My Problem with Martha Stewart

Posted on September 23, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Organization,Simplification

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Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

I’ve never been a Martha Stewart fan. Sure, I can appreciate the personal touches, ideal care for garments, re-purposing items and gourmet food.

I loved the re-purposing of an armoire as a gardening center that recently appeared on her website. Until I realized that this idea, like so many others, requires that you have items laying around your house and yard that most of us don’t. If I have an armoire, you can bet it’s being used somewhere!

My problem with the picture that Martha Stewart presents is that all these things happen under her own power. She makes the handmade centerpieces while doing perfect laundry while cooking a gourmet meal from ingredients that magically appear in her kitchen.

The truth is that Martha Stewart has people. And that means she doesn’t do it all herself.

I clean my own home. I do the cooking. I garden. I do my own shopping within a budget. And I work outside the home. My free time is largely absorbed by these activities. I don’t have the time to handwash and block silk sweaters, or create place settings out of things I found in my yard. I buy clothes that require minimum care, and things in my yard largely result from whatever the birds helpfully planted. I don’t need someone to give me pointers to do something better or upscale my life when I don’t have the staff to help.

So I will never be a Martha Stewart. And in my book, that is a good thing.

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