Doing House Chores

One thing my mother tells me is,

"For your future wife, Denzil, I will teach you to maintain the house."

As I grow older, I'm coming at peace with doing chores. Physics has this concept called entropy. That the natural state of things reverts to chaos.

As humans, we're the unique in that we maintain order. Fighting off that entropy that pushes us toward chaos.

Next time you're procrastinating, do some house chores. That way, after all of your unproductively, the place is a bit tidier.

(Doing something productive in that time)

Although my mother tells me the importance of cleaning, it will only be until I finished Ego Is The Enemy that it finally clicked for me.

"...training was like sweeping the floor. Just because we’ve done it once, doesn’t mean the floor is clean forever. Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep."

Chores serve me as a reminder that some things in life must be done. Neglect and laziness will be our undoing. Then, I think of the hypocrisy I impose myself for maintaining high standards of cleaning practices at work, but not at my very own home.

I joke that there must be some way for dust to not exist. Even thinking to myself if I can figure out some technology that can eliminate. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.

I think the resistance from doing household chores is thinking we can do something better with our time. Really? Am I that arrogant to think the maintenance of my own home is beneath me?

What else would I be doing instead of cleaning? Watching brain rot? Like, what stops me from folding the clothes while listening to a podcast? I entertain myself as I organise the mess.

Then I notice in my own behaviour if my mother is around, I tend to be lazier with my maintenance. I remember when my mother and father were gone for a month on a trip, I took charge of the household chores.

I made sure that the house was sweep-ed everyday. The laundry done. Cleaning the bathroom once a week. Mop the floors once a week. Did the dishwasher. Cooked almost every night.

I had no safety net. I knew I was it.

Now, I'm more conscious of the grime. Before I did not. To dismiss my mother's eye for dirt and dust.

Rather than being lazy, I just do it. As the metaphor Ryan proposes, doing it one by one. Before it piles up and becomes unmanageable. It just is. It is what must be done. There's no around it.

To ignore one's obligation to the maintenance of his own house, is to let chaos invite itself into his door.

I read from somewhere that life is about the little joys in normality. If I can make my job in cleaning and maintenance to find it, I surely will.

PS If I become wealthy, will I pay someone else to maintain my home.

ONLY, if it makes financial sense. As, it costs me more money to do how chores vs paying someone else to do it.

(If I make $100/hr, and I choose to do one hour of chores, I'm -$100. However, paying someone $30/hr to do chores, I'm +$70)

That is to say, I'm not going to pay someone to clean up my own mess.

In the meantime, rather than thinking my time is worth a lot, I'll do my chores.