When I feel like one part of my life is out of control, I typically try to compensate by taking charge of things in another area. Like my house. Lately, work has been stressful, so I’m soothing myself by taking on substantial cleaning projects.
Today, I’m doing mountains of laundry, including hand-washing. I also steam-cleaned the upstairs carpet. Which was disgusting, and frnkly, remains somewhat gross. After almost two hours of repeated steaming, the dirty reservoir water was medium brown as opposed to black. Not great, but definite progress. Time to move on to something else.
Part of me wonders if the spotless homes of the 1950s were a similar manifestation of a need for order and control. Did housewives maintain immaculate kitchens simply because it was expected, or because that was their source of pride and accomplishment? Was cleaning an effort to compensate for limited clout in other arenas?
End of social commentary. Back to cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and the like.
