Cleaning
In this autoethnography, I've written about and revealed some aspects of my life that are extremely personal. I've written about not having children, harassment at work, issues in my relationship, mental health, trying to navigate sustainable living within existing socio-economic structures, my childhood, moving countries multiple times, resigning from my job as an act of activism. It feels vulnerable to write about this. But I also believe in transparency of research. To make my autoethnographic research as transparent as possible, I've made all my data public via this page. In the first autoethnographic paper, I simply linked this page to the paper. While some fellow humans refer to this data as a blog, perhaps because it's housed by a blogging platform, it is not intended as a blog. It's just autoethnography with all its messiness, nuance and struggles.
While it definitely is uncomfortable at times to write about very personal aspects of living, something that I find as uncomfortable to say is that I find as much joy in looking after my home as in writing, reading, doing my research. Somehow to say this feels even more vulnerable. In my industry, academia, it is more common to discuss research, to find joy in teaching, publishing, receiving research grants. Talking about the extremely simple joys of everyday life, especially about activities that supposedly waste our precious time, is uncommon. And yet, somehow I do not feel that I am wasting my time when I'm cleaning my home. It's a therapeutic and mindful activity of honouring my space and the objects I live with. To me, cleaning my home is a degrowth practice.
Some would perhaps be tempted to find the roots of this in my early life. My parents, like many other humans in my social circle, found looking after objects a waste of time, a chore, something to do efficiently with the help of technology. They found joy in their careers and social activities such as going to theatres and museums, in spending time with their friends. Perhaps they would be unhappy to learn that I "waste" my time on cleaning.
Practising minimalism makes looking after my home an even more pleasant activity. If I lived with more objects, taking care of my space would probably feel overwhelming.
Emphasising aesthetics is likewise helpful. I've written about it several times already in my autoethnography, but to me it feels that aesthetics is an important part of sustainable living. I do not have in mind any particular aesthetic, as tastes differ. But it is easier and more pleasant to live with only very few objects, and keep them for a long time, if one finds them beautiful. I don't think that it's shallow. Personally I find joy and beauty in simple forms, natural materials, neutral colours. Some of those things were rather expensive (e.g., the furniture we bought for this space), but others were free. Some of the most beautiful objects I live with, in my view, are glass jars that came with food. I cleaned them, removed the labels, and started using them for various purposes.