18. Cleaning: Hey, even writers and creative artists have to do housework sometimes. Write about doing laundry, dishes, and other cleaning activities.
Growing up, I never did housework or laundry. I did do yard work but that’s another story. My mom was a clean fanatic but my guess it was because of gender expectations of the day plus a partner who thought the only contribution he had to give was a paycheck. But I digress.
I moved out at 19 years old into a college apartment and had the privilege of cleaning for the first time. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to clean, after all I had been a girl scout and I learned the proper way to do domestic duties. But knowing how to clean and actually executing the chore is much different. Laundry was the biggest challenge and I did have to call home the first time I did a load. What setting, how much soap? I did understand the concept of sorting laundry since that was drilled into my brain. In college, I cleaned once a quarter.
Fast forward to my marriage where my spouse worked and I did everything in the home. I discovered I wasn’t a very good housekeeper. I didn’t clean unless there was visible dust. I had mastered laundry so that wasn’t a problem. When kids came along I had no bandwidth for cleaning so cleaning was an as-needed basis e.g. when someone was going to visit.
I taught my kids to do laundry when they were 4 years old. They didn’t have to do all steps in the same day but they learned all the steps and could do each of them on their own. I have a photo somewhere of daughter doing laundry while still in her diaper.
Currently I do dishes and laundry with no problem but I’m still challenged by cleaning. I can do it but I don’t like doing it. I have the same philosophy that I’ll clean when someone is coming to visit but sadly can sit in my dust far longer than I should. I did a big clean before wedding2 and made the false promise to myself that I would clean a room a week. Ha! Maybe I can convince myself to clean a room a month.
