There’s a reason the word housework includes the word work.
Like many highly sensitive people, I have an Explore This list that scrolls across the floor and into the next room. Is housework on the list? Get real.
The strain of high sensitivity that runs through my family tends to accompany a genetic aversion to housecleaning. A refrigerator magnet in my cousin’s kitchen says, “I understand the theory of housework. I just don’t understand how it applies to me.”
After decades of experimentation, two methods of handling housework rise to the top:
Hire a professional. We pay $45 every other week for two hours of housecleaning. Our housecleaner does have the cleaning gene. We found her online via Craig’s List. Even if my husband and I were both between contracts and money was tight, we would dole out the dough to the housecleaner. Yes, two hours every two weeks is enough.
Use a timer. Set the timer for ten minutes. Prioritize. Stop when the timer goes off, no matter what. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in ten minutes. This method works particularly well when applied by teenaged boys. Just stay out of the way.
If trying to get a handle on the housework gives you a feeling of futility and dread (like trying to wrangle a futon), do something radical: give up. Explore the options that remove you from the equation, even if that means making friends with a few dust bunnies.
My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch on fire or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one cares. Why should you?
~ Erma Bombeck
If you want to see me, come over anytime. If you want to see my house, make an appointment.
~ Anonymous
Flickr photo: Relaxed, by chaps1.
Related reading: How to Stop Time, Avoid the Rush – Finish Last
6 Comments
Great! I totally agree but didn’t realize this was a HSP trait. Cool! Helps explain me a bit more to myself.
One thing that helped me reduce my housework load was to realize that The House Cleaning Police were *never* going to visit me.
Oops! You misunderstand, Jo. I’m not saying that disliking housework is an HSP trait – at least not as far as I know. I’m only saying that I happen to share the housekeeping = yuk trait with some people who are also HSPs.
Having said that, are we onto something here? Do other HSPs reading this also have a major aversion to housework?
Actually, after some thought, I think that perhaps housework relates back to effectiveness v. efficiency. I can get so caught up in having a perfectly clean and arranged apartment that I leave no time to do those things that are more interesting to me: reading, gardening, stitching, crocheting, cooking. It was said of my mother’s home that it was so clean one could eat off the floor. I could never understand *why* one wanted to eat off the floor, isn’t that why we have tables?
I finally realized: There *are* no Housekeeping Police; I am not going to be ticketed for having a less than pristine home. But for me it’s a balancing act: a messy home (let’s not even go into dirty, LOL!) is uncomfortable for me, I cannot relax and be creative in one. But I so don’t want to go back to the old way of being, of so intent on the housekeeping that I miss the fun of life.
As with so many things, for me, housecleaning comes down to where to draw the line. Too far on either side of the line and, like you, Jo, I am distracted by the mess or overdoing the cleaning when I’d rather be doing other things.
Here’s wishing you a line that serves you, rather than you serving it.
I dread housework too. But I feel very uncomfortable when it gets too messy. One day when I can afford it, I look forward to hiring help!
There’s another idea I forgot to mention in the article: trading services. If you have a friend who needs something that’s easy and enjoyable for you to do for them on an ongoing basis, but that they dislike (grocery shopping? car-loaning? weeding in their garden?) and they don’t mind housecleaning a bit now and again, perhaps there’s an equitable trade to be made.
Even our housecleaner does this. Her sister is also a housecleaner (the clean-gene runs strong in their family, it appears) and they clean each other’s homes.
Anyway, I hope the diminishment of cleaning comes for you sooner than later.
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