Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
What are the most useful skills to learn while social distancing?
Position‹4 of 5›
Domestic skills
Argument‹3 of 3

Spring clean

Cleanliness is Godliness, right? Either way, it's good for peace of mind.

The argument

While stuck at home waiting out the pandemic, many people have taken to spring cleaning. Because of all the time spent at home, proponents, like Rod Stewart argue that now is the time to tackle the bigger jobs around the house, like decluttering their attics or garages. Rather than throwing things out, people are finding ways to spring clean with minimal waste production. Where they can, people are donating unwanted goods to charities. Others are up-cycling their things, turning previously unused objects into something useful.

Premises

[P1]Time stuck at home during the pandemic is ideal for tackling bigger jobs like decluttering attics and garages. [P2] People are spring cleaning with minimal waste — donating unwanted goods to charity and up-cycling old objects. [P3] This develops practical domestic skills while putting the time at home to good use. [C] Therefore, spring cleaning is a useful domestic skill to take up while social distancing.

Counter-arguments

Coronavirus lockdown has led to many regional waste dumps to close, meaning that the waste from spring cleaning is being diverted toward the general waste collection system. Some local governments are urging people to avoid too much spring cleaning because the reduced waste capabilities are struggling to keep up with increased waste production from household spring cleaning. The service director for highways and waste, Marc Morley "'spring clean' can have a big effect on the amount of waste you produce," which is overwhelming waste collection systems.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Having time available establishes opportunity, not usefulness. The question asks which skills are most useful to learn, and decluttering an attic is a task most adults can already perform — nothing is acquired that outlasts the job. [Rejecting P2] The counter-argument on record contradicts the low-waste claim directly: with many regional waste sites closed during lockdown, household clear-outs were diverted into general collection, and some local authorities asked residents to hold off precisely because, as one waste service director put it, a spring clean 'can have a big effect on the amount of waste you produce'. Donation was also constrained while charity shops were shut. [Rejecting P3] The premise about developing practical domestic skills is not supported by the body, which describes sorting, discarding and donating. Up-cycling would qualify, but it appears as a single clause with no account of what is learned. [Rejecting C] The entry also rests its case on a celebrity taking up the activity, which speaks to how widely it was done rather than to whether it belongs among the most useful skills to learn.