A mess as a problem
If someone finds a mess problematic, there is a problem to solve. That can’t be done using a mechanical rule.
clean
Three cheers for just-in-time or walk-by cleaning
The great thing about cleaning as you go along instead of at certain times or on certain days, is that the standards are set by your feelings which are informed by your theories. Because it occurs naturally and automatically you don’t worry in between tidyings. Your mind becomes freed-up to worry about things that are more important to you.
Thoughts on the housework problem
Some ideas to reduce the feeling of burden around housework.
Cleaning as you go or cleaning in one go
Brilliant ideas for those who find housework a burden.
Taking toys seriously (yes, really)
Taking children seriously involves not just solving obvious problems when they arise, but thinking about and experimenting with different ideas about how to make life even more delightful.
Niceness to force children to do things they do not want to do
Being ‘nice’ with the ulterior motive of in effect forcing the children to do what you want them to do, such as help with the housework, is very common. Coercion does not always appear overtly nasty.
Possible subtle housework coercion
Sometimes there can be coercive pressure on our children to help us do cleaning and tidying, for example by making our children responsible for our wellbeing.
Housework help for a harried mother
How do real-life parents gracefully navigate housework and chores in a home that seems endlessly messy or disorganised?
Aunt Cynthia and cleanliness
What makes housework so grim is not the time it takes—it takes little time and can be done while conversing, listening to stuff, etc.—but all the other stuff—the resentment, the coercion, the battling, the idea that if you didn’t make the mess, you shouldn’t clean it up. Stop thinking in terms of trying to get others to do what you want them to do, and you will find that housework is not a problem.
Clean freak mother strongly supporting her child’s right to be messy
How a clean freak mother strongly upheld her son’s right to remain messy, and how being taken seriously in that respect has informed this writer’s approach with his own child.
How Taking Children Seriously helped me solve my housework-hating problem
Solving the problem of finding cloning and tidying a miserable burden.
Cleaning the house for visitors
Housework is not intrinsically interesting, but because it is so repetitive and mindless, it allows us to focus on more interesting things, and that is pleasurable and valuable.
Creativity and untidiness
David Deutsch explains why he says that he could not be very productive without also being untidy.
The parental ideology of tidiness
Parents are always saying, “It would just be easier to do it myself.” But then they don’t “do it themselves”. They don’t do it themselves because they feel an obligation to instil a moral lesson in their kids, namely, that they should keep things up to a certain standard (usually the parents’ unnegotiated standard).