by Marama Carmichael

Created on: January 13, 2009

At six years old I learned a long word - procrastinate. My mother would tell me to stop procrastinating on my way to bed. Oh, you know how it goes. 'Can I just watch the end of this?'; 'Can I have a glass of water?'; 'Can I go to the toilet?'; 'Can you tell me a story?'. The art of procrastinating is learned at a young age, and it's carried on into adulthood.

Once we move out of our parents' home and into our own we start to hear about this word housework. At first, we think we don't really have to do it - we can always leave it till later. But eventually when the dishes are so stacked up in your student house that you can't even see the sink anymore, let alone get anywhere near it; when you're carpet seems to have disappeared under boxes of mouldy pizza crusts, and half drunk beer bottles; or when it smells like something has died in your lounge, then you start to realise that the vacuum thing in the cupboard is not simply decorative, and maybe if you plug it in it might actually do something. Or when someone finally realises that not everything can be served on top of a magazine and that some things (like baked beans) really need a plate or bowl. Yes, student life is our first lesson in the art of housework, and it is a harsh one. In order to live in a house free from vermin and disease, housework is necessary.

When you live on your own, you have a bit more space for procrastinating with your housework. From the simple fact that no one knows if and when you do it. That is unless you invite people over. Your friends, family, and boyfriend really don't want to visit you living in a garbage dump. So doing housework before someone visits is always a good idea. Having to move dirty clothes so that your new boyfriend can have a seat is not really a good look. Nor is your mother being scared to use your bathroom she catches something. When I lived alone, my apartment used to go from being dust bunny city to being as clean as a hospital depending on who was or wasn't visiting.

When you move in with someone, you start to develop new housework habits. You don't really want your partner to think you're a slob, so you tidy up a bit. You start to cook and do the dishes on a daily basis,and even try to take out the garbage on the right days. It's still okay to procrastinate with some things - the washing can wait another day, and there's really no point in sweeping or vacuuming till the floor actually needs it, which won't be obvious till you can see the dirt.

And then when the baby arrives, you can't put some of the jobs off anymore, but you just don't have the time to do them. You can't procrastinate with the washing, the smell is starting to take over, and no one has anything to wear that isn't covered in sick. You can't procrastinate with the tidying, as the toys all over the floor are a bit of a hazard. But still if you could you'd really like to sit down and let the house fall down around you.

Procrastinating is part of human nature - leave till tomorrow what you can put off till another day. And for many of us housework is just another thing we can procrastinate with. These days it's not my mother that I want to try all my excuses on but my husband - 'Can I vacuum tomorrow?'; 'Can I clean later?'; 'Can I just check my emails first?'. But, the difference is that these days we both know that eventually it's going to have to be done.

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