Because it’s boring. And, ironically, messy. As I dig through clutter, I can never decide what to keep, what to throw out. I usually err on the side of throwing out and so far have no regrets. I’m cleaning now mainly because I have the time and I’m having people over on Saturday. Coming on the heels of my we-should-have-the-choice-to-stay-home-or-not post below, it’s amusing that I find myself bored with my day off pretending to be a housewife. I just don’t find a clean house all that rewarding. For one thing, it doesn’t last. And for another, no one really sees it. Is this what I would do all day if I were at home? I hope not. I think that my house would stay a little neater since I probably would spend some time tidying up. Hopefully, I would do things like volunteer at school and other places, write, read, something. Who invented housework anyway and made it necessary for women to keep a clean house? Was that Martha? Or Harriet? Or June? I have a good friend, a mom and a lawyer, who also doesn’t keep a clean house. It makes me feel better about the piles of clutter in my own house. It does get overwhelming to look at after a while. You begin to think, “What’s in those piles? Is it something important? Is important for me to know? For the surfaces of the counters to be seen?”