I used to think chores were a chore.
The bed to make. The clothes to wash and dry and fold. The dishes. Every dang meal. It’s not uncommon for me clean the same cup twice in a day. Then there’s the vacuuming. And the bathroom. How often is not often enough?
One of my first jobs is as a dish pig in a popular café.
I’m a day-one employee. Unskilled. B- is my supervisor and teaches me some useful tricks. Bunch all the cutlery in my hand and brush, rather than one fork at a time. Then into the steriliser. I get very good at doing dishes. Too good. New employees get sent straight to the coffee machine: that’s my dream job! I ask why it’s not me. I receive a slice of wisdom that I will wrestle with till the end of my days.
Don’t be good at something you don’t want to do.
Several years ago I have a Damascus experience.
It may involve a sand mandala.
Well, now, that’s how I think about housework 🧹.
A food-splattered surface is a gift. The perfect opportunity to enjoy the create the satisfaction of a clean one. The circle of dishes has become my circle of life. Each night, I set off the dishwasher. No matter whether it is full or not.
In the morning, I wake to make my child a milky and return the dishes to their regular posts, ready to get dirty again.
Several times a year I vacuum the walls and ceilings to remove the old spiderwebs (if I see a spider working hard to catch flies, I will spare the web).
There are things I don’t do as much (as I’d like to 🤪). The clothes washing tends to happen outside my active windows. It’s impolitic to run the machine early in the morning or after family bedtime. Its spin cycle makes a terrible racket. But I try to pull my weight folding. And hanging and pegging at the weekends.
Cars interior are my domain. A relatively regular vacuum and cloth wipe brings 😌. My beloved father in law is a car exterior specialist. He purchased a range of chamois and cloths and showed me how to get impressive results on cloudy headlamps.
Cyclical housework is pleasant testament to the dilemma of progress.
Cleaning needs to be done. Then it needs to be done again.
There is no cleaning in death.
Therefore, cleaning is a death-defying act of life. 🧘♀️
Where’s my 🪣?
That’s one way to turn a negative into a positive…. And/ or give yourself more of the satisfied feeling seeing things clean, neat and tidy!