The neverending task of dishwashing and laundry ….

Since Mondays and Tuesdays are my “days off” I tend to stay home and attempt to do all the “house stuff” that I’ve been putting off all week (or all month …)

All truth be told, I never did enjoy doing this kind of stuff. As a young child, I’d often contemplate what would happen if we just stopped doing the dishes. I mean, what’s the point–the dishes would get dirty during the next meal anyway. Somehow, the thought of eating off of a greasy, greenish-moldy plate didn’t register as “yuck!” The same is true of laundry. After all, what’s the point of washing it if it’s just going to get soiled again.

Cooking (and of course, the subsequent cleaning) was not really something any of us enjoyed. In fact, for a short period of my childhood, we subscribed to a supper service. In the same fashion that the newspaper miraculously shows up each and every morning, a meal for five would show up on our doorstep each evening. My dad would say a blessing over the food and we’d spend the next half hour doing the “conversation” thing that “family dinners” are all about.

Cleanup was a breeze–toss the foam containers, the paper plates and the one-time-use chopsticks and we could all go back to the task of living life. No mess, no fuss.

All this changed when our city decided to go “green.” They increased the costs of solid waste disposal and encouraged recycling. Instead of the normal trash bins we were used to (they weren’t that big), each family was allocated a miniscule 32-gallon trash bin and several recycling bins. If you produced too much trash, you would need to pay a significant upcharge for a larger bins (64-gallon and 96-gallon). They had strict rules–if your lid didn’t close all the way, they would not pick up your trash at all. You could purchase extra-trash stickers ($3.50 each) at the local 7-Eleven if you occasionally happen to have more trash than would fit in your alloted bin. Each sticker was good for an additional 32-gallons of solid waste. They also instituted extremely high penalties if you were caught dumping household waste (like a grocery bag worth??) in public parks. Neighbors would sneak around on Trash Day Eve and try to throw excess garbage in their neighbors bin.

This trouble with the trash ended our reliance on the supper service and disposable plates.

I realize that the task of doing laundry no longer consists of boiling hot water in a cauldron, rubbing the clothes vigorously on a washboard (hmmm do they still make washboards?), add homemade soap as necessary, plunge, rinse and repeat. We no longer dry clothes using natural solar power (in many neighborhoods, including mine, it’s illegal to hang clothes on clotheslines).
We have dishwashers and clothes washers and driers and a ton of other appliances that make our lives easier.

So why do I still procrastinate when it comes to the task of cleaning dishes and laundry? With all the modern conveniences, I suppose I really have no excuse.