My wife and I have spaces that we each have control of. I have the downstairs living room for a gameroom, and a bedroom to use as my office. While she uses the gameroom, I am the one who decides what is in it. Outside of the gameroom and my office, I have very little say in what happens in the rest of the house.

She regularly thinks of some reason to try to change this agreement, so it takes some diligence to keep the rules in force. Sometimes she complains that I have more space. Then I have to point out that she has a spare room as well that she wants to keep as a guest room. The upstairs living room is not game friendly, so the PS4 has to be down in my office. She also has the dining room, which to me is the biggest waste of space in a house. I get the standard 10% of the closet space.

We agreed to these areas as a condition of buying the house. I know too many guys who have no space of their own in their house, and that is not something I would ever be ok with.

We keep our money separate as well, so there is no argument of buying stuff either way as long as it fits in the allotted space.