Reason's for home purchase

[criblizard]

I was listening to the radio while out to lunch, and the host started talking about an ad for some housing development. Normally ads focus on location, the room sizes, number of bathrooms, etc. This ad focused on the idea that it takes an average of 38 minutes to clean every week. At first I thought the ad was strange than it dawned on me. The were moving away from space and focusing on time. A veritable continuum completion in housing.

I know people are busy, but c'mon you can't spend a half hour tidying the nest?The announcer continued with the demographic breakdown. The majority of the tenants were mid to upper class in their 30s and 40s. Have we really been sucked so far down the corporate vortex that we can't handle even the most rudimentary of household chores? I hate to clean, but there is a  certain satisfaction knowing that you got the job done.

It points to an even larger time problem IMO. People don't seem to have time to do anything even if the anything is nothing. I see it in the people I work with. I may ask what they did last night and get responses like I did e-mail for work or something else for work. Did you play with your kids? Did you catch a game on the radio while watching the sun set? Did you tell your spouse you love him/her? It really is sad when you are no longer able to identify yourself by yourself. You are identified by your work.

I suppose it is finally dawning on me that there is so much more to life than grinding away at the corporate wheel. I think our culture and society in general are being scarred by this. What do you folks think? Are we becoming so focused on vocation that we lose sight of the fact that life is to be lived not worked? What could be done to turn this trend around?

Remember when you die they won't put "Great company man/woman" on your grave.

 

[Steve]

An average of 38 minutes per week? Cripes! It takes our housecleaner 4 hours every other week, and believe me, we keep up with it in the meantime! For that to be an average, there must be a whole messload of people who don't do any cleaning, at all!

But your larger point is quite correct, my scaly friend. Nobody's kids will say, at the funeral, "boy, I sure am glad that Dad spent so much time at the office!"

When my wife's grandmother passed away earlier this year, we decided that I would go part-time to stay at home with our girls during the day; previously, they had been staying with their "memom". There was a cut in family income but you know what? We haven't missed it. We just stopped buying crap because we could and pay a little more attention to our expenditures. I'm sure we, and most others, could further pare back our material "lifestyle", if we had to.

In our case, we traded "things" for "experiences", and are far richer for it.

[melpomene]

Great topic :thumbsup:

Society, ahh! and the pressures of society. Well, IMO, 38 minutes to clean the house, sounds cool. Why, because we are obsessed with having a picture perfect house. With a picture perfect picket fence. Homes are supposed to be lived in. Comfortable. We need to work and relax, as well as clean the toilet. I am a lazy girl when it comes to doing the house. No, i am into self preservation rofl I have all sorts of tricks to reducing my load on the house. :thumbsup: Martha Stewart bow your head in shame. :cool: No seriously, not possible to have a "House and Garden" set up, with the added pressure of work, kids, bills, cars, friends, etc etc. :)

[Biker]

If all I'm going to do is drag the Hoover around and tidy up the kitchen, then 38 minutes is pretty much the average on a daily basis. Can't see that as a once a week thing, tho. Not with critters and kids in the house. No way....

[Fiona]

If any of you will Guilty about not cleaning more, you are welcome to satisfy those urges in MY house ;)
I have a bitty apartment and it takes an hour just to do the morning feedings and clean up...

[Vicky]

38 minutes!!!!!!!! I can't clean my bathroom and toilet the way I like it in that time.

I admit to being one of those people who like a clean house and things to have their own home. I can't stand mess and confusion. Where I study(and Tiff's teaching stuff is), I have everything labelled and in folders, the same for the rest of the house, and bills.

At least 3 times a year I do a huge clean up and get rid of all the rubbish I don't need any more. I have a garage I like to keep my car in, but a lot of my friends are full of stuff they really don't need, and the car sits in the driveway.

I don't think that it is a matter of time when it comes to cleaning. It is a matter of priority, and to some people they don't like housework and use the excuse they are too busy.

If you want to live in a mess that is OK with me, but I can't relax in my house if it is that way.