Clean Houses

Cleanliness, privilege, and identity collide in a story where one woman must confront the messy truths of her own contradictions

Sol is a progressive young woman obsessed with cleanliness who, upon becoming pregnant, hires two housekeepers to help her at home. Although having domestic workers should, in theory, make her life easier, it instead becomes a source of inner turmoil: she needs them, yet she wishes they didn’t exist. Morally compelled to justify her privilege, she searches for a more “respectable” and creative job—one just as precarious as those of her “girls.” However, in a twist of irony, she finds herself secretly enjoying cleaning jobs and excelling at them.

The arrival of her baby further sharpens her dilemma: should she delegate household chores or take full responsibility? Should she choose a job deemed “dignified” or one considered “humiliating”?

As she wrestles with these choices, Sol is forced to confront her own prejudices and acknowledge how money and power dynamics shape her identity, relationships, and self-perception.