Unfortunately, young men are often not taught how to keep house properly. They tend to be very messy. Often, men pass Age 30 without learning to keep house at a decent standard. This is stupid. Housekeeping is not that hard. Learn how to do it, and do it right. Then, go off and do something fun, like snowboarding.
If you live somewhere, and your Mom isn’t taking care of it, then you have to do basic housekeeping. Mostly, young men do this very badly. Eventually, they learn how to do it. Over time, typically many years, men eventually learn that it is worth spending a little extra time per week doing basic household chores, so that you live in a nice clean place. You do not have to spend a lot of time at it. Maybe three hours per week is about right. Just pick one or two evenings per week, and get it done, and done properly.
Sometimes men learn this, at an early age, in the military. The military demands that men keep their living spaces clean. But, most men do not learn this from the military.
If you live apart from your Mother, let’s say at Age 18 as a college student, then you should begin, immediately, to learn basic housekeeping tasks. These include:
Do the Laundry. Do the laundry about once a week. Fold your clothes and put them away properly. Iron if you have to. Do not let dirty laundry pile up. Do not wear dirty laundry because you have no clean clothes. Do not dump your clean laundry in a corner, and just pick things out of the pile as you need them, instead of folding them and putting them away. Along with your clothes, wash other household linens such as towels, sheets and napkins once a week. Wash your sheets at least once a week, or maybe more often. Bath towels should be washed at least once a week. Hand towels, in the kitchen or bathroom, should be changed every day.
Make your bed. Make your bed each morning after you get up. Change the sheets at least once a week, or more (especially if you have guests). Have a nice bed — nice sheets, comforters, pillows etc. This stuff is cheap so there’s no reason to have crappy, ugly stuff. Go to a store like HomeGoods.
Take a shower. Take a shower at least once a day. Maybe more than once, especially if you have been doing dirty or sweaty work.
Clean the bathroom. Bathrooms should be cleaned at least once a week. Wipe down the sinks, counters, toilet, floors, mirrors etc. with a sponge. Use rubber gloves. Toilets should be cleaned every day, but at least once a week. Hand towels should be changed every day.
Clean the Kitchen. Kitchens should be cleaned every day. Every day, before going to bed, the kitchen should be ready for the next day. Dishes should be washed. Sinks, counters and tables should be wiped down. Use rubber gloves. Sweep and mop the floor at least once a week, or every day if you are cooking often. Wipe down the stove and stovetop at least once a week, or every day. Don’t let old/rotten food build up in the refrigerator.
Clean the other rooms. Living rooms, halls, bedrooms etc. should be vacuumed once a week. Don’t let clutter build up. Put things away. Dusting is actually a thing. Dust builds up on horizontal surfaces, such as the tops of dressers or bookshelves, lamp shades etc. Wipe off the dust with a damp cloth once a month, or more if necessary. Clean out “cobwebs” that can collect in corners. These are actually strings of dust, they are not made by spiders.
Take care of the yard. If you have a yard, you have to take care of it. If you really don’t want to spend your time dinking around in the yard, and would rather go fishing, then don’t have a yard. Look for an apartment or townhouse where you don’t have a yard to take care of. But, if you have a yard, then you have to do minimal care of it. This might be raking and mowing.
Do basic maintenance. Little things need to be taken care of all the time. Apparently, a lot of ill-disciplined people can’t even manage to change the batteries in their fire alarms, and they live for years with the “needs batteries” chirping. Replace light bulbs that go out. Do it right away. Don’t just leave burned-out light bulbs for weeks, months or years.
That’s it. Just learn how to do this right away, at the age of 18 or 20. It takes time and effort, but it is only about three hours a week. Purchase the necessary materials if you have to. Brooms, vacuum cleaners, buckets, sponges etc. are cheap so get something good that works well and is a joy to use. Use rubber gloves, while washing dishes or cleaning. We buy “kitchen rags” from Walmart. These are sold as cheap cotton washcloths, less than $1 each, but we use them as all-purpose cleaning rags. Just get into the habit of doing it, and doing it properly with no sloppiness or slacking off, and then go do what you really want to do.
Cornerstone 