The art and science of housework

It is widely recognised that housework is a much maligned activity - very few people admit to liking it, and for most of us it is one of those chores that gets in the way of life.

I am certainly not a fan of housework (as my family can attest) and often pay someone to do it for me; but as I was vacuuming this morning it occurred to me that maybe, I was selling it short as a task of the nurturing economy.

For those of you who haven't heard me on this theme before - the nurturing economy is the work of being human, caring for others in all it's forms. This has traditionally been the work of women, and more frequently now the elderly, and is work that used to be unpaid and even now - where it is paid - is low paid. I have argued and continue to argue that in our drive for economic productivity - particularly the drive to have women returning to the work force - society has ignored the fundamental requirement of time such work takes. It would perhaps have been OK if an increase in the working hours of women had led to a corresponding decrease in the hours men worked so they could fill some of the gap. But no, men continue to work 50-60 hour weeks, and so do many women.

The obvious consequence of this is the rise in services to fill the gaps, early childhood services, before and after school care, cleaning and gardening. While acknowledging that not all families can afford such support, these services are not total solutions. And that's without touching on the hidden gaps of adults too tired to contribute to the vast array of voluntary services that enrich and support the life of our community.

Which brings me back to my starting point of my underestimation of housework in this equation. Over the 30 odd years that I have been responsible for the task for myself and others, there have been a number of highs and lows. In fact sometimes I think my rather slack approach has damaged my self image as a capable and competent person. It's as if when I hear congratulating me on a piece of work I have a mental tape playing reminding me of the state of the oven. My reflecting this morning started with a memory of a photocopy of an Australian Womens Weekly article from the mid 1970's, that was included in the resource material I acquired at an antenatal class with my eldest child. Basically it was a 45 minute routine that could be managed while the baby was napping that got your house in reasonable shape in case of unexpected visitors.

While some of the basic expectations of women have changed, the underlying principles are still incredibly practical and unconciously I had followed a similar pathway this morning. The focus is on the public face of the house and it identifies the key issues that tend to make us react with "not clean". Anyway from there my mind meandered to how hard it is to have a cleaner who cleans as well as you do, and the different feel when you have cleaned your house yourself. I am not surprised, but am comforted by the impact of order on the living in my house at the moment, simply because I currently have the luxury of time to sift through, de-clutter and organise while keeping the basics done.

I think one of the biggest differences between the cleaner, and someone with an emotional connection to the house doing the task, are the little finishing touches and extras that you do when it is your own space. It could be flowers, the sorting of craft materials and books into appropriate spaces rather than just stacking them, but the sense of making a home out of a house is an art and a skill which add to the quality of our lives in unexpected ways. And because it is such undervalued work, while uncomfortable in its absence, it is difficult to name and find the time to address.

Frugality

With all the talk about the credit crisis and money getting tighter I've been contemplating the concept of frugality. Obviously dropping our family down to one (albeit generous) income while I contemplate my next career steps has something to do with it too!

Anyway while it has been a while since I posted ideas for what I'd like on the new site have been perculoting away inspired by much that is going on around me. For instance when I was in internet silence at Arthur's Pass over early January I darned my socks. They are particularly lovely soft pink angora blend ones and they had developed annoying little holes on the toe - I noticed my mother had left some of her fine wool up there which was almost a perfect colour match so I decided to see how much of that heritage skill was left to me.

Now darning is not one of the things I would normally recommend as it is an incredibly fiddly, somewhat thankless task. But I must admit as I salvadged my quite expensive socks it crossed my mind that there was certainly a time and a place for the task - for instance Jon's wool school socks. I think that is the trick of it - choosing what it makes sense to darn rather than darning for it's own sake. Anyway it has inspired me to consider searching the web for good sock darning instructions that can be linked to from Wise Woman. And believe it or not it also inspired me to have a go at knitting a sock which is probably a story for another day.