Dust If You Must

[Gardenarian]

Dust If You Must (by anon.)

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better,
To paint a picture or write a letter,
Bake a cake or plant a seed,
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
Music to hear and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come 'round again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not always kind.
And when you go and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust.

(a friend sent this to me, and I though it worth sharing :)

[Blackdog Lin]

Oh my yes. Music to my ears! Thank you very much for sharing it Gardenarian.

(if I were craftsy I would needlepoint this for a wall hanging, it is so perfect.)

[mamalatte]

This is a perfect reminder for me. I'm going to print it out and hang it up!!

[mamalatte]

p.s. I googled it and found this info on the author:

This sweet poem was first published on September 15th 1998 in the 21st edition of The Lady (http://campariandsofa.com/2013/05/17/dust-if-you-must-a-poem-on-the-perils-of-housework/www.thelady.co.uk)(“in continuous publication since 1885 and widely respected as England’s longest running weekly magazine for women”).
‘Dust if you Must’ was written by Mrs Rose Milligan from Lancaster in Lancashire.

[Gardenarian]

Thank you, mamalatte!

[ToomuchStuff]

p.s. I googled it and found this info on the author:

This sweet poem was first published on September 15th 1998 in the 21st edition of The Lady (http://campariandsofa.com/2013/05/17/dust-if-you-must-a-poem-on-the-perils-of-housework/www.thelady.co.uk)(“in continuous publication since 1885 and widely respected as England’s longest running weekly magazine for women”).
‘Dust if you Must’ was written by Mrs Rose Milligan from Lancaster in Lancashire.

So the original sender dusted it off. Guess they found time.:laff:

[Rosemary]

love it! I "dust" about once/year. By then, it's actually cleaning, not dusting.

[awakenedsoul]

Gardenarian, Definitely worth sharing. My mother used to have an older woman help her with her babies when we were first born. We called her "Lady Belle". She was from England. She taught my mother to dust the entire house, every single day! My mom did it, too. Housewives put a lot of pressure on themselves back in those days...

[Teacher Terry]

My cleaners dust my house 1x per month:D.

[IshbelRobertson]

My wonderful 'daily' (actually weekly) cleaner dusts perfectly!

[ApatheticNoMore]

nature abhors a vacuum cleaner ...

[chrissieq]

My mother believed that a clean house was a sign of a dull mind. Why clean when you can read, volunteer, garden was her theory. She used to hate to visit me because she found my house too organized - but I think it was in reaction to growing up in a house with stacks of paper, laundry, library books! Of course that said my house is crazy messy right now with partially finished projects, work materials, Christmas decorations waiting to be hung - she'd be so proud!!

[Blackdog Lin]

nature abhors a vacuum cleaner ...

ANM: lol to the point of snorting. Thanks.

(I adore puns.)

[wren]

nature abhors a vacuum cleaner ...
:D lol

What a sweet poem!
I find if I take the time to do those creative and inspiring things first, then I don't mind a few chores, but so far I've never caught up with all the dust, and probably never will.

[lessisbest]

We all have 24-hours in the day, how we spend it is a choice, and I don't think giving up 5-10 minutes of dusting once a week is going to alter things much. We all have "roundtoits" we'll never get to.

I could also make a cute poem where I suggest sleeping less so you can do more (I get up at 3 a.m. every day). I made this a lifelong habit so I had quiet time for doing research for classes I teach, knitting, crocheting, and quilting.

There could also be a cute poem about getting off the computer, turning your cell phone off (that is after one more game of Angry Birds), or turn off the television, which have even more wasted time associated with them than dusting. BC (before computers), I read at least 300 books a year, and now it's more like 100 books a year. Most people can justify anything they want whether it is doing something they enjoy, or NOT doing something they DON'T. Perhaps if you added that 30-seconds each day it takes to make your bed along with the 5-10-minutes per week for dusting, you'll finally actually be inspired to do something creative! Meanwhile, having a dusty home (and you know you won't stop with just ignoring the dusting) and an unmade bed are negatives that are not good for a well-balanced life.

[IshbelRobertson]

Deleted - double post.

[IshbelRobertson]

I want to spend my free time doing things I enjoy which is is WHY I have chosen to pay someone to do the things I begrudge time to carry out.

As for getting up at 3.00 am...... Only to get an early start when leaving for early morning flights for foreign holidays .

[JaneV2.0]

I want to spend my free time doing things I enjoy which is is WHY I have chosen to pay someone to do the things I begrudge time to carry out.

As for getting up at 3.00 am...... Only to get an early start when leaving for early morning flights for foreign holidays .

My feelings exactly. I do enough to keep the Board of Health at bay and not a whit more. Some day, I hope to have staff...

[Gardenarian]

Hi there Lessisbest,

I think this poem addresses the pressure many women feel to always have their home clean - and to take on the housekeeping themselves whether they really want that job or not. It's not much fun to feel like you should always be cleaning; as we all know, housework is never done. If you're eating food and wearing clothes, then there are dishes and laundry.

I love a tidy home as much as anyone, but giving up our creativity and joy to it is bad deal.

And I think giving up sleep is an even worse trade. Unless you are very,very young, or constitutionally need little sleep , you endanger your health and well-being with continual sleep deprivation.

If housekeeping is what you love and how you express yourself, that's great - you've found your right livelihood.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Having others clean sounds nice in theory, until you research and find out it's like $200 at a time to clean your 1 bedroom apartment. Then it goes on the "when I buy a Tesla and my own yacht" list, as about as worth thinking about. At $100 I might even have considered it - occasionally, but of course no maid service was that cheap.

[IshbelRobertson]

I pay 15 GPB per hour, 5 hours a week. She is an amazingly careful, thorough cleaner. She cleans for four of those hours and does one hour's ironing. The amount she gets through is truly phenomenal. It's worth every penny I pay.

[JaneV2.0]

I plan to include housekeeping in a future budget. I hear so many positive reports.

[lessisbest]

Hi there Lessisbest,

I think this poem addresses the pressure many women feel to always have their home clean - and to take on the housekeeping themselves whether they really want that job or not. It's not much fun to feel like you should always be cleaning; as we all know, housework is never done. If you're eating food and wearing clothes, then there are dishes and laundry.

I love a tidy home as much as anyone, but giving up our creativity and joy to it is bad deal.

And I think giving up sleep is an even worse trade. Unless you are very,very young, or constitutionally need little sleep , you endanger your health and well-being with continual sleep deprivation.

If housekeeping is what you love and how you express yourself, that's great - you've found your right livelihood.

Gardenarian,

I understood the poem as you have stated and will stick to my original comment - we each have 24-hours in a day to do with what we want. Perhaps I'm just more literal than figurative.

I never mentioned giving up sleep... I get up early, which is different than giving up sleep, in order not to be disturbed for certain tasks, or take away from other obligations for the day. I go to bed between 8:30 or 9 p.m. I've always been an early riser - that was what you did on a farm in order to get your chores done before you caught the school bus. And then repeated them when you got home. And to this day that is a valuable lesson, I do my work first, then I can do as I like. Not the other way around.

I have no qualms with anyone who hires a maid service, that's their choice - it just never crossed my mind to ever do so. I typically wouldn't pay someone to do what I was capable of doing myself. It takes me 30-minutes to clean our home once a week, add 15-more when I steam the floors. The trick is, we don't dirty it to begin with. We tidy up after ourselves and do dishes after every meal.