Tuesday, October 26, 2010

House Wife

"What do you do?"

I get that question a lot. There are a lot of answers - mom, teacher, singer, writer......housewife. Ugh. I hate that word. "Housewife". It smack of pearls and high heels and 'just running a vacuum cleaner oven this floor before I get the roast out of the over. Whoops! Hubby's home - better make sure my make-up is just right."

Maybe that is why I rebel. No makeup, no heels, no pearls, no pot roasts, and almost no "running the vacuum cleaner" over anything!

I do try. Really. In all honesty, I run the vacuum a lot. And the washing machine. Everyone who really knows me knows I absolutely hate doing laundry. I have always felt that way, but even more so now, with nothing but smelly male-laundry to handle. And even especially right now, as my dryer has not worked well in months. It takes 2-3 tries to get a load dry. That makes doing laundry like water torture. Even when I want to get it done, I go to find the load in the dryer is still wet...again!

I have pack-rat tendencies I try hard to regulate. What results is that I keep on top of things, but barely. I love the word "declutter", but am not sure how good I am at that.

Sometimes my chores pile up around me. At our last house, about three years ago, our master bedroom closet got so cluttered, I threw in the towel and just let it go. The problem soon reached hideous proportions. I actually called my best friend and told her that if ArtGuy and I were to die anytime soon, no one was allowed to go through our closet except her - especially not my mother! I didn't want my mother's last memories of me to be this unclean ghost! And I wasn't kidding! I made her swear she alone would clean out the closet in the event of our demise.

Well, I finally got that closet clean, and the ban was lifted. I have not let that happen again!

Why am I writing about this today? I am sitting here waiting for the dryer to finish drying the current load (the third attempt). Earlier today I scrubbed the table clean, only to find it an hour later covered in foody goo, courtesy of the Mad Toddler!

Whoops - dryer is done! Let's go fold some clothes!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if your dryer does not cooperate: try a clothesline. Cuts down on energy use, clothes last longer and smell great.

Unknown said...

I'm just impressed that you wait around for the clothes to dry and then fold them. That's discipline. I almost never fold them right after. I clean them all and then have a fold clean clothes party in front of a good movie. Sometimes, the clean laundry stays in bags until I get to it. SIgh...

Unknown said...

Hah, Jana! I was getting the laundry right away because I had actually kept it in the dryer for a whole week! I turned it on one more time to get the wrinkles out, and then jumped up to get it when t was done, or else it would be another week before I did it!