Friday, May 28, 2010

May has been a busy month, AND IT'S NOT EVEN OVER YET. And I don't just mean that in the sense that there are a handful of days left before June, but in the sense that, in addition to all the other huge things that have gone on this month (finals, bridal showers, dog vet visits, parent visits/graduation) I have another monumental event happening this weekend in the form of officiating a wedding of two dear friends.

But none of that is what I want to write about today. Mostly I just wanted to explain my absence from the blogosphere for the past month and a half. Today's topic is my weirdness, specifically as it pertains to household chores.

For example, laundry. I pretty much like every aspect of doing laundry. Sorting the clothes, pretreating stains (and there are always plenty), washing, drying, even folding. I love the fresh smell of clean clothes. I love peeling the dryer lint off the little screen thing (and marveling at how much pug hair is on it). I especially like that doing laundry here at Jenah and Brian's is a) free and b) easy, because there is a place ON THE WASHER ITSELF to put the liquid fabric softener. No more dryer sheets for me!

Yet for all my love for clean laundry, I have a pathological aversion to putting it away. I would rather (and have been known to) just leave hampers full of clean, neatly folded clothes for weeks just sitting in front of my dresser. Or in piles on top of my dresser. Or in piles elsewhere in my bedroom. I HATE putting it away. And I don't know why. It could be because in the house I grew up, the "system" was there were a bunch of laundry baskets of clean, unsorted, unfolded clothes in the dining room, and getting dressed meant digging through two to three baskets until you could assemble a decent outfit. God help you if you needed a specialized item like a dance leotard or soccer shorts. GOD HELP YOU.

Or maybe it's because even with a huge, five-drawer dresser, I still have too many articles of clothing to fit into my bureau and I just don't want to fight a losing battle.

Or maybe I'm just lazy. I don't know. I just know I hate putting away clothes.

Similarly, I don't mind loading or unloading the dishwasher--actually, I really like assembling the dishes carefully, maximizing the space, and adding dishsoap (I love the smell for some reason) but I hate having to put away the clean silverware. There is no rational explanation for why. I can't think of a way it is different than putting away the cups or bowls or plates, and I don't mind doing that. I usually put the silverware away anyway, though, because I'd feel bad if people saw the dishwasher entirely empty and put dirty dishes in it and then noticed that the dirty dishes were dripping on the (formerly) clean silverware. My fear of roommate resentment is greater than my aversion to putting away silverware.

I'm trying to think if there are any other household chores for which this sort of rule applies. I don't mind vacuuming or dusting or even cleaning the bathroom. I mean, I don't love it, but I do it when it's my day on the chore chart (yes, we totally have a chore chart). So I guess it's really only putting away laundry and clean silverware that are antithetical to me. Can anyone explain why? I can't.

2 comments:

  1. For me, organizing is the best part of cleaning ( ie: putting things away). I hate mopping, vacuuming and all other chores that involve pushing around something. I makes me tired...maybe we should team up!

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  2. We have many weird things in common. I currently have a bag of clean laundry sitting right next to a dresser and not IN the dresser, and putting the silverware away is horrible. I think, for me, it's because it's almost impossible to make the silverware drawer organized for more than a day, and I hate looking at it. It's the same with clothes in a drawer. They are neat for about an hour, and then as soon as you need a shirt, it's the one all the way on the bottom and you ruin all the other clothes trying to get it out. This is why I hang all of my clothes now, but even that I hate doing because it just takes too darn long, and I have small closets, so nothing fits.

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