I have officially begun the transition from share-house dweller back to living alone. And it has taken all of two and a half days for me to return to my old bad habits.

Betty left for sunnier overseas countries on Friday, marking the start of three weeks of having the current house to myself before Betty returns for one day and we both move into our new places.

By 2pm on Friday I was at home lying on the couch in my pyjamas in a drug-induced haze, but that was because I was sick, rather than going to straight to the rock-bottom of solo habitation habits. However, by Saturday evening, having not left the house at all during the day or spoken to anyone at all due to illness and laziness, I noticed the stack of dirty dishes in the sink and flashed back to what life was like the last time I lived alone, some 7 years ago.

Back then I quickly got into the habit of doing the dishes about once a week � ie when the plates ran out.

I think I usually have a fairly balanced view of mess. I�m not a fusspot, and everything doesn�t have to be completely neat and tidy or obsessively compulsively clean. But I do like my environment to be at least somewhat clean, especially the kitchen and the bathroom. However, the last time I lived alone a combination of rebellion - having lived with my mother for the previous two years - and general laziness overwhelmed my ability to do dishes. And that resulted in some pretty gross and occasionally moldy stacks of plates in fetid water in and around my sink.

Moving back into a share house, for all it�s downsides, meant that I had motivation to do the dishes. There was a simple rule that everyone did their own, and did them as soon as reasonably possible. Emphasis on reasonably. There just wasn�t enough space to leave things piling up, and as a result everyone in the house, no matter what their other failings as housemates, pretty much did their dishes as soon as they could. And it has worked that way for almost seven years.

Over the last year or so I have, however, noticed Betty and I getting a bit lazier in this regard. But so long as it was both of us getting lazy at the same time and in the same degrees then there was no problem. And the dishes generally got done within a couple of days at the outside � again the lack of space thing would catch up with us pretty quickly.

But now that Betty's gone away I have stacked up the sink pretty quickly with dirty plates. And I haven�t been eating that much due to this stupid cold, so I don�t really know where they all came from. But it has served as a timely reminder that even though for this weekend I had a �get out of dishes free� card due to illness and letting loose the second I have the house to myself, if I don�t get some discipline back in this area I�ll pretty soon be at the bottom of that slippery slope among the fetid water and occasional mould.

Especially given that I now own at least three weeks worth of plates.