Friday, March 16, 2007
Am I a slob? (don't answer that)
I don't like to clean the house, or do any housework of any kind. I don't think anyone likes to do these things, but it seems that most responsible adults do them anyway. I don't. I tend to do dishes when we run out of spoons, or bowls, or something else that we can't eat without. I wash a pot if I need it to cook in. The floor of my bedroom is covered in clothes, and I've just been stepping on (not over, on) them all week to get to my bed (usually I at least kick them to the side, but there is no room for that now). Janie came over today, and she could barely get from the front door to the couch because of all the backpacks, shoes, fleece jackets, car seats, baby toys, library books, DVDs, swimming suits, socks, bags, and mail blocking her way (not to mention giant, man-eating dust bunnies). My friends say comforting things to me like, "Andrea (they don't call me Potato Girl), you've got three kids." But I've noticed that they have two, three, even four kids, and their houses do not look like my house, even when I drop by unexpectedly. What do I do with my time, while other people are cleaning their houses? I spend a lot of time on the computer. I sit on the couch or lie in my bed reading books or writing in my journal. I take naps. In the evening, I watch old Grey's Anatomy or House episodes. I like to do research, learn about things, think about things, and write about things. I clean the house in my mind. Yes, that's it.
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7 comments:
(dare I say this) I actually like to clean, most of the time. When I have time to sit and organize and scrub things i really enjoy it. I don't however like doing some of the things that your really good at like teaching other adults at church, or writing in my journal, blogging, or taking a nap (everytime I try to I keep thinking I should be cleaning something!). Good thing God made us all different or life would get boring.
i can't say that i like to clean, so much as i can say that i'm a compulsive cleaner. i have to have the kitchen clean if i plan to bake/cook for fun. and every night before Miles goes to bed, i can't relax until the toys are organized on the wall. my mother should be proud of herself for passing her cleaning affliction on to me.
You know, you are pretty lucky that your dreaded thing is something you can get away with doing very little of. My dreaded activity is cooking. When I was on my own, I lived on Grape Nuts, frozen burritos and ramen. Then I married someone who really cares about food. And I produced a bunch of little people that I gave a defective gene to--the gene to get whiny and dumb when they are hungry. And whenever they get hungry, they all look at ME. Usually, I am hungry too, but I am too whiny and dumb in my low blood-sugar state to recognize it. I suppose I could still get by on cereal and frozen burritos, but it would remove one of the central pleasures from my husband's life and one of the ways he can tell I love him. Also, it is so darn unhealthy to live on cheap, easy, bad food. It's fine to do to yourself just during college, but it seems really bad to force that on your spouse and offspring. So anyway, I am hoping that one day I will wake up and this weakness will have become a strength. But for now it is still a struggle every day. I wish I could just cook up feasts for my mind...
Andrea, have you thought about becoming a freelance writer? You're so good at writing! You could do lots of cool research about whatever you're writing about, and you'd have a flexible schedule. With part of your paychecks you could just hire someone to clean the house.
My house is pretty much always a wreck. I'm impressed that you have dirty dishes at all - I've given up and, when JC is out of town, I use paper. Sometimes I'll even eat 4 or 5 meals off the SAME PAPER PLATE, because I'm too lazy to get out a new one. I don't cook anymore, I order a pizza on Monday and then ration to make it last until Friday. I regularly rewash clean laundry because I leave it in the washer so long it starts to smell. And I hate taking out the garbage, so our house pretty much always smells like poopy diapers. Janie is right, we all have something we're good at. Unfortunately my thing is sitting around getting fatter. I'm doing AWESOME at that one...
The one thing I will avoid like the plague for the rest of my life is dishes. Washing dishes is stupid. It doesn't kill people to eat off dirty plates, it's just a little gross. But you could technically cycle through the dirty ones a couple of times before resorting to washing them. No one will notice but your husband. Little kids especially don't care! :)
Ok, you've been to my house its not the cleanest of places on the face of the planet. I used to be ashamed and embarrassed by my lack of ability to keep things clean no matter how hard I try but I've decided that its just a waste of energy. These are the things that make us human. If everyone could keep a perfect house then no one would appreciate the clean floors or clean dishes in the world. I try to keep up on the cleaning...my goal is one room a day if I can pick one room and get it clean in a day then I'm not a total and complete slob and I still feel like I can go play with my pictures for an hour or write on here for a while. House work is totally over rated.
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