Kitchen Sink Philosophy

All of my life, I have known my Mamaw’s “Kitchen Sink Philosophy.” In the deep recesses of what passes for my brain, I have known that I needed to live my life by that philosophy. It just was one of those things that didn’t “sink” in to my conscious thought. This weekend, I finally realized the wisdom of my Mamaw’s words. It only took me four decades, but hey, at least I figured it out.

It was a crazy weekend. Have y’all ever looked around the house on Saturday morning and thought to yourself, “Whoo doggies! This place looks like a dagnabbed natural disaster! But, there’s nothin’ natural ’bout it. I gotta do somethin’ ’bout this right now!”?

Do whut?

You say you don’t talk like that?

Well, you know what I mean. You might have said the English equivalent.

I have thundered around my house this weekend doing what my Daddy would call “rat killin’.” All the mess that has accumulated during the week had to be put away, I had to “tie up loose ends” on a lot of projects. On top of that, there has been the regular housecleaning to catch up. It’s been a whirlwind of activity.

As I worked, I was remembering my Mamaw’s house at the farm in East Texas. It was never a wreck. On weekends, she sometimes even had time for picnics and parties. I have been pondering how in the world she did that. Now, it’s true she didn’t have the computer to distract her (nor did she have computerized Mahjong). Still, it’s remarkable how much she got done.

Some of you might be thinking, “She was just a housewife, so of course she kept the house clean. It was her job.”

If you are thinking that, don’t get within arm’s reach of me, because I’ll shake you like a rat terrier shakes a sock. First of all, there is no such thing as “just a housewife.” If you have the gall to devalue that job, it tells me that you have never done it! Second, my Mamaw did all that work without benefit of many modern conveniences that we take for granted. There was a lot to do.

I remember how closely defined the gender roles were on my Papaw’s farm. The men went out before daylight to care for the animals in the barn. They came back to the house for breakfast. Then, they worked all day in the barns and fields tending the animals, the crops, and keeping the tools in good repair. At night, they dragged back to the house for a home cooked meal. After supper, they got the opportunity to sit back and watch the television with their feet propped up before they went to bed.

The women got up before dawn to cook breakfast, wash the dishes, make the beds, clean the house, wash the laundry, tend the chickens, and work in the vegetable garden. They cooked the lunch and washed the dishes before they went out to work alongside the men in the fields and the barn for a few hours. They came back to the house to cook supper. As the men watched television, the women washed the dishes, tended the young ‘uns and got them off to bed, mended some clothes and straightened the house before they went to bed.

My Mamaw had a lot on her plate, so to speak, but her house was always tidy. The preacher could drop in at any hour of the day, and she wouldn’t have been ashamed of the way her house looked. I thought about that as I worked this weekend, and came to the realization that her secret was her Kitchen Sink Philosophy.

While my Mamaw cooked a meal, she always had the sink full of hot soapy dishwater. As she worked, she washed the pots, pans and dishes she used and put them away. I once asked her, “Mamaw, why don’t you wait until after supper and we can wash all the dishes then?” Her reply was, “Gal, if you are cleanin’ up as you go along you can set back and enjoy the meal.”

Such simple words. This weekend, I extrapolated her words across the board. I realized that her Kitchen Sink Philosophy is one that would serve me well in every aspect of my life.

I faced my closet this weekend. It was scary. Although it is stuffed full of clothes, I can never find a thing to wear. I look at the clothes and think, “That’s too small and I should give it to Goodwill, this has a stain and I’m not going to wear it again. That one needs a button, this needs ironing, the one over there is so hopelessly out of style that even I won’t wear it.”

Before I could even get to the clothes rack, though, I had to shove my way past the lampshade that belonged with the garage sale stuff (I put it in the closet to get it out of the way in a hurry), the towels that belonged in the upstairs bathroom (I was too tired to walk upstairs), the laundry basket full of junk I had emptied from a drawer and meant to sort. If I had followed Mamaw’s philosophy, I would have taken care of those things as I went along instead of spending the better part of a day trying to undo the damage. Then, I could have enjoyed my Saturday.

What about all that paper that piles up? I’m not going to read a newspaper that’s a week old. Why is it sitting on the counter. The junk mail is piled up. Why couldn’t I have dumped it in the recycle bin when I sorted it while walking in the door? Instead, I stack it on the counter and it takes thirty minutes to go through it all when I finally get around to it.

I guess what brought the whole idea home to me was working on one of the afghans for Share A Square (y’all know I am working with a lot of people to put together afghans for children with cancer, right?). I get the squares in the mail from kind souls around the country (and the world) and I put a row of black crochet around the edge before I piece them together.

When I have the rim of a square crocheted, I have two yarn ends to tuck into the other threads. If I do it then, it’s easy, because I can see the ends easily. Was I doing that? NO! I wanted to see some progress in a hurry, so instead of taking less than half a minute to tuck in those little ends, I just grabbed another square and started crocheting and then put together the afghan. When I was finished with all the crochet, I still had at least an hour of work to tuck in those ends. By that time, they were camouflaged, and I had to spread the afghan on a large table with a bright light to find the little boogers. Can you say “backbreaking?” If I had just used Mamaw’s philosophy, when I made the last stitch of crochet, I could sit back and enjoy the afghan.

Am I the only one who seems to have a problem with this? What are some of the ways that my Mamaw’s philosophy would work (or has worked) for you?

I used to tell my kids, “Spend 10 minutes before you go to bed just picking up what you got out today and you won’t have much work on Saturday.” It was one of those “do as I say, not as I do” statements. I certainly haven’t been doing that. I paid for it this weekend.

Now, I’ve promised myself that for just one week I will live by that Kitchen Sink Philosophy. This week, I’m going to devote myself to my Mamaw’s idea of “cleanin’ up as you go along, ’cause I sure would like to “set back” and enjoy the meal. Maybe if I do that, I wouldn’t even be ashamed if the preacher dropped over! Maybe, if I do that then my hard work this weekend won’t all go down the drain.

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. A Serving Of Jelly And Philosophy
2. The Easy Way To Line Kitchen Cabinets
3. That Is Not Junk In The Kitchen Drawer!
4. Spooky House Needs Story
5. The Carpenter

Tagged as: gender roles, household chore, household chores simplified, Memories, philosophy