As a reminder, the notion that people should be able to maintain "a clean, well-organized household" came from the 19th century Western "upper classes" where the wife was expected to stay home and do this full time - and this was used as a status symbol and status marker to distinguish the affluent from the working classes, where women almost always had to work in (poorly paid) jobs in order to keep the household budget afloat.

Therefore, this notion is not only #Sexism but also #ClassWarfare . Thus, when someone presents this kind of "lifestyle" as something you should aspire to (whether a tv show, an Influencer, or a glossy magazine), you should really contemplate what kind of political agenda they are trying to sell to you.

Now, if you _enjoy_ keeping a household in a good, clean order, more power to you! Everyone needs their passion projects, after all! But it should not be the _expected_ thing - particularly for people who are already overwhelmed by the demands this late-stage Capitalist hellscape places on us!

Man, this still bothers me, because I think the slightly meme-y phrasing has tipped over into some weird places. I sure wouldn't say that "Only Westerners expect to live in a clean household" but it's logically equivalent, yesno?

I would agree that consumerism and status competitions encourage us to acquire households we can't maintain with the scant energy capitalism leaves us. And then, because housework is systematically undervalued, we can't "see" why it's hard.

@juergen_hubert

@clew

Yeah, I guess I could have phrased that a bit better.