I wanted one evening where no object in the house meant a task

Dear Delyara, The shoes meant tidying. The lunchboxes meant washing. The fruit bowl meant shopping soon. The school bags meant forms and homework. The basket meant folding. The unopened post meant decisions. Even the clean mugs on the draining board meant I should put them away. I looked around and felt as though every visible thing in the house had a little invisible label attached to it: Do something about me. That gets tiring in a way I struggle to explain to people who are not the primary noticer in a household. It’s not the work alone. It’s the constant visual relationship to future work. Sometimes I want a room full of objects that do not require anything from me. Last night, I didn’t have one.