Living Simply :: A Lesson By Roaches

Before you judge me, I can honestly say I've only ever seen one small roach in our house. It was summer time and we live in the South, so it was no cause for concern. Additionally in my defense, neighbors have told us that the previous owner of our home was a much worse housekeeper than even I am.  He moved to Conneticut, so let's blame him.

Anyway.  This story is about our dishwasher. Some of the buttons only worked some of the time until one day, when some of of the buttons were broken all of the time. Abe took apart the control panel to see what he could see.

If you think about it, a dishwasher is like paradise for roaches. The disgusting old food delivered to a dishwasher free and several times a day is just right for their disgusting appetites.  I believe that our dishwasher was in fact Roach Heaven, which is why all of the roaches we found in the space behind the control panel were dead.  Although this begs the question of the worthiness of roaches to enjoy eternal paradise (which is a matter that we leave to philosophers who hate cockroaches as much we do), it allows me to point out that I did not, do not, and will not have a colony of live roaches for housemates.

Being a sissy, I can hardly even tell this story, so luckily for me, Abe is much braver and he cleaned them out.  But they left dead roach scum, so we're not sure if we'll be able to repair the dishwasher.
At this juncture, feel free to squirm, gag, admit that you have no idea what might be living in your dishwasher control panel, and go to get a bottle of water,* since you probably no longer want to touch any of the glassware that was cleaned in your infested dishwasher.  We're moving along to the moral!

Washing dishes by hand is not my favorite housework.  But the other day I was doing it anyway and I was thinking.  Looking at parts to repair our old dishwasher had prompted a look at new dishwashers.  Like everything, they cost more than I expected.  (And no roach-inspection certificates are included, which you should probably address with your senator or congressman if they aren't too busy ruining the internet.) It would take me about a week of work to pay for a new dishwasher, and unfortunately, all of my weeks are already busy working.  Technically we have the savings to go to Lowes if we have to, but do we have to?

I love the time I get to spend at home, and I would like to have more of it.  I'd rather spend my time doing housework than at work earning money for a stupid kitchen appliance that will end up as free roach housing (hopefully not before washing all of our dirty pots and spoons for a good 10-12 years).

Abe and I have been talking about living simply.  I've realized that the more we have, the more we want is not just true, it's true in my life.  I have a cupboard full of dishes.  So now I want an appliance to help me wash them.  Then I want all new appliances to match my new dishwasher.  Then I want to renovate my kitchen.  If I didn't have so much, I wouldn't be worried about matching appliances or earning more money to afford a kitchen update.  I'm not saying that Abe and I won't ever repair or replace our dishwasher - just that living without one has taught me that a satisfied, simple life means realizing the difference between what we want and what we need.

*not that I condone drinking bottled water.