Spiritual Growth Through Housework

It’s less than a week before Christmas. After that, the secular year ends and a new one begins. I’d like to reflect on the habit common to many people: cleaning out your house and doing major housework to close out the year.

We can’t have guests over for Christmas and start 2024 with a messy house, can we?

“Spiritual growth” and “housework” are not two topics that are typically linked. Nevertheless, if one can set aside viewing the piles of dirty laundry and food-encrusted dishes as being just piles of dirty laundry and food-encrusted dishes, then you might see that housework and spiritual growth can go hand-in-hand. It is all in maintaining a sense of perspective, a proper mindset, and an appreciation of the old adage, “cleanliness is next to Godliness,” which is oft-mistaken for a Scripture quote but is not found anywhere in Holy Writ.

Now, let’s take the spiritual angle. As a Catholic, I accept that sin exists. It is not a word that is popular nowadays; preachers and pastors don't seem to talk about it much. Perhaps out of “political correctness” or fear of offending anyone with diminishing returns in the collection basket, or being canceled on social media: personal accountability for wrongdoing is glossed over. 

No one is perfect: we all make mistakes and hurt other people. We can atone for all of this and make amends.

You're agreeing with all of this and are asking, “OK, so where does housework fit into all of this?”

It fits into it by way of analogy. You are sinful like laundry is dirty. As you atone for your sins by going to Confession and doing penance,  you become “cleansed.” I think “shriven” was the old word for it. As you wash dishes, or toss another load of laundry into the washer, they become clean.  

As you meditate on this, you change your mindset to one that doesn’t see things for what they are, but also for what they symbolize.

Is there a practical aspect of this? Yes, now we go into the housework angle. You have a pile of dirty laundry over there. 

Or, it could be a stack of dirty dishes tottering over by the sink. It doesn't matter. You draw, by way of analogy, a connection between the dirty stuff and your sins, character defects or however you wish to refer to the bad parts of yourself. That connection is projecting onto your housework the specific things about you that you don't like.

Perhaps you drink too much? Maybe you are not an alcoholic, but your drinking is seen as a problem. Think about the drinking and why you do it. Now, project onto all the dirty cups, glasses, and coffee mugs all these things. Each item represents a sin or defect. As you slowly and carefully hand wash the item, meditate on the sin or defect and let the action of the glass getting cleaner symbolize to you the sin or defect being taken away. It doesn't actually remove the sin, but the action helps you to start to amend your life. You are taking a distinct and concrete action to improve things.

The process is repeated for the rest of the dirty dishes.

Now, about that laundry. I am not suggesting that you wash by hand every dirty piece of clothing. But you can use the image of the big pile of dirty clothes as a symbolic “big picture” of your sinful, defect-ridden life. While the clothes are in the washer, use the time to think about all of the ways that you can improve your life spiritually. If you use a dryer, perhaps you can think of the heat as a type of 'purgatory.' Yes, the clothes are clean, but they still need heat and a good spinning to remove the water which might still contain some dirt and lint (i.e. attachment to sins, or temporal punishment due for them.)

Increase your holiness. Yes, I used that word, holiness. It is not a bad word, nor is it unattainable nowadays. It merely can be used to describe a state of being in which you seek the higher path that leaves your imperfections behind.

So, that is it. If this works, you can slowly become a better person. If it doesn't, at least you will have a cleaner house. And that might make you feel better about things!

This was previously published but in a different form at: Symbolism and Spiritualty of Cleaning