…….or just a Never-Ending Story?

The jobs that seem to fall together under that all-encompassing title of “Housework’.  Do you embrace them as a steady part of your routine and rejoice in the satisfaction of a job well done?  Or do you constantly rail against the monotony of having to do the same task over and over again?

During the past few weekends we have made substantial progress with what The Duke refers to as our bucket list. It is not a bucket list in the generally accepted sense but more like a ‘to do list’.  We have bought and planted the shrubs outside the boundary fence, prepared the fence posts (cut to length, cleaned and painted), created and planted the rockery and started on building more raised garden beds.

However, the last couple of days have been a bit different.  The combination of a very busy week at work and drizzling rain yesterday meant that I did very little outdoor work.  In fact, I could say I did nothing much until I actually list what I did do.

Washing
Ironing
Prepared meals
Menu planned
Shopping
Picked beans, tomatoes, corn and mangoes
Sorted contents of freezer
Prepared and stored mango (pureed, frozen, dehydrated)
Prepared and froze corn
Swept floors
Dusted sideboard and bookcase
Refilled pantry containers from storage buckets

There were probably a dozen other little tasks that have not even made it onto the list.

The Duke also washed several loads of dishes and emptied the compost numerous times while I was making a mess in the kitchen.

Most of these tasks will need to be repeated the next day, week or month but that does not bother me particularly.  I am constantly looking at ways to simplify my life and one of the reasons to reduce the amount of time and effort that is expended on routine tasks such as many of those that I have listed.  A good example is shopping.  This my shopping consisted of buying cheese and vinegar at Aldi (the vinegar was for the chutney), a small quantity of fruit and vegetables at the local fruit stall and The Duke bought some bacon at the butcher when he went in to town on another errand.  The flow on effect was that putting everything away took about 2 minutes so that is a huge saving as well.

So, what do you think of repetitive homemaking tasks?