Studies Show Housework is Bad for Your Health

We've been taking full advantage of our library being a ten minute walk from our house. Today I checked out another slew of books needing to be carried by two rather than one. This evening I read through Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck, all 400 pages of it. It has made it on my list of top books read in my life. My favorite part is in her Introduction which I will replicate here. 

"One spring Emily Dickinson wrote this down: 'House is being cleaned. I prefer pestilence.'
     Before the 20th century, housework was a grueling, full-time job that only the wealthiest householders were able to avoid. Carrying water, tending fires, making clothing, and cooking left very little time for other activities. Wood and coal fire and oil lamps produced soot that built up on walls, furniture, and carpeting each winter, making exhaustive spring cleaning a necessity.
     20th century 'labor saving' devices promised to change women's lives beyond recognition. A shirt that used to take months to sew by hand could be machine sewn in a matter of hours; central heating and gas and electric stoves rendered wood piles obsolete; and automatic washing machines and dryers liberated housekeepers from days of heavy labor every week.
     Our predecessors knew that the reasons for doing household chores were to keep their families healthily feed, clothed, and sheltered and to protect the house and its contents from damage caused by pests and the elements. They would be shocked at the extra work we are making for ourselves. If a woman living in 1904 was transported one hundred years into the future and was given a washing machine and dryer, a vacuum cleaner, a sewing machine, a dishwasher, running water, indoor plumbing, electric lights, and a gas or electric stove, would she spend all that saved time fretting over bacteria in her drain or garbage pail, or worrying about whether dust mites inhabited her pillow? 
     ... We are no longer dying in droves from diseases caused by poor sanitation; now we are suffering from chronic conditions ... researchers believe are induced by too  much cleanliness. Many of us seem to be suffering from alienation and depression as well. 
     Our great-grandmothers' homes were obviously clean enough, or we wouldn't exist. The extra sanitation promised by the in-the-tank toilet cleaners, antimicrobial dish liquids, disinfecting sprays, and air fresheners is not making us happier or healthier. There is not a synthetic cleaning product on the market that can improve our health, though there are plenty that can ruin it.
     One thing that our foremothers knew only too well is that house work is tedious, repetitious, and boring. Suggesting that housework is fulfilling or satisfying or that you can get exercise by doing deep knee bends while cleaning is disingenuous. The only rational response is to do housework efficiently and as little as possible, then go out and do something you enjoy.
    In 2002, researchers at the University of Glasgow officially discovered that doing domestic chores lowers people's spirits; all other known forms of exercise elevate them. ... 'With vigorous exercise, the effect is clear; the more you do, the better it is for wellbeing... With housework it is the opposite -- the more you do, the more depression you report.' " (Sandbeck, 3-5)

  

Run don't walk to your local library and pick up a copy. It is well worth the read to give back a little sanity in life; particularly if you have kids who are constantly redecorating your house.