Do You Suck At Housecleaning?
I certainly do.
I like to live in a world of delusion in which I am tidy, sweet, well-mannered, a solid Hollywood 8.5, and a person who always has coffee cake (gluten-free and regular, all homemade, of course.) In actuality, I am shit at housecleaning and not much better at laundry, which I will let pile up until I’m actively considering buying frocks off the neglected haunted clothing rack at CVS rather than using the pay-to-play washer and dryer in my building.
I dig the work of Marie Kondo, and The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, and also that one book about keeping house while you are drowning (it’s very good). But I read them almost as one might watch a WWE match - it’s fabulous theatre and entertainment, in its own quiet way, but it isn’t real.
Like you, I went through a Kondo phase during the height of the panny because honestly, what the fuck else did I have to do? Learn a trade? Actually stick to Duo Lingo Italian lessons? Use my Peloton that I eventually sold to my buddy Steve? HA!
What I’ve learned, though, is that tidying is a necessity for my brain to function correctly. I can’t afford to make somebody else do the tidying all the time, although I do invest in a housecleaning service once a month. This budget line item really ought to be housed under the “Healthcare” category along with talk therapy, psychiatry and the dentist and doctor.
So here I am, talking at all of youse when I could, in theory, be unpacking clothing from my recent trip East, or picking up the objects strewn across the floor, or throwing random shit in the trash because it is random and has not been used and never will be used. I could be doing a photoshoot of items I want to sell. Hell, I could be schlepping cardboard to recycling.
Truly, though, I would simply rather chat to you while watching the rays of the sunset illuminate a small lighthouse off the pier on Lake Michigan. I can mainly do that because I’m in my front room, the least untidy of my three rooms (four, if you count the bathroom). If I were in my bedroom, the boxes and mess around me would drive me mad. I wouldn’t likely pick them up or unpack them or whatever - I’d probably get in bed, pissed off, and try to take an angry 10 hour “nap.”
I ought to reframe “I suck at housecleaning” as “I prefer things other than housecleaning,” but this isn’t a therapy session and you know the truth. It is simply not my strong suit.
However, I can say for sure that when I’m really fucking pissed off and need to move anger through my body, it CAN be quite a wonderful activity.
I’m not making any promises to myself or to you, dear reader, but I may attempt to listen to Stevie Nicks and howl into the abyss while tidying up.
What banal things do you do to get energy out?
Love,
Sara
Patreon (new episode of patrons-only podcast episode drops tonight!)
It will not surprise you to learn that tidying & cleaning IS therapy for me, and I do it on purpose to wind down. I also like to go outside and pull weeds and trim dead leaves from my plants…which I suppose is just tidying my yard 😂
Timely post, Ms. Sara. Just this a.m. I got up early to head to the basement where all of my life's history is stored in boxes with the goal of throwing it all out. Two hours later I was reading my Jr. High principal's letter to my parents for why I would be suspended, again, for three days because of "fighting" in 1975. I laughed and went on to the next box only to find several other suspension letters.
I threw out some old motorbike magazines, a collection of ties from the 90's from a previous life, and got stuck in a second box for an hour re-reading old grade school report cards and trying to figure out which kid I was in the old class pictures. I do have a nice collection of vintage disc golf news and journals, old discs, and two boxes of trophy's from my "pro-open" years that would look better out of my basement than in.
Jeez. Only 20 more boxes to go. One of them has an old cast from when I broke my arm skateboarding our backyard ramp in the early 70's. Good, precious stuff like that.
You have motivated me to have another go, perhaps tomorrow, this time with my eyes closed.