The Art of Mindful Housework.

What chores do I find challenging to do…

So, challenge is not the issue, but chore is.

Merriam webster tells me,

Chores are light regular farm work or something that is disagreeable or difficult task.

Well light regular work, not necessarily on the farm…housework is you really calling it light. Think again buster If house work is done properly then it kills. Oh! Don’t give me that crap about cleanliness being next to godliness. It is not even there in same neighbourhood, just try to clean the spilt over cheese in a toaster you will know what I mean.

Looking back during our school time, it was do your homework and then you can read. During holidays it was do your chores and then read … reading was a privilege. To the day I have the hangover. Despite the fact that I rather lie on the sofa than clean under it. I clean under it.

Chores the so called light housework are made into a woman’s anthem, in India if I am attending to my patients instead of doing the dishes, it is because the dishes are inanimate and wait for me patiently. If the laundry is not aired in the morning then I have to do it in the night.

My bathroom cleaning ability does not match my mother-in-law’s gold standards, she gets my husband to do it. there was a time when I felt guilty about it. now I reckon it is between the mother and son.

If think the room has to be cleaned and I clean it, it is my choice but when my mother-in-law passes not so subtle comments then it is infuriating, particularly since my parents were free souls and were never rigid. As long as things didn’t move, multiply or block the refrigerator they didn’t get worked up.

Coming back to it, anything disagreeable is a chore, so that is momentary. Today cleaning the attic might be a chore, but tomorrow it might be escape from another chore. So, we are actually speaking in a relative way.

Nothing is more frustrating than a chore that has to be attended to… and I have not begun at all. I stopped calling household chores as ‘domestic work’ or ‘household work’ and muttering the epithet ‘boring’. I’ve evolved and begun to think positive. I now call it the

Mindful Domestic Art

This takes away the degradation of seeking approval the dictate of “do this now, and do this when you get a chance, it means cancel your meeting and do it now. Give up things you love, so that my insecurity that you may not love me enough goes. Oh! Yes, this also includes wear this and don’t wear that for what wear is the reflection of your respect for me”

Coming back the most challenging chore I find to tackle is to follow the unspoken rulebook of another.