It occurred to me yesterday as I was cleaning the pool that we work for a lot of things. We work to have nice cars, a decent place to live and some work to afford maid service, pool service, lawn service and other “ice’s”. My Hubby complains more often than not that he feels he’s not doing enough, or that I’m spending too much time doing these things when we can just hire someone. I’ll admit, I’ve had lawn/pool service before and while I enjoyed the time our serviceman “Chuck” afforded me, I get a greater sense of pride and accomplishment when I perform the task myself. My mother cleaned houses under the table (no she’s not illegal) for extra cash while we were growing up, and on occasion I worked/helped her out; maybe this is where my strong “do it yourself” ethic came from.
When we pay for services, are we paying for the service or are we paying for our laziness. Perhaps all those hours spent outside in the yard with my father resulted in my strong sense of accomplishment when we finally retired for the day. I enjoy my day and emphatically say, “I did that” when someone mentioned how beautiful our yard looked. To this day I get excited when my yard work is done and I’ll admit that I’m not as consistent as a paid worker, and “finding time” is really more a matter of not being lazy. Say I DID continue employing “Chuck”, I would have to work an extra 7 hours just to afford the very reasonable rate he was offering. Sure that’s only one day of work in my employment, but I can spend the afternoon out there (probably less than 3 hours) and get it done as a weekly chore. I’d save myself money, gain a sense of satisfaction, and work less in my real job (or spend the money doing something else).
When one looks at the grand scheme of things, what ARE we working for? Are we working an extra day, spending more time away from our home and families just so that we don’t need to spend an hour (or two)doing a task that we find undesirable? One chore a day for seven days means that much more can be done with saved money and time. We’ve all know that procrastination is great now, but leads to additional work later. How many times have we as students not worked on our project/reading/review only to be staring at a Twenty-four hour deadline with nary a start. We kick ourselves and our parents remind us of our folly (hoping we’ll learn from it), but as adults there isn’t a tangible consequence per say.
If you don’t do laundry for weeks, and you run out of clothes… we either go braless, undieless, or in some cases(yes I’ve done it) purchase a new outfit to put off the chore one more day. What does that gain? Sure I get a new outfit for my wardrobe, but had I washed what I had, I could have saved money and had an extra drink Saturday night. What is one hour (30 wash/30 dry), in the grand scheme of things, I could interrupt my one hour Glee show halfway through to move the laundry along. Laundry, Maid, Garden, Home Repair, we can save plenty of money and reinforce our sense of accomplishment if we just did the task ourselves. Yes some tasks require the employment of someone specifically trained in a skill, but a little research can help facilitate the many chores. You needn’t hire a personal chef to get a gourmet(or even delicious) meal, just foster the skill within yourself and you’ll be doing before you know it; and the compliment you receive will be WELL earned.
