As many of you know, I recently decided to turn my passion for books into a business and started my own literary consulting company (meaning I also quit my day job).The timing is perfect because I am starting graduate school in September and will have flexibility in terms of finances and daylight hours (not that grad school is going to be easy). I’m getting my Master’s of Public Policy and the ultimate goal is to do government affairs consulting for small publishing houses.
But that’s not the point of this post. The point is that I’ve “expanded my horizons” in the time that I’ve had alone. I’ve been able to get back to reading more and I couldn’t be happier (my mood is definitely dictated by whether or not I’m reading a good book). I’m also, for the very first time, a “housewife.” Yes, yes, I know that starting a business is a lot of work and I don’t mean to discount that; I just mean that for the first time ever I am working 100% from home. Which means that I’m responsible for the household duties.
For most, this probably doesn’t sound like a big deal. Especially because I don’t have kids. But if you’ve read Sophia Kinsella’s The Undomestic Goddess then you might have somewhat of an idea of how undomestic a person can be. For example, I’ve never made a pot roast, my cookies are often cement-like, and I only touched raw chicken for the first time three years ago (yes, at 28… and yes, wine was involved).
But I have an excuse. Since I met my husband I have been, for the most part, working and going to school full-time (read: I’ve been using that as an excuse to get out of daily household chores). That means that my amazing and supportive husband has been picking up the at-home duties like trash, dishes, vacuuming, walking the dogs, grocery shopping, cleaning toilets, etc. But now I’m doing it and have decided (in my free time) to share with you some of the things that I have learned and accomplished.
Things I have learned:
- Cleaning is hard
- Real cleaning is even harder
- Vacuums can be heavy (or as my husband tells me, “that thing you push around that sucks up junk from the ground”)
- It is not wise to attempt to rearrange furniture alone
- We own an indoor ladder
- How to empty the vacuum cleaner
- Windex is a great way to make the stove shine without really cleaning (and apparently the oven, according to Google)
- It is not wise to pull the burners out of the stove without knowing how – they can (and will) break
- How to clean the coffee machine
- Groceries are more expensive than I thought
- Bleach can be used for things other than dying hair (I used it properly for the first time)
I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge base about general household duties. I’d also like to point out that none of this is the fault of my parents. God knows my mom tried to get me to pick up after myself and cook. My sister is a professional baker, for goodness sake, and my Grandmother owned a restaurant. And yet, here I am. But enough about me. What about you?
Is there something you’re embarrassed to admit that you didn’t do until adulthood?