Damn, Ogged, keep posting stuff like this and we'll start to think you have a soul.
Structures that make it more difficult to remember each other's humanity
I don't even know who you are anymore.
I accidentally discovered the invisible text at the bottom of the post. How often do you do that? Have I been missing hundreds of snarky comments over the years?
I guess the answer is that "work" is effort expended in the pursuit of making money, and any other effort had either find another goal to justify itself, or be thrown in the heap of "what the help is for."
But then you end up lacking in the manly talents, and your wife sleeps with the help b/c he has them. Quel dilemma!
Did they pipe the laughter of squirrels into the room?
I'm sure that many husbands experience it as a relief when their wives start sleeping with the help -- one less thing to worry about. Then they can just focus on their own affairs, adulterous and otherwise.
What happened when you wanted to masturbate? Was tech support involved in that too?
"Hello? This is Mr. Ogged. Yes, that's right, in the penthouse. Could you send up a fluffer? Thanks."
Yeah, just quit yer bitchin' and order some porn, dude.
I guess the answer is that "work" is effort expended in the pursuit of making money, and any other effort had either find another goal to justify itself, or be thrown in the heap of "what the help is for."
I don't know about this. I spend a lot of time working on projects that don't make me any money. I suppose you could argue that I do it for plaudits or social capital, but mostly I think I just like performing tasks that don't feel like a waste of time. I think I would be much happier if I didn't have to do my laundry, clean the bathroom, take out the garbage or deal with other stupid little "in the moment" tasks that distract me from the things I actually derive fulfillment from.
And I don't think it's necessarily demeaning to the people who do them for a living to say that they're undesirable tasks. That's just the nature of doing work for hire. Certainly the privileged can develop deeply unhealthy attitudes about the working class as a result of this, but pretending that ironing is fun isn't the way to solve that problem.
Anyway, most of the small tasks you mention feel frustratingly Sisyphean to me (if, uh, that's a word). I find the fact that objects have to be periodically dusted — whether or not they've been used! — to be emblematic of everything that's discouraging about the universe.
Now, keep in mind that I am Iranian, so even my intense self-loathing can't fully kill the materialistic entitled-like-a-prince demon in me; which is to say that I'm not one to reflexively find wealth and its trapping alienating.
I like the implication that we're supposed to find this surprising. Irony and earnestness in one delicious package.
I have long thought that I would someday be quite rich, after having inventing the blowjob machine that would need to be included in order for me to justify spending a $1000 for a hotel room. Sadly, my wife has now limited my quest for baseline research. Why must she stand in the way of my dreams?
I find the fact that objects have to be periodically dusted
"Have to?" It's like you're speaking another language.
13: Yeah, I solve the problem of tedious tasks by not dusting, not mopping, not ironing.
Also,
Managing the small tasks of daily life, and putting your personal space in order attunes you to things, and to your own body, in infinite small ways.
will prompt a discussion that recapitulates the thread attached to this post.
pretending that ironing is fun isn't the way to solve that problem.
This is important given our tendency to fetishize some manifestations of poverty (e.g., rural authenticity, Bruce Springsteen).
This is important given our tendency to fetishize some manifestations of poverty (e.g., rural authenticity, Bruce Springsteen).
So that explains why everyone goes on about The Hold Steady!
17: No, that's about fetishizing drug abuse, which I think we can all agree is still totally cool.
Dude--the Hold Steady was so much more awesome when they were LFTR PLLR and they were from Minneapolis instead of Brooklyn.
No fair! Being insufficiently indie myself, I only just discovered The Hold Steady, and already they're passé! Scheisse!
Although, I find myself wondering if what happened here wasn't bad luxury rather than philosophically flawed luxury. I mean, the problem with the shade wasn't the button, it was that it didn't work.
And learning to find a little stillness or pleasure in something like ironing a shirt, or making a bed, is part of what you might call learning to enjoy things that don't have a name--part of being fully in the world.
Yep. This is why Bitch shouldn't get an electric press that both presses and cooks the tortilla.
I'm pretty sure this type of enjoyment of small mundane tasks should be called "o-fun":
A: That's no fun!
B: Actually, it's o-fun!!
But how hard is it to walk across the room and close the shades? High-end hotels seem to be mostly about kissing your ass and reminding you what a swanky place you're in. And they tend to be chock-full of the kind of entitled assholes who really like that kind of stuff. Bah to the lot of them.
20: Don't listen to those guys -- I'm still with you. Their new album is amazing.
Is there a category for ridiculously ambitious and annoying but pointless tasks that must be some kind of fun or you wouldn't do them? I get into those a fair amount (i.e., Newt's birthday cake.)
That was a kick-ass birthday cake, tho.
22 -- perhaps she will be able to find an appliance that will do her tortillas and her blouses.
I get into projecty stuff like that a fair amount. And I swear and curse at them, but I must enjoy it or I wouldn't do it.
Is there a category for ridiculously ambitious and annoying but pointless tasks that must be some kind of fun or you wouldn't do them?
You mean "work"?
No, for 'work' people pay me. No one pays me for loopy fondant-covered birthday cakes.
feel frustratingly Sisyphean to me
Well, exactly. Seems like there's some value in making your peace with that.
You know, I've just been rereading Edward Deci's Why We Do What We Do, which is a rather nice layperson's overview of the research on intrinsic motivation. The thing about the electric windowshades is not that we have to romanticize all manual labor, but that depriving ourselves of the pleasure of ever doing something small and fiddly is a weird way of cocooning ourselves.
If every task is structured so that somebody has to get an external reward (salary) to do it, then what does that do to people's ability to develop intrinsic motivation? OK, fine, some people don't care about being intrinsically motivated to dust knicknacks.
Still, though...if everything gets done for you, when do you get a chance to contribute? (To your own life or to society's good?) And if you aren't contributing, isn't it a whole lot easier to feel distanced and alienated?
Well, exactly. Seems like there's some value in making your peace with that.
How is that not of the same species as romaticizing poverty? (Serious question, not goading.)
So what were you really doing in that fancy-schmancy hotel room? We know it's not the gigolo thing, as The Plight Of The TiVo established that you can't give it away.
I'm feeling incoherent. What I mean is, last night I asked my temporarily-bedridden sister if it was perverse to miss doing household tasks. She said not at all, if they have a broader context: "I don't have any great love for packing food into Tupperware, but I do miss packing [my husband's] lunch."
To me, some kind of interdependence is being human. I don't have to romanticize cooking to believe that people need to be able to make things happen in the world, even silly small things like packing lunches, and to use those tasks to build connections and relationships.
(::competition for today's o-earnest award is hereby begun::)
37: Well, that's all fine. We're all familiar with the story where a commoner switches places with the king, then amazes the court by insisting on performing menial tasks. It demonstrates an essential truth of the human condition, and consequently has been chronicled by various great dramatic works.
I'm just saying that the thrill of [ironing a shirt/running your hands through the soil/using the tool set of your dead father (who you never reconnected with but shared a love of machinery with) to fix something that's either deeply symbolic and/or belongs to your own son] eventually wears off, usually within 5 minutes of when you started. And after it does, I'd like to go back to being fed grapes and beating the help with my cane.
So what were you really doing in that fancy-schmancy hotel room?
I am a man of mystery, little Becks.
How is that not of the same species as romaticizing poverty?
I'm only saying that below a certain threshold of doing stuff to keep your own life in order, you can lose your capacity or sense for doing it at all. I very much doubt that anyone here is anywhere near that threshold. I do think it's not bad to learn to appreciate tasks like that, but for the most part, if you can get out of ironing, do it.
My own personal dream is for my cat to become a great deal more like Bunter, from the Lord Peter novels. You don't see Lord Peter getting out of touch with getting shit done, and the cat isn't doing anything else useful with his time.
my cat to become a great deal more like Bunter,
This phrasing implies that the cat has already made some progress. Photography or valeting? (Or, I suppose, sweet-talking female servants?)
Ironing grows on me, but maybe it's just that I'm less lazy about spending a few minutes ironing than about spending any part of my precious Saturdays going by the cleaners.
Well, like Bunter (if you assume that I am Lord Peter), he lives in my house. I suppose he sometimes gathers samples of detrius that might be sent off to the lab for testing. That's about it, so far, alas.
I say bah to making the bed. Bah I say.
40: I realize that it's not quite what you've said, but it still sounds like romanticism. Making peace with things you really have to do seems like a good skill to have. Pretending you have to do X in order to make peace with having to do it seems like a very bad habit to develop. See w-lfs-n on Authenticity.
Hey, WPMS, you should have known immediately that since it's metaphysically impossible for us to disagree, "making the bed" was just an example. I almost never make the bed. What's the point? (I have, however, learned to like ironing, and some other domestic chores.)
43 - I'm the same. I'd rather spend 10 minutes ironing every morning than take the time to put stuff on hangars right out of the dryer. Completely inefficient, but it bothers me much less.
Ironing has a very zen feel to it. There was a wrinkle; now it's gone. It actually helps relax me in the morning.
Have I mentioned that Brooks Brothers makes all cotton button-down shirts that really don't need ironing at all? I love them truly.
I say bah to making the bed
Why does anyone make the bed? This practice mystifies me.
SCMT, clearly it's possible to fail in the other direction, into pointless romanticism, or fetishization of drudgery.
I make the bed. It makes the room look so much more presentable.
50- IKWYM. You know what mystifies me? this thing my wife keeps asking me to do, "clean the playroom." Its a playroom! I can see asking the kids to clean it, so that they can develop good habits, but there is no reason for the room to actually be clean, and no reason for an adult to have to clean it.
Honestly. It is like being asked to sweep the outside. I know, when you go outside, there is a think layer of dirt on most of the ground. Sure in some areas, they've covered the dirt in asphalt, but still, there is really just dirt everywhere. You can't sweep it up. It is supposed to be there.
The mess in the playroom is the same way.
oh and you know what request is even weirder: "clean the playroom, all Caroline's friends are coming over." I'm supposed to clean the playroom right before a bunch of little kids descend on it to mess it up? This is like making the bed right before you go to sleep!
No, come on. The kids have more fun if they can find their toys and there's open floorspace. They should do it themselves if they're old enough, but it's useful for it to be clean in any case.
51: I guess I'm wondering whether the only thing that distinguishes the good cases (make peace) from the bad cases (fetishization) is that "you just know." Which in turn makes me wonder about the typology.
I can imagine being unhappy with the hotel in some small way, about mostly the same things as bothered you. But in my case, I would discribe myself as being dissatisfied with the utility of their evident effort. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of consumer products that are well-engineered (to my mind), and luxury items that do not display that level of engineering bother me to no end. Badly made luxury items seem almost immoral.
If the kids have more fun when there is more floor space, how come they always congregate in messy, cramped areas?
58: How much are we allowed to read into that, Becks?
distinguishes the good cases (make peace) from the bad cases (fetishization) is that "you just know."
It's not the task, it's the way of life. If you're doing none of those things, that's a problem. Like I say, not something any of us really has to watch out for (at least as far as I know).
Why does anyone make the bed?
Because it's helpful to have a flat, clear surface for bags, packages, folding laundry, a space to sit, etc.
Have I mentioned that Brooks Brothers makes all cotton button-down shirts that really don't need ironing at all?
I regularly use the line in presentations
"I have learned only three things in ten years of stockbroking:
1. Guaranteed bonuses, aren't
2. Non-iron shirts, aren't
3. Non-recurring charges, will"
Why does anyone make the bed?
Because tucked-in sheets retain warmth better. Of course, if you keep your house heated to eighty degrees, as ogged apparently does, warmth is not an important consideration.
if you keep your house heated to eighty degrees, as ogged apparently does
As ogged would, if he had any control over the heat, which didn't go on a single time last winter.
Tucked-in-sheets are an abomination, JM.
62: Your standards of ironing must be a hell of a lot higher than mine. Somehow, I'm unsurprised.
It's not the task, it's the way of life.
Yeah, I think this might be a difference in basic perspective. I have the sense that you're talking about how to live a virtuous life, where my concern is only technical. I'm engaged in a more-or-less continuous struggle to rein in my sense of the "virtuous life," as it continually leads me astray. (There is not meant to be any implication that your sense of virtue is therefore leading you astray, or anything like that.)
Tucking the sheet in at the foot of the bed doesn't mean you have to make the bed.
Not if you have good cotton sheets and nice snuggly wool blankets layered on top! I know that comforters and duvets and whatnot are easier and warmer, but I just like how sheets and blankets feel. And if you go the sheets and blankets route, you're going to let in a draft if you don't tuck in the sheets.
Tucked-in-sheets are an abomination, JM.
With this, I wholeheartedly agree.
See w-lfs-n on Authenticity.
I remember when I could come up with something interesting to say on that subject. That time is behind me now.
I think we need to consider that, although some of us might find ironing and dusting mere busywork better left behind (I used to think this way about dusting, until I got some compressed air in a can!), others might find it enjoyable, a site of the nullification of the self (a state devoutly to be sought), or, as ogged says, just a way of grounding one's life. It doesn't have to be a fetishization of authentic poverty or something like that; after all, wearing clothes is part of what we do that relates to our embodiedness, and if, like ogged, one is primarily a "knowledge worker" type, it might be nice to do something mundanely, repetitively physical once in a while, in the products of which one can take a certain amount of satisfaction, having actually made or done something. That doesn't mean that it would be super great if one had to do that all the time in order to put food on the table—or in order, say, to win some time in which to enjoy something more mental and less concretely purposive.
The point, however, is that ogged had been subject to prior restraint vis-a-vis ironing. He couldn't do it without making a bother, because it was already presumed that no one who could avoid doing something physical would possibly want to. And that's kind of messed up.
Tucked-in-sheets are an abomination, JM.
Lies! If only I could remember/bother to look up how to do hospital corners right, I'd never stop. Having tucked-in sheets. Freshly laundered, still warm from the dryer tucked-in sheets are nicely nicely.
Compressed air in a can, while awesome, merely redistributes the dust. It does not count as "dusting".
Not so, Becks! The dust will eventually settle on the floor, where it can be vacuumed up or trod into invisibility.
It's part one in a multi-part dusting schedule.
70. The sense of accomplishment is why I like gardening. Or more accurately, doing the things in the garden that my wife tells me to do.
I make the bed because I vastly prefer getting into a nice tidy bed to getting into a rumpled rats' nest. Isn't a benefit of tidying the playroom that it helps prevent the toys from getting trampled, and also that it makes it possible to occasionally clean the playroom? This is why I don't understand when people act like it's absurd to tidy up before their cleaning person comes -- cleaning and tidying are not actually the same task.
The point of making a bed is to keep dust and dirt out of the place where you sleep.
The point of tucking in sheets is to make it easier to make the bed, as the sheets stay more or less in the proper place that way.
On the other hand, I hate ironing. If something needs to be ironed, it goes to the dry cleaner. If something can be washed in the machine, it gets hung up and/or folded immediately so it's not too wrinkly. (Unless Mr. B. is doing the laundry, grr.) Clothes wrinkle when you wear 'em anyway, so, fuck it.
This is why Bitch shouldn't get an electric press that both presses and cooks the tortilla.
Nonsense. We're still talking about *making* tortillas, rather than buying them. Plus since it's nonstick I won't have to use a bunch of stupid plastic wrap. I hate that stuff.
And, to wrap up this little series of declarations, the philosophical rationale for not making it hard for people to do things by themselves is all well and good, but the real reason is that (1) it's just tacky to have a bunch of fucking gadgets that perform perfectly simple tasks (with the caveat, of course, that if it's a gadget that makes a task doable for someone who is elderly or impaired, then okay); (2) it's annoying to have to constantly ask people to do shit. Maybe you are in a hotel room in order to be left the hell alone, for god's sake.
That said, the real luxury is when your needs are anticipated and taken care of without your *having* to ask. And I'm all for that.
The thing about tidying a kid's room, as LB says, is that it actually makes them more, not less likely to play with their toys: there's an open space and they can see where the toy they want is (or find toys they haven't thought about in a while). It also, I'd think, creates an aesthetic of semi-tidiness, rather than a tolerance for a big fat mess, which will come in handy later. Plus, even pretty little kids can help throw "all the crayons into this bin" and so forth. Good learning skills, dude.
Ugly little kids, of course, are totally incapable of organizing their toys.
Did you actually order the cook-em press? If you do get it, I would be interested to hear how you like it.
The playroom needs to be cleaned but it is better to clean it when the kids are asleep.
80: Not yet, I'm going to see if I can find it in a store first. But I'll try to remember to let you know.
79: Okay, fine. "Even kids that are pretty little can." Pedant.
14: According to Quentin Crisp, if you don't dust for three years, after that it doesn't get any worse. I've verified this.
The point of making a bed is to keep dust and dirt out of the place where you sleep.
The point of tucking in sheets is to make it easier to make the bed, as the sheets stay more or less in the proper place that way.
B. is a dear, dear person, but she's psycho.
I love my comforter, because not only is it snuggly, I can fling it out upon the bed without smoothing the sheets underneath and my room looks less like a hurricane hit it.
Cotton smells nice if you are steam ironing, but that's a small pleasure compared to not ironing.
And if you go the sheets and blankets route, you're going to let in a draft if you don't tuck in the sheets.
A draft? Is your bed in the middle of a windy field or something?
The point of making a bed is to keep dust and dirt out of the place where you sleep.
My mom used to try this line on me. But really, in this day and age, just how much dirt is flying around in my bedroom? If I make my bed with a snow white sheet on top, will I notice a layer of grime when I come home?
She also used to tell me that spiders like to hide in a rumpled unmade bed. I don't think "spiders gotta sleep too" was the answer she was looking for.
Our bed totally gets gritty after a few days if we don't shake it out and make it. You bring dirt in the bed with you each night, on top of what settles there during the day. And if you have pets... well.
I am shocked to learn that Ben doesn't know how to do hospital corners.
My wife is a big fan of bed-making and sheet-in-tucking, to the extent that my attempts to get into our freshly-made bed often result in complaints that I'm ruining it. I do require that the sheets be tucked in, though, to prevent drafts, etc.
Not wanting to iron when one is on holiday or out of town on business has nothing to do with thinking it's "beneath" oneself to engage in that activity. Hell, were I spending a grand a night on a hotel room, I'd want them to tuck me in and read me a bedtime story, as well as iron my knickers. And I would tip the persons who did so very well because I appreciated that they were doing these things. Hotels are not real life, nor should they be.
Re: Bed-making: I'm all in favour of duvets. [Real duvets, with fluffy things inside sheet-fabric covers, not the if-it-goes-on-a-bed-it-must- be-a-duvet that has crept into the language of late. A quilt is not a duvet.] Duvets can be twitched into neatness in under 30 seconds and make everything look tidy, even if the unfolded laundry is sitting on the treadmill. Especially if the unfolded laundry is sitting on the treadmill.
She also used to tell me that spiders like to hide in a rumpled unmade bed. I don't think "spiders gotta sleep too" was the answer she was looking for.
Yeah, I once tried telling PK that his hair needed combing because it was a rat's nest. Big, big mistake.
No real surprise and I shouldn't brag, but I haven't made a bed since 1964. (And no one has made my bed for me, either.)
When I'm a houseguest I sort of semi-make the bed, so as not to seem too awful.
I recall reading somewhere (though I don't know where), that more mites are found in habitually made-up beds.
Mmm. Delicious.
Right, dust mites--you want to air out the bed b/c sunlight will kill 'em.
This post reminds me of... stuff about you and me.
Good work.
I think non-iron women's shirts might be more of a success than non-iron men's shirts because men's shirts look crap in soft cotton. But when those non-iron shirts came out I went "whahey!" and bought like ten, and they looked really, really shit. I suppose that the sensible thing to have done would have been to have carried out a small trial, but the shocking waste of money rankles with me to this day. I've still got those shirts somewhere if anyone wants them.
By the way, ogged ought to try writing this up for the New York Times, they've got a column in it for people like this (or more accurately, they've not got very many columns that aren't "the tragedy of minor irritations of the middle class")
Weird, before I saw the byline on 96, I assumed it was comment spam that got through the filters. "Nice blog!"
Sorry, Gary.
Somehow I find myself ironing my wife's shirts every morning, before she goes to work. The ironing isn't a problem -- it's one shirt and it takes 5 minutes. Doing it before the pot of coffee has had a chance to kick in, is cruel and unusual punishment.
The part of being super-rich that I wouldn't like would be all the sex slaves catering to my every whim. That would be so annoying.
FWIW, I used to be a cleaner. For about 3 years -- while paying my way through my undergraduate degree.
People treat them like shit. Unconsciously, but they do. I mostly cleaned up in a high school, and I have a long-standing spiteful attitude towards secondary school teachers to this day.
55, 78: Ok ok, I'll clean the playroom!
How come I always end up losing this argument?
Because it's helpful to have a flat, clear surface for bags, packages, folding laundry, a space to sit, etc.
Exactly. Plus, when travelling, I have this irrational fear that I'll leave something behind, lost amid the tangle of sheets and blankets. Although I don't actually fully make hotel beds, I just pull up the sheets and bedspread all nice and smooth like so that any lumps of potentially-about-to-be-lost items underneath will be immediately apparent. And it works! I've never lost anything beneath a hotel bedspread yet!!
At home I always make my bed properly, but without tucking in the sheets (too oppressive! my feet must be free!!). For the flat clear surface, to get foot dirt and grit out of the bed, to make the room look a little tidier, for the tucking-in-to-a-nicely-made bed effect at bedtime, and so, in case my mom drops by unexpectedly, she won't start worrying that I've let my life somehow go to hell or something.
Nonsense. We're still talking about *making* tortillas, rather than buying them.
It's a slippery (in fact nonstick) slope, B. Stay on the high ground!
Plus since it's nonstick I won't have to use a bunch of stupid plastic wrap. I hate that stuff.
Nonstick cookingware is an abomination, and plastic wrap is not necessary to make tortillas. But hey, go to hell in a handbasket, see if I care.
Nonstick cookingware is an abomination
How the hell do you make omeletes and crepes?
Cast iron, like God intended, I assume.
Huh? Omelets come out very nice indeed in a regular saute pan or skillet with some butter in it. Much better than they come out in a nonstick pan without lube, and if you're using the fat anyway what's the point of the teflon?
Crepes I don't cook much but I see no reason to believe they wouldn't come out nice in a steel saute pan.
One has, or had, a dedicated omelette pan. My mom's looks like it's partially cast iron, actually. Works like a charm.
Yeah, mrh, crepes and omelettes were invented well before teflon-coated pans were. And crepes and omelettes taste much better coming out of a non-nonstick pan, due to the browning that can occur. And all that crap about avoiding fat is a fraud anyway.
I'm not about avoiding fat, I'm about avoiding frustration. Just how much butter must you use to get an omelette to slide out of a conventional pan?
When I make crepes or omelettes in my nonstick, of course I still use butter for flavor. I just get to use a little less, and I know it'll slide out like a dream. I know that one can use a conventional pan for these things, but, man, what a pain.
Just how much butter must you use to get an omelette to slide out of a conventional pan?
Not much, about a teaspoon does it for a 2-egg omelet, which is the size of omelet I usually cook.
I mean I usually lift it out with a spatula instead of tipping it out. But no reason I couldn't tip it out if I wanted to.
I ocasionally make my bed, but only when I'm about to get into it. No point in doing it before then.
to get foot dirt and grit out of the bed
???
Not only have I never made my bed, but years ago I used to sleep with piles of books, casette tapes, etc. in bed with me. Too much trouble even to put that stuff on the desk.
Dagger Aleph is one of the few who understand.
da, not all of us float on air, some of us actually have to touch the ground with our feet in order to get around the house. Dirt gets on them, and then falls off into the bed when said feet are tucked under the covers.
I suppose if I went around in shoes or stocking feet all the time I wouldn't have that problem, but as I said upthread, my feet constantly yearn for freedom.
Or were you saying that your floor is spotless? Or that you, unlike most princesses, are insensate to particles under, on or around your mattress?
And, I'm a big tosser and turner in bed, so having other stuff on the bed just won't work if I'm trying to sleep. Other people on the bed can be quite detrimental to sleep too. King size beds rule.
M/tch, you might want to put a little extra effort into that blog of yours.
You seriously walk around your house barefoot, M/tch?
119: What, you don't like the color scheme?
120: Of course. Problem?
And um, apo, are you stalking me?
I don't know whether to feel honored or very very frightened . . .
I walk around my house barefoot all the time. And M/tch, stalking is such an ugly word.
I think teo is calling us rednecks, apo.
M/tch M/lls, I read the first sentence of the last paragraph in 118, and thought that was a stange thing to admit. Then I read the "and turner".
First the tossing, THEN the turning, TLL.
I mean, what am I supposed to do, lie still and think of England?
I walk around the house barefoot all the time. I like to look at my pretty toes.
I also walk around the house barefoot. Teo, do you step out of the shower to pee?
I pee before I get into the shower, thanks.
Would that I were warm enough to walk around barefoot all year long. But I gotta know -- do you other barefoot-around-the-house folks "get foot dirt and grit" out of your beds before turning in?
In general I'm less annoyed by mess and dirt than most people. I don't live in an antiseptic environment, and I haven't had a cold in more than two years.
do you other barefoot-around-the-house folks "get foot dirt and grit" out of your beds before turning in?
That would just be silly. I get the dirt out in the morning, when I make the bed.
And I certainly don't live in an antiseptic environment. Hence, foot dirt.
133: You mean, you actually have to start the stream going before you really get into that watersport mood?
You mean, you actually have to start the stream going before you really get into that watersport mood?
This is exactly what I do not mean.
Aw teo, you obviously don't know how to have real fun.
But why, why won't you LISTEN???
But I gotta know -- do you other barefoot-around-the-house folks "get foot dirt and grit" out of your beds before turning in?
I wipe my feet off with a towel to knock off any dirt and such because I put lotion on my feet before getting into bed and want them to be somewhat clean before moisturizing.
Seriously, don't carpets/rugs take off the dirt? I am a barefoot kinda guy around the house, and dirt does not enter my bed from my feet.
When my feet are dirty from in-house dirt what I tend to do is run my hands over my feet. This deposits some of the dirt back on the floor. Then I wash my hands. Dirt that gets on my feet between my bathroom and bed gets in my bed. This sounds somewhat crazy typed-out.
I mainly do not go around barefoot, in fact, but house dirt gets in there anyhow, perhaps via husband and cat feet. We also get a species of weird little short-lived dusty insect creatures whose corpses tend to appear on things left uncovered. The neighbors tell us these are known as Canadian Soldiers.
Our cat is nice and all, but he is not allowed in the bedrooms. The last thing I want to wonder when I lay down to sleep is just how many times that day he rubbed that little pink butthole on my pillow.
The second sentence in 144 can be read in two very different ways.
The important thing is, no pets in the bedroom damnit.
I do wash the sheets occasionally.
I just want to announce my crush on da.
I find it hard to believe there are people out there who never walk around the house barefoot.
To get into bed, I sit on the side of the bed and quickly rub the soles of my feet against each other to brush off any dirt and pet hairs, and then lay down. Quick, easy, sanitary.
Ben apparently really likes the idea of sleeping in a bed full of books.
Ben apparently really likes the idea of sleeping with a bed full of books.
The only way she could be more crushworthy is if she spelled "cassette" correctly.
Teo -- am I reading 124 correctly, that you find it "odd" for somebody to walk around their house barefoot? Cause such a reaction seems pretty, well, odd to me.
You are indeed reading 124 correctly, CÆ, and I do find it odd for somebody to walk around their house barefoot. It is apparently very common, though, judging by the subsequent comments in this thread.
is if she spelled "cassette" correctly.
I did, goddammit.
(And can we all agree to spell it "goddammit" instead of "goddamnit"? When I see the latter I always mentally pronounce the 'n'.)
Oh, well, all the better, then, really. Comma.
I will not walk around my apartment barefoot. Part of it is that my parents had a problem with us running around barefoot, so I'm not used to it, part of it is that I don't like the way that carpet or linoleum feels on my feet. I don't mind going barefoot on hardwood floors, or outside.
I have a pair of moccassins, flip-flops, clogs, shower slides, for inside. (Sometimes all four pairs end up under my desk, because I kick them off when I'm sitting, turn around, grab a different pair, go to the kitchen, make tea, kick off shoes, repeat..)
146 is exactly right, at least when one is trying to sleep. Not a function of pet hair (my cat does not ever jump onto the bed unless I'm making it.), just a batshit crazy cat who thinks that 4am is the perfect time to engage in a jolly game of bat things off the desk onto the floor.
I hate nonstick. I like making crepes. If you have a well-seasoned pan, neither eggs nor crepes nor omelettes will stick. Dedicate a pan to eggs & such and wash it only in the sink with soap, not in the dishwasher, and your eggs won't stick.
The whole "tracking dirt into your bed" thing truly is a foreign experience to me. (Except for those early periods in my life where I was conscripted by my father into various varieties of post-hole- or ditch-digging, thus introducing bodily contact to real dirt and dust.) Not everyone gets perceptibly-sized granules of any kind of silicone-dominated mineral mix on them on a daily basis. I only remember a few occasions on my life where I somehow introduced perceptible dirt into my bed.
Dedicate a pan to eggs & such and wash it only in the sink with soap, not in the dishwasher, and your eggs won't stick.
I avoid soap with my well-seasoned pans. A paper towel and some coarse-grained salt gets pretty much anything out, and doesn't diminish the seasoning on the pan, as soap does.
And, automatic dishwashers are an abomination too (unless you're running a large commercial establishment). At the very least, putting cookware in said dishwashers is very very wrong.
Also, imperceptible dirt builds up over time into perceptible dirt. A quick shaking and airing out of the sheet and blankets each morning prevents this, even if you don't formally make up the bed, and it results in a fresher, more pleasant tucking-in experience that following evening.
160 is correct, and I feel that I did wrong by attributing all bed dirt to feet. One's hair, for example, is also a vector for bedcruft.
160: I still don't get it. I would think that the kind of dust or dirt that eventually becomes perceptible over time is the kind that makes your sheets dirty. The only solution then is to wash them. Shaking out your sheets would only help in getting rid of cookie crumbs and the such.
Also: I like the word "bedcruft."
"Bedcruft", new to me, is indeed a great word. In addition to that contributed by feet and hair, there's also pajama lint.
And da, books, cassettes, cookie crumbs? Are you sure that's not a couch you're sleeping on?