(heads up: no spellcheck on my device for some reason)

So I'm at the Ministry of Interior, waiting to get a passport renewal for over two hours with only 42 people before me now. Also, no coffee. Which is to say that I have been amusing myself with reading the board's voting discussion for a while. I thank you for this public service.

As for cleaning help: if only I could afford it. Also, the only guilt I have about the thought is to have other people cleaning my stuff, which, in my head, is my responsibility.

Edited to say that it only took 4 hours to apply to passport renewal. And that reading that thread was highly educational. And that coffee is awesome.

Coffee is excellent. Waiting 4 hours for passport renewal is not.

I hope I don't die soon, because other people will have to see the state of my apartment right now.

I feel that way about my basement. I want to clean it up, but my time keeps getting filled.

I've heard a lot more women talking about feeling guilty when paying for housework-related things than, say, getting an oil change. I think some of it is that housework is coded female, and therefore it should be handled via a woman's free labor. Meanwhile an oil change—something that's messy, but if your car has decent clearance, isn't too difficult—is labor that's coded male. Of course men should get paid for their work! Their work matters, dontcha know. Paying for housework is a statement that traditionally female labor has a value that can be expressed in dollars.

If I'm ever at a point where I can pay someone to regularly clean my home, I will jump on that opportunity like a panther on a wounded gazelle.

As someone who pays for both housekeeping and oil changes, I can say that both are well worth the money.

Our housekeeper was referred to us as one of those friend-of-a-friend things ("we're looking for someone who can clean our house regularly" "a friend of mine is looking for a chance to make a few extra dollars a week"). At this point, Andrea is as much a friend of the family as a housekeeper -- she visited me in the hospital late last year.

I feel guilty when I pay for an oil change, and I think I'd feel guilty paying for housework too. Maybe I just have a guilt problem.

It is a big struggle to get DH to pay for things. I try and explain that the list of things that ONLY he can do is plenty long. Someone else should take care of the pool, the lawn, plumbing, electrical, painting, and so forth. Seriously he has a severe case of the I Can Do It Myselfs. He would make his own shoes if he could.

I am the opposite. My first thought is can this task be delegated. I know my plate is full.

I have that too. I'm the guy for mowing, cooking, electrical, plumbing, auto repair, electronics, computers, paying bills, doing taxes, household repairs, business tech support, carpet washing, vacuuming, recycling, getting dog food, taking out the garbage, grocery shopping, and I try to do at least half of the dish washing and laundry tasks.

Hence why I'm having trouble finding time to make progress on the new site since I"m also working on a couple of interactive websites for my wife's business right now.

I don't get as peeved these days by dates or hook-ups flaking on me because that's my principal method of motivating myself to do housework. With the occasional showing by my desperate-to-sell-the-building landlord thrown in. (My neighbor across the hall is a university professor using his mostly empty unit as a pied-à-terre, and other neighbors are either brewing their own kegs of beer or raising a pig indoors, so it falls to me to demonstrate what one of the apartments looks like when rented to a normal adult tenant.)