This chapter is for sisters, women, housewives, bachelorettes, everybody in the LGBTQ+ salad bowl. We are the ones who think we have to do things the hard way. Have you ever noticed that most men find an easy way to do something? While they discuss business, they play golf or relax with a beer. They delegate to you and everyone else in your family things called “chores”. They get the easy ones, like take out the trash or pick up milk on the way home. Regardless of their level of acuity regarding fair share duties, they also manage to act … well, quite frankly, helpless.
And guys, if you feel like arguing or qualifying my biased opinion, please do. Can’t wait.
So ladies – here are some things you can do to make your life way easier! Stop trying to change people who don’t want to… you can leave them or just leave them alone – up to you. Meanwhile, how liberating to adopt some of the oppressor’s tactics as our own just for us!
Essential household items for Butchin’ It:
- Can opener
- MultiTool
- ONE spatula, etc.
- One sweater
- One jacket
- One each: boots, sneakers, fancy shoes.
- Undies and socks to last for two to four weeks – your choice
- Ultimate bedding that makes you sleep like a baby. If you have to be by yourself, that could be a good thing.
- A room of your own. If that is not possible, a desk of your own of whatever size you can manage … don’t fill it up yet!
- A large bag of rags that you made from old T-shirts or bought at the store
- One plunger for the toilet, one for super easy wash in the Kitchen sink clothing … etc. Go ahead and use your imagination on what might need a simple handwashing instead of a whole lot of running back-and-forth to the laundromat or — you know!
- Picking an amount of time, say one month, that you put all tchotchkes and things that cause you extra work – things that you do not use each and every day or week — in a box and store them somewhere easily such as in a closet or the attic, etc.
Next, go through all your personal belongings and get rid of everything that makes you feel awful about you. Whether it’s an old love letter or retinol or products you’re supposed to be using that you aren’t or something you wasted money on. If you have 10 pairs of jeans or too many shirts. just pare it down to enough to last for one or two weeks without going to the laundry.
If you have fallen for the patriarchal trap of agonizing about whether or not you’ll need something later or whether or not you are hurting someone’s feelings, just shove it in a box for God’s sake. Even if you don’t have room to store it, you can throw a tablecloth or some other thing over it, and not have to look at it.
By the way, this is not really about scrubbing out your femininity, if you have such. It is about lightening up and really allowing yourself to adopt some traditionally masculine ideas about everything from housekeeping to what to wear.
Keep one party outfit, one super business type outfit, and just a few casual clothes in each category, say, three of each thing unless you really run through those t-shirts and you don’t feel like doing laundry that often.
But really, if you hang your stuff up overnight to air out either outside, in the bathroom, on the shower rail, or on an extender rack outside your closet door, you will find that you can wear things more than once.
Box the rest up and store it or gift it.
While you are at it since you have all those extra hangers now, hang each outfit together with its jewelry or accessories.
Take clothes out of your drawers that you wear a lot and also hang them. There is great ease and freedom in this method. Try it and see. You can even put the shoes you like to wear near or under the outfits that are you are hanging. So hang business more formal stuff together with the proper shoes underneath, etc.
Jewelry and accessories can be tricky. Try to just keep a few pieces to go with most of your things. Put these items on their own hangers near each outfit you are planning on wearing soon.
This is a lot like meal planning. What that means is, you know you’re gonna have fish on Tuesday so you look forward to it and you just eat it, no fuss no muss no in the moment decision making.
Think about it — because only women are expected to manage the social networking and necessities of life, we stress about everything. Men simply streamline things, especially if they are a CEO. Just tell yourself that somebody else will sweat the details. It might have to be you later, but it certainly doesn’t have to be you right now. If you pre-plan your meals and outfits, that is a whole lot of stress right off of you. Let me say that again: off. of. you.
Freedom from the agony of trying to decide what to do, what to wear, whether or not to take time off, becomes, well, fun. My favorite F word. Actually I think my favorite F word is Freedom.