being good

[luka]

i did the dishes today, not long after eating. that is one of the big things for me. i go weeks where i dont manage to do it sometimes. its like a measuring stick of how with it i am. i love walking into the kitchen in the morning and it's clean and the dishes have been done. probably the best experience i have. the rewards of virtue.

 

[woops]

Do you put the dishes away after washing up

 

[luka]

never

 

[luka]

woops actually has lots of rules which i admire. for example he never, ever smokes or drinks beer or eats his dinner in bed.

 

[woops]

woops actually has lots of rules which i admire. for example he never, ever smokes or drinks beer or eats his dinner in bed.

Not ever and I've never had a drink in my pyjamas. Never been in a bookies. Never been in a stripclub.

 

[luka]

i dont even have pyjamas. i should have had more rules in place but its far too late at this stage.

 

[woops]

how much coffee paraphernalia do you have @luka? i've got 2 stovetops 2 v60s + papers, 3 kinds of coffee and this one cup drip thing. cleaning that stuff is the hardest

 

[luka]

two stovetops one which is missing a part, two aeropresses, one cafetiere, and some sort of vietnamese contraption

 

[luka]

what sold me on the aeropress when i first saw it at the london coffee festival or whatever it's called, was how easy it was to clean. that and how clean and bright the coffee tasted.

 

[woops]

I should get one too

 

[IdleRich]

i did the dishes today, not long after eating. that is one of the big things for me. i go weeks where i dont manage to do it sometimes. its like a measuring stick of how with it i am. i love walking into the kitchen in the morning and it's clean and the dishes have been done. probably the best experience i have. the rewards of virtue.

The guy... my memory is terrible... there is a thread about how he compares people to lobsters or something. Anyway, I am sure he is a total bell-end and that ninety percent of what he says is awful... but, the thing he says about tidying your room has at least a grain of truth in it. Maybe not for everyone but, certainly in my case, when I wash the dishes straight after cooking then I tend to feel better about myself. And when I feel better about things - including myself - I tend to be better at doing the dishes etc straight away. There is at least the potential for a virtuous circle there I feel, or the opposite too if you're not careful. I'm not sure how powerful it is, I don't think it's going to change your life or overcome a major depression, but all things being equal, living in a tidier environment is just that bit nicer and if you can maintain it and stay in the right frame of mind to tidy things up and make yourself feel better then... yeah, it probably is "being good".

 

[luka]

its way better hes defintely right about it but as you say its easier when youre feeling with it and sometimes even those little things seem to become impossible. it doesnt take much, it doesnt have to be dramatic, its just the threads start fraying

 

[Leo]

I know someone who can't get on with his day unless he makes his bed in the morning. it's the symbolic end of lounging/start of the day, otherwise he just feels sluggish, like he's not really up yet.

 

[luka]

good on him. doing the bed is like doing the dishes for me. i do it when im feeling relatively perky and optimistic. it does seem to make a difference somehow though there's no real need to do it.

 

[luka]

i mean, i always do the dishes it's just sometimes i have to do last nights dishes in the morning, which is not optimal. its a bit of a drag.

 

[luka]

probaby goes without saying that a lot of this stuff is tied to whether im drinking or not.

 

[Leo]

making the bed also seems to make it feel fresh again when you get in at night. when it's unmade all day, it's like slipping back into the squalor of the night before.

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah I feel absolutely the same. I don't really see that making the bed does anything at all but for me it's really important. Yes it symbolises the start of the day and an end to wasting around, but also it just feels fresher to get into a made bed even though it's no cleaner in reality.

 

[woops]

Literature trivia time. Anthony Burgess never made the bed. His Italian wife told him life is about unmaking beds, not making them.

I have been trying a long time to get out of bed in such s way that it looks made when I get out. Always looking for a dodge

 

[jenks]

I don’t suppose many on here like Bruce Chatwin - I do - but I always remember this about him (so does my wife when I occasionally forget to put my plate in the dishwasher “you’re not Bruce Chatwin!”)

“Chatwin's vanity, petulance, occasional cruelty and selfishness are unflinchingly documented here (in 23 years of marriage he never once did the washing up)”