Our friends moved out yesterday into their adorable cottage a few blocks from our house. We are so excited to have them in the ‘hood, but it’s still really weird not having them in our house.
I tell you right now that if that was any preview of what living in a commune was like, I’d be all “Sign me up!!!”
What’s funny too is having other adults living in the house with much better cleaning patterns than you have. OK, funny? Shaming? What’s the difference?
After dinner every night for the last two months, our friends would hop up from the table and in 15 minutes or so the table would be cleared off with all the placemats put away and the décor put back on, the dishes would be loaded in the dishwasher and the pots and pans would be drying in the dish rack.
When I commented on the fact that we were lazy asses and our habit in the past has been to clean up the dishes from the last meal just prior to the next meal, they said that they just found it to be a good habit to do the dishes immediately.
“We ought to pick up that habit,” I said.
“We’re really going to miss that,” Dave said.
We did it last night. Let’s see if that habit sticks.
Maybe it's a generational thing. My mom and my MIL (and other moms around their age) do the same thing--clean up immediately after dinner.
ReplyDeleteProbably, though, we'd have to hash through WHO is going to clean up...the exhausted person who cooked it after dealing with the kids all day or the exhausted person who worked all day (after being up with the kids too) to pay for it. Really, why spoil the 30 minutes a day we have together?
Anita! I had totally forgotten a most fantastic chapter in our past life until you wrote those words about living in a commune! This was pre-kids for us/3 kids next door neighbors who found themselves un-housed for something like three weeks. They moved in with us, and I tell you, it was a *fabulous* arrangement! By the time my husband and I came home from work, she had dinner ready for everyone. He and I cleaned up the kitchen which gave her undivided time to really enjoy getting her kids ready for bed and settled. We all sat around sharing a glass of wine and some stimulating adult conversation. It was a WONDERFUL deal for all concerned.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck keeping that good clean-up habit going in their absence though! (fatchance ;)