Clean Sweep

Early last semester, I was studying cultural and economic characteristics in various historic and modern modes of production. It’s a mouthful, but basically it means I was studying how people lived and worked through history. I was fascinated to discover that pre-modern and historic hunter-gatherer societies spent only about 20-30 hours per week doing the work that was necessary to meet their basic needs of food, shelter and the like. The rest of the time during the day was for leisure. This held true for both men and women, surprisingly enough. Groups that became more “civilized,” industrialized and more advanced found less and less time for themselves and had to work more to meet their needs.

We hear about this all the time. The Dalai Lama said that this is the age of more convenience and less time. If you move to New York, you’ll have to work nonstop to pay rent and still have a bit left over to go to the movies on weekends, where you’ll likely catch up on sleep. Then whenever something outside of your daily routine comes up to throw it off, you find it such a hassle to make the time to get things done. My sister and her husband wanted to redo their kitchen, and they’re both teachers, so they had to start it and get most of the work done during the Christmas holiday. I had to go renew my license last semester and needed to squeeze it in between two classes, and even then I was cutting it close. Even when we’re not working, we have to spend an hour at the gym, take the kids to and from school, shop for groceries, spend a half hour commuting, and somewhere in there find time to throw something in the microwave for dinner.

How did people get anything done hundreds of years ago, you might ask. No microwave, no car, no running water, making three meals a day from scratch… Well, I can tell you that it can be done, and you will find yourself with so much more free time once you purge your life of the unnecessary things you think you need. I work 6 days a week for 6-8 hours per day. I have to walk a half hour each way. I post something on this blog at least 5 days a week. I have to do all my laundry by hand every week. I help cook at least two meals a day from raw ingredients and usually clean afterwards (if the water is working). I even find time to work out about an hour every day (not including the uphill trek home) There’s no dishwasher, no microwave, no hot water, and sometimes no water or electricity at all. Yet I find myself with more free time than I have ever had in my life. Why? Well, there’s no TV, no movies, no internet at the mud hut(no Facebook?!? Gasp!), no car that needs to be fixed or fueled, no unnecessary extracurricular activities, no student government meetings, no dishwasher, no microwave, no hot water, and sometimes no water or electricity at all. Pay attention to Tyler Durden, people; the things you own end up owning you.

I won’t lie, I do get help. This job isn’t paid, and I took care of the next several months’ expenses before I came, so I don’t have to worry about bills. Somebody comes in every day to help me cook (Shammi used to do all the cooking, but now I insist on at least participating so I can learn). I also don’t have to raise kids, of which I am very thankful right now (children = world’s best birth control). Still, I can now very much conceive of a pre-historic guy spending a few hours each week hunting saber-tooth tigers and then just chilling the rest of the time.

Do I get bored? Well, sorta, but not really. Yesterday, Sunday, I had no plans whatsoever, so after breakfast, I thought I’d clean the whole house. I was done in 90 minutes. I’m talking about an entire two-level house with two bathrooms and a kitchen that’s made out of mud. There’s just not so much to do here to keep things clean. You don’t have to spend so much time making the surfaces spotless when the whole house is made out of dirt anyway. So I finished The Life of Pi, which was a great book, exercised, did laundry, made pancakes for lunch, helped make dinner, wrote, made a call or two… all of which I would consider leisure, because none of those things had to get done, and it’s Sunday anyway. They get done when they get done, and that’s that.

I don’t miss TV or movies at all. I’m discovering that the internet is not nearly as important as I thought it was. I really enjoy the walk to and from work, because the view each way is amazing. I don’t love doing laundry, but I don’t hate it either. I love that every one of my meals is cooked fresh from scratch. I love working out on my balcony with the Himalayas in view. And did I mention that I get about 9 hours of sleep every night?

So if you’re feeling stressed, tired or just fed up with the rat race, try selling your TV. Unplug from the internet for a week. Walk to work, if you can. Stop driving a half hour to the gym’s treadmill when you can just run around your neighborhood. Take stock of the things and stuff in your life and see if you can live without some of it. Trust me, it can be done. And if all else fails, you can always join me in India.