Jessie: In New Hampshire, where the leaves have started to turn.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been keeping my head down in order to complete a book that was due to my editor in October. Every time I have a looming deadline lots of other things in my life take a backseat, most notably, any real standard of housekeeping. As soon as I turn in a manuscript I cast my bleary eyes over my home in despair. So what I’m wondering today Wickeds is which household chore is your very least favorite of all?
Sherry: All of them? Okay, I’ll winnow that down. Probably mopping the floor — the water, the wringing, ugh! I don’t mind sweeping or vacuuming, but I will put mopping off as long as possible.
Edith: Dusting. Especially when a shelf has a lot of knickknacks or pictures on it. You have to pick up each one and dust it and under it. By the time I’m done I’m sneezing so hard I quit, even though there are four more bookshelves to clean. And the person I live with (who is an exemplary vacuumer, by the way) doesn’t even SEE dust.
Barb: Does grocery shopping count? That is my very least favorite, bar none. Basically, I love project-y type tasks–spring cleaning, fall cleaning, decorating for holidays. I hate the repetitive stuff-where you do it and then you just do it again.
Liz: Love my furries, but litter box scooping…ugh. I wish I could teach them to do it themselves!
Jessie: I hate scrubbing the bathtub door track. I don’t mind cleaning the tub itself or even the shower surround but the track of the door never seems to get clean no matter what I do to it.
Julie: Litter box scooping is not my favorite, but I do love my cats, so I do it. I’m with Barb on the repetition. I am so, so, sick of dusting and vacuuming. But I persist.
Readers: Your least favorite chore?
Laundry. That’s not one I can skip for very long and although there is a certain delight in pulling a load of clean, fresh-smelling clothing out of the dryer, still have to hang some up, fold the rest, and put it away.
Funny. I like doing the laundry, and I always hang it on the line (by person and clothing category) except in the cold dark months of December and January. I fold as I take it off the line. One of my favorite meditative things to do!
I thank the corporate stars for the invention of the Swiffer line of products–they make dusting and basic kitchen floor cleaning so easy! But nothing has replaced old-fashioned scrubbing in the bathroom (all aspects–I don’t need to explain, do I?), so that’s the worst for me.
Edith, I’ll have a clothesline (no dryer) at the Irish cottage, but I’m clueless about how to manage it. And what if it rains?
You have asked the right obsessed woman! I hang clothes by person and category, so pants, then shirts, then underwear, then socks in pairs. Kitchen towels go at the end so they are on top when I’m done, and bathroom towels at the other. Fold as you take things off, and bingo, they are ready to return to drawers or closets. I leave the clothespins on the line. Of course you have to race out and bring it all in in hurry if rain threatens. And if you have a stretch of rainy days, get a rack with lots of branches and keep turning the clothes to get them dry, in front of a stove or over a heat duct if you have them.
At least I have the rack (umbrella style, and it rotates), thanks to a field trip to Vermont visiting Tiger and a roadside vendor.
Grocery shopping – I mean, I like to eat, but the process of buying food and making decisions for a family that doesn’t offer any guidance is exhausting.
Dishes – they’re just going to get dirty again, right? I get why some people go for paper plates, even though it’s not the most environmentally-responsible thing.
Dusting – you dust and a day later it looks like you haven’t touched anything in a month.
Folding laundry – especially socks. I hate folding socks.
I am not a huge fan of the grocery run either. Or more specifically, putting it all away once I return home.
Thanks to my asthma I’ve gotten out of dusting and vacuuming for so long I don’t know if I like them or hate them. 🙂
Unloading the dishwasher is such a pain thanks to the configuration of our kitchen and my height. With the dishwasher open I can’t get the silverware or the utility tools drawers open or reach the dish cabinet. So I have to unload it all onto the counter, shut the dishwasher, and then put them all away. Twice the effort, none of the fun.
I do like doing laundry though. Getting stains out and getting everything tidy and clean feels so satisfying to me. I don’t want to fold it or put it away though. Not anymore. I did it all for years and I got very little help so now I just dump it all into baskets and let the family do what they want with the clothes. A few days of having to wear wrinkled items seems to have motivated them. As for me … my yoga pants don’t wrinkle. 😉
Asthma! You found a silver lining!
Hmm sorry about this but when I could do it I actually enjoyed cleaning and clearing (crutches and a vacuum do NOT mix – ask me how I know lol) but I am with other about food shopping (actually pretty much any shopping other than book shopping!)
You have a gift!
What are these chores you speak of? And if you saw my condo, you’d know I’m not exaggerating. At some point, I really need to grow up and start doing things like that. But for today, I have a book to read and shows to watch.
As long as you can find your book pile you are probably fine, Mark!
I hate vacuuming seriously hate it and I don’t know why. Sorry but dusting is not a thing. I say dust is just a protective barrier for anything. It is needed to keep them safe and keep their colors vibrant. It must never be done, ever! Dishwashers are a gift from above since I do not like washing them by hand, ever. I do a big monthly shopping that is epic so that cuts down on my really needing to go do that. Since there are 3 other adults here, picking up stuff in between is no big deal for THEM. Yep I do not like chores, I do not like them at all!
I love hearing that dust is not a thing!
Because of allergies to both dust and a lot of cleaning products our one big luxury is having a cleaning lady for the last three years. It has changed my life. My one rule when the boys were little and we all shared one bathroom was that the boys/husband cleaned the bathroom and bathroom floor, especially the toilet, because as the lone female some of the “dirt” was certainly not my doing including the hand prints on the wall where they rested the other dirty little hand while “using the facilities”.
I think I like meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking best because they are the most creative. In retirement, the new rule is, if I shop and cook, I don’t clean up afterward.
My sons each cleaned a bathroom once a week when they were growing up – and I did a quality check afterwards. Great skills for men to have!
Sounds like you have it well sorted!
Um: let’s put it this way: I can attempt to keep up with email and maybe even read and review some of your books, or I can do housework. I see you all agree that housework can wait. Fine.
I like your priorities!
Folks! I love all these comments!
They have been fun, haven’t they?
Y’all have listed them all: dusting (our house seems to be a dust magnet), mopping and cleaning those bathtub door tracks ~
Another tub track hater! Glad I am not alone!
I can’t stand clutter so it’s satisfying to put things where they belong. But I’m a lot more tolerant of not too obvious dirt. Cleaning the tub is definitely my least favorite chore by far. It’s easy to just close the shower curtain! Dust? Isn’t that where notes are written? 😁
Maybe that’s why so many writers seem to hate to dust!