ON KEEPING HOUSE

I've always struggled to keep house. "It's a disease," said my oldest sister. "You get it from your mother." Yes, it's true – our mother wasn't as interested in keeping a tidy house as she was in her sewing / handiwork projects. "I'm a project worker," she admitted. So Alma came once a week to help while Mother handled the seasonal work.

"Why can't you just do it?" some might ask. Well, I think some of us just don't have an innate sense that tells us where to start and when we've done enough for today. "A woman's work is never done," as the old saying goes and that seems overwhelming. And once I've done a task, I tend to feel I shouldn't have to do it again. For example, I re-organized my pantry a year ago and can't quite face that it needs to be done again. Facing my housekeeping failings is a part of becoming the "modern retro woman."

I am one who needs inspiration and identified system in order to be disciplined about my housekeeping. Years ago I subscribed to a housekeeping system (Sidetracked Home Executives) that involved a 3x5 card filing system. I put a lot of effort into it, and it worked for me initially. (Kind of like Weight Watchers works initially.) When we moved in 1987, I revised the system for a much bigger house but life happened and eventually the box got stashed in a cupboard – BUT I knew where it was. Then we "downsized" and moved from a big house to two houses. ("You can't keep two houses," they say, but I'm trying.) I have turned both houses and a storage loft upside down. I just can't find that filebox – and that in itself is proof of the fact that I need a better system. So, I'm starting over – and you know what will happen: as soon as I've reconstructed the system, I'll open a cupboard, push some doo-dad aside, and there will be my bright yellow box. Or, I'll open some miscellaneous box marked "Daddy's glass" or "yarn," and there it will be in the bottom. I seem to remember – well, never mind. (Sometimes I remember things that didn't happen.)

In the words of an old hymn – "In beauty, grandeur, order, His handiwork is shown." And that word "order" is demanding my attention. KW