GOOD NEWS ABOUT HOUSEWORK

A 2021 STUDY from Singapore found that people who do housework are fitter than those who don't. Tackling 'high intensity' tasks such as cleaning windows helps improve physical health and mental faculties, especially among the elderly.

- Richard Glover

The mental aspect doesn't surprise me. Attempting to change my duvet cover often leaves me entirely submerged in the thing, my hands holding its corners inside the cover, wondering what to do next. I'm pretty sure the widespread belief in ghosts stems from people becoming permanently entangled in their duvet covers.

Stacking the dishwasher is worse, with a hundred possible solutions to the problem of fitting everything in, only one of which is judged as correct by other household members. Has a dishwasher ever been stacked without someone saying: "Not that way, you've got it all wrong!"?

The bathroom leads to more disputes. It's my belief that every time you have a shower, the shower has a shower and is therefore self-cleaning. But my wife, Jocasta, believes the shower recess needs to be cleaned separately, a task I achieve by stripping naked and attacking it on my knees with a scrubbing brush, my backside waggling from side to side as I work away at the grime.