Who Said You Had to Eat Off the Floor?

"Relentlessly over the years, we have been threatened that if we don't have a 'whiter' wash, squeaky-clean hair, a spotless floor, a glistening car," claim two American professors complaining about some advertisers, "we are not keeping up to the proper (Madison Ave.-dictated) standards." These experts assert that "cleanliness as a status symbol" has caused the huge demand for products that pollute our environment and has driven many women "to almost fanatical lengths to keep their families, home and themselves clean."

Additionally, some women have been raised to view housework as one of the highest feminine virtues. These are obsessed with keeping an immaculate home-regardless of how much time it takes.

"There is no better way to make your family and yourself miserable," states the book How to Run Your House, "than to have the house so spotless that everyone is afraid to sit down on a chair or touch a table or walk across the room with his shoes on." Naturally this comment should not be taken as a reason to excuse a housewife from being diligent to keep her home clean, but never forget why you do it-to make your family comfortable. So do not steal their peacefulness by being overly fussy.

Do what is "needed" so you can have time for more noble interests. How important that homemakers today remember this! But how can one gain such balance?

Developing a Balanced Attitude

First, set your priorities. Which should come first-the house or those who live in it? Are your own standards so high that others feel uncomfortable? One homemaker concluded: "Provide the family with simple, nourishing food; clean beds; clean clothes; and a house clean enough for comfort. Everything else is optional."

You will never get all the housework done. There is always something to do. So decide how much time you will devote to it. Then diligently do as much as your own pace allows. Reportedly, some women spend on the average as little as an hour a day straightening up their homes. Others may spend longer, depending on their family's living habits, their own abilities, strength and circumstances.

Recognize your own limitations. As one experienced homemaker said: "As with money, so with our time and strength, we can't overspend. If we try, we end up paying for it sooner or later. We can only do so much."

However, some other homemakers struggle against another real weakness in the human makeup-laziness. This can color one's attitude about housework. The excuses of a lazy person are well known. Some people mentions how the lazy one says that there are just too many problems standing in his way to work, it's like a "brier hedge" before him. Or he is just too tired or "weary" to put forth any more effort. If you see such tendencies in yourself, do something about it. "Great laziness" can lead to a ruined home-in many different ways!

"But how can I know whether my present course is balanced or not?" some may be thinking. To help, let us consider a model homemaker. But what happens when the homemaker must take on a full-time job outside the home?