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Notes -
I don't hear much talk about the "towel principle" and I'm curious if it relates to a real phenomenon and how one could use it in their interactions with other people or with oneself.
If you're not familiar, the towel principle is from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide: "More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (Non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
Basically, the principle would be that if you're the sort of person who does or has something that takes a decent amount of effort, people will see that and cut you a break in other areas. Specifically I was thinking about it in relation to housework. I'm a pretty terrible housekeeper - not hoarder or pest-attracting level (much) but I have a lot of trouble getting myself motivated and making a system to stay on top of things. And my ex tweaks me about it often and it stresses me out because I know it's a problem but I wish they would just shut up about it.
Anyway I was looking for a new system and read something about how much someone enjoyed cleaning their baseboards and how it gave them satisfaction. Baseboards. What kind of person cleans their baseboards? Is this really something where people wake up one day and say, yep, it's baseboard day?
Baseboards are far down my list of potential cleaning goals - but maybe they shouldn't be. A place that hasn't been deep cleaned in a while does collect grime and dust everywhere, including baseboards. On the other hand, if someone has clean baseboards, that's probably the sort of person who's on top of their cleaning. I do think there's a perceptual difference between a home that is cluttered AND ALSO has dirty baseboards, versus a home that is cluttered but has clean baseboards. If I clean my baseboards, does that change the character of the house even when I'm behind on other stuff? Do I feel better about myself, because now I'm the sort of person who cleans baseboards so I can take a little pride in that? Will it get my ex off my back a little more because it has the appearance of me putting more effort in?
Anyway, just wondering if you think I'm onto something and if there are other potential applications of the towel principle.
No, I think you're misdirecting your towel application. Nobody actively notices clean baseboards. They maybe notice messy baseboards. I think the towel principle relies on a conspicous element that implies the rest, not some inconspicous, subtlety.
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