The definition of Mingy

"Mingy is a fine old Scottish word that rhymes with stingy but doesn't mean quite the same thing. . . .
"There are ways and ways of being mingy. For instance, you can outfumble your friends at parking meters, or sidle up your stairway carpet to save wear and tear in the middle, or you can pour cheap liquor out of a good bottle.
"Clearly, these things save you money. But people are bound to find you out. They'll eventually notice that you never have any parking-meter nickels. And you might start sidling up your friend's stairways as well as your own, through force of habit, which will look odd. As for the liquor, they're bound to notice how the empties of Old Cutthroat pile up on the back porch, while the label on the King Charles Pride 'o the Regiment Scotch becomes increasingly streaked and yellowed with age."
-Peg Bracken, The I Hate to Housekeep Book, pages 69-70

Hopefully we will be able to discover ways of being mingy that do not involve too much potential embarrassment.

The Random Housekeeper

I should probably start off by defining the “random housekeeper.” Peg Bracken puts it like this: “there are three types of housekeepers: the spotless housekeeper, who won’t stop; the spotful housekeeper, who won’t start. Then there is the occasional or random housekeeper, whose book this is.” The random housekeeper is the girl who can see the value of cleaning oven racks, but who feels like she has better things to do with her time. She gets bursts of cleaning energy which quickly peter out. She starts things and then finds something more interesting to do. She is, in short, someone who understands the importance of keeping a house, but who would still rather be doing anything else at all.

I am definitely one of these girls.

Introduction

When I went off to college for the first time, one of the books I made sure to bring with me was an old, well-loved volume that had previously been my mother's, called "The I Hate to Housekeep Book." It was published in 1965, and despite a few dated references, the advice Peg Bracken gives about the lively art of housewifery is timeless. The first time I read it, I knew I had found someone who Understood me. I finally had a name for what I am: a random housekeeper. I am the kind of person who will get the cleaning bug at exactly the least convenient time to do so, and will be dead tired when I have hours to do little else but clean. I start things and then leave them unfinished. I know the value of keeping the house neat, but just can't seem to care enough to keep it that way for long. Peg Bracken understands this. She is this way herself. Her book is full of advice on how to avoid doing chores, and how to psych yourself up to doing the ones you absolutely have to. It completely changed the way I approach housework, and the only drawback I can find is that the last edition was published sometime in the 1970's, meaning we are stuck with cryptic references to something called sal soda, and the opinion that dishwashers are overrated. (I currently live in an apartment without one, and I can tell you that this is simply not true.) I pulled the book out recently and the need for a modern Peg Bracken hit me again, harder this time. Who am I to resist inspiration when is hits me upside the head? I decided to start this blog (for what could be more modern than a blog?) and write according to the spirit of Saint Peg, as she shall be called hereafter. In addition to occasionally quoting the Master, I shall give my own advice, which is even more amateurish than the self-avowed-and-proud-of-it amateur Herself, but the purpose of putting it into blog form is so that I can get feedback. I really don't know what the best way to clean a keyboard is, but if you do, feel free to let me know, so we can all share in the knowledge. We random housekeepers need to stick together, don't we?