Philobiblon

Zoe Williams in the Guardian this morning is rightly scathing about a survey that finds many women think “cleaning is better than sex”. All that proves is that if you ask the right question you can get any result you like from a survey. (And I bet it was done for a cleaning products company or similar.)

But she’s wrong, I think, on the subject of paid cleaners. She suggests everyone should just clean up after themselves, but the problem of course is that small children can’t, or the disabled, or many of the elderly, and there are still plenty of able-bodied adults around who just won’t.

That this is now paid work – albeit often badly paid – is an advance, for at least it puts some value on it, in the way our societies judge value. And since it is still overwhelmingly women who do the cleaning, that is a good thing.

Better than unpaid housework by women dismissed as “just housewives”.

Now you’re going to ask if I’ve ever had a cleaner. Only in Bangkok, where not to do so would be very odd. Left to my own devices, I’ve in the past been famous for the dustballs under my dining table. Now, I’ve got a dishwasher (life is too short to wash dishes), and when the dustballs build up I’ll sweep them up with the dirty clothes before they go in the washing machine…