Column: Household chores can have you going in circles

Published 12:00 am Monday, March 24, 2003

Not that we had very much of a winter to complain about, but I am glad that spring has finally arrived. For the most part, gone are the days of shoveling driveways, subzero temperatures and slippery roads. I say &uot;for the most part&uot; because I realize that living in Minnesota means we can wake up to six inches of snow as late as April. Anyway, now that spring is here, it’s time for spring cleaning, which I expect to take until approximately mid-August. Even daily cleaning, for me, is a long, drawn-out procedure. I can’t understand why.

Because I only work part-time, that frees up some of my time during the day to run errands and do a few chores, leaving more time for my wife and I to spend together in the evening. Although the whole point of me working part-time is to spend time writing and performing related tasks (such as contacting agents and publishers), I occasionally run out of things to write about for the day. It is during those times that I do chores.

Let’s say I’ll start by doing the dishes. I’ll go into the kitchen and fill the sink with water, then use the old dishcloth to wipe down the counters, so I have a clean place to set the dishes after I dry them. Then I get out a new dishcloth for the dishes, and take the old dishcloth to the laundry basket in the hallway.

Email newsletter signup

I see that the laundry basket is full, so I decide to take it down to the basement to start a load of laundry. But before I do that, I go into the bedroom to collect any other clothes that have to be washed, so I only have to make one trip downstairs. While I’m in there, I see a glass of water on the bookcase next to the bed, so I grab that and bring it into the kitchen with the other dishes.

That reminds me to do a quick sweep of the house to make sure there aren’t any other stray glasses or dishes. In the living room, I find a letter that I was supposed to put in the mailbox, so I grab that, put my shoes on and go outside. I discover that I’m too late &045; the mail has already arrived. While I’m outside, I remember I never brought in the newspaper from the night before, so I go to the front steps to get that. While I’m there, I notice that the bird feeder is empty, so I decide to fill that back up. The bird seed is kept in the garage, which I keep locked. I don’t happen to have my keys with me, so I go back inside to get the keys to open the garage.

As I go back in, I notice that the garbage is getting pretty full, so I should probably take it outside. Before I do that, though, I round up all the waste baskets in the house, so that garbage can go outside, too. I go to get the waste basket from my office, and see that it’s really nice outside, so I decide to open the windows and let some fresh air into the house.

I go into the bedroom to open the windows in there, and see the cat’s litter box, which should probably be changed. We keep the litter and pan liners in a utility closet by the back door, so I go there to get them. Inside the utility closet, I also see the things we use to clean the bathroom, and remember that I have to do that, too, so I grab those things and take them to the bathroom, where the hanging towel reminds me that I was going to do the laundry.

I take the hanging towel to the laundry basket, and start to take the basket to the basement to get a good start on the laundry. Going through the kitchen, I again remember that I was supposed to be doing the dishes. By now, the water in the sink is cold, so I have to drain and refill it.

By the time the day is over, I wonder how I could have spent all day working, but getting nothing done.

Dustin Petersen is an Albert Lea resident. His column appears Mondays.