trying to have sex at least once a week – and
usually multiple times. In that effort, we also wound up spending a good
deal of time just lying on the bed, chatting. For some reason, our
conversations while we were lying there naked were always much more
personal and intimate.”
#11. Make a list of what they like, and then give it to them from time to time.
“I get him these things from time to time – most recent was ‘mini
cadbury eggs’ because he said it was his favorite Easter candy. I want
him to know that I’m always thinking about him. I’m not so much a words
person, but more of an actions person.”
#12. Give each other small, inexpensive presents.
“One of the best stories my mom told me about my grandparents.
They had 12 kids on one, maybe one and a half salaries sometimes, so
money was always tight. My Papa would work, Nana would stay home with
the kids, but balance the checkbook and pay the bills. She’d give him an
allowance every week for lunch, gas, and whatever little thing. He’d
save as much of the remainder as he could and every few weeks to a
month, he’d buy her a teacup and saucer from a china shop. He’d usually
want to buy her the entire tea set, because she loved that sort of
thing, but they’d end up selling the other pieces and he’d have to get a
mismatching set. So now she has a ton of beautiful china that she
adores, and none of it matches but it makes it better that way because
it was more than just laying down a checkbook, it was the thought of him
counting his pennies and nickels for weeks just to do something nice.”
#13. Exercise together and get high on endorphines
“Going out to eat together or for cocktails on typical dates gets
old really fast, and after a long day of staring at a computer I
usually don’t feel like seeing a movie. For some reason, I used to
refuse to exercise in front of my partner, but since I started going for
20+ mile bike rides with my current boyfriend, I’ve realized how silly
that was. Who cares about sweat? The experience of working out together
is exhilarating…plus, the couple that exercises together has a better
time in bed together. FACT.”
#14. Dance with her.
“I dance with her. Not anywhere special, it doesn’t even have to
be in public, usually. I’ll just start dancing with her. We’ll be doing
the dishes or something and I’ll put my arm around her waist and start
humming.”
#15. Be a tease.
“I told my GF that I couldn’t pick her up from the airport after
she was away for a week, but I’d give her the money for a cab once she
got home. Then I went to airport in a suit, and stood in baggage claim
holding up a sign with her name on it as if I was a limo service.”
#16. Turn your phone off when it’s time for dinner.
“I’m 31, but man, I have a hard time not looking at the thing for
an hour or so. But when I do, and I look at her when she’s speaking,
you can see her light up and she becomes a lot more talkative, happier
about life, etc.”
#17. Have some awesome hobbies that you do alone.
“You can’t do everything together. Living with someone can be
difficult if one or both people rely on the other for attention and
entertainment all the time. My wife likes to read. I like to play video
games and shoot hoops with the neighbors. We have things we like to do
together, but it’s nice to be able to get away and do our own thing when
we feel like being alone.”
#18. Make your very own “Fight Box”.
“They call it a fight box. Some people build one of these at
their wedding, but you can also put one together the first day you say I
love you. Write love letters to each other and place into a box along
with a bottle of wine. Nail it shut. When you have your first fight,
open it up, pour the wine, go to separate corners, read the love
letters, and remember what it’s all about.”
#19. Prepare their toothbrush every morning.
“All I do is put the toothpaste on it add a little water and set
it on a little thing to keep it off the countertop. It’s a small gesture
to let her know I’m thinking of her when I wake up and when I go to bed
and all day in between. She loves it. I got the idea from my dad, who’s
been doing it for my mom for like 38 years or whatever.”
#20. Don’t say sorry – say “thank you” instead.
“When you say, “Sorry for being a jerk,” the other person is
forced to either call you a jerk, or say it wasn’t a big deal. Instead,
say “thank you for being so being so patient with me.” It let’s the
other person know you understand your shortcomings and it gives them an
opportunity to tell you they love you.”
#21. Make lots of tiny, small sacrifices.
“We keep a book of Sudoku puzzles in the bathroom. I only do the puzzles on the left, even though we’re both right-handed.”
#22. If it’s special and it can break/wear down, keep a second pair so you can surprise them with it when the time comes
“She had broken this pair of rubber boots she was in love with
and enjoyed jumping in puddles all the time. Of course they didn’t have
the exact same boots at the store. She got new boots and she liked them
but missed her old boots. I anticipated that she would eventually fall
in love with the new pair as she got used to them. I went out and bought
a second exact same pair and kept them at my house. Then about TWO
YEARS later she texted me “I BROKE MY BOOTS :(((” When I showed up with
the boots and told her the story she just about killed me with a bear
hug.”
#24. Just be there for them and listen.
“He needs to talk things out to make decisions. I don’t – I’m the quiet one in the relationship. But, I listen and ask questions when I can, and it helps him. He knows I get bored (he’s a self-employed handyman, and he sometimes talks me through his improvement projects in DETAIL to make sure he’s prepared for the job). But, I listen because it helps him and it’s a small sacrifice to help him feel confident that he’ll be doing his job efficiently.”
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