Just because I am an unlikely housewife, doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to embrace it. I have been trying for years!
Every now and then I get a burst of renewed motivation to become a domestic goddess. After all, I tell myself, I’m well organized elsewhere (almost anal-retentive, in fact), a good cook and a decent hostess. Surely, I must have it in me to go full circle and become an all-around domestic goddess!?
When this happens, it’s like I’m on a mission—something that less-than-vaguely recalls going on a new diet: I find a system that sounds like just the thing for me, get the book, read it cover to cover, get all excited, start, then somewhere between the first week and the second (if I even get that far) I realize that it doesn’t really work for me.
Feng shui was the exception. I stuck with that for a couple of months, and my house never looked better. After all, what better motivation to clean house than to think you are bringing in more money, more love, more friends, better health? I finally felt useful, yay!
Sadly, it only lasted as long as I thought black hat feng shui was the way to go. When I found out that it was a “Westernized, simplistic version of the doctrine that only vaguely resembles the real thing” (as one poo-pooing feng shui practitioner put it) I lost all motivation. I looked into the real thing, but it was way too complicated and it totally turned me off.
I kept hearing about the FLY Lady, so I gave it a try. But it just didn’t do it for me. First of all, I lived in Switzerland at the time so the messages arrived at weird times for me. But even without the time zone issue, all the reminders were kind of getting on my nerves already after only a few days. Add to that the fact that she recommends you start your day by “putting on your shoes,” (which is a blasphemy in Switzerland, where wearing outside shoes in the house it’s frowned upon for hygiene reasons) and I really didn’t feel like I could use it.
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