really horrible chores - Page 2

[greenmom17]

Originally Posted by KyleAnn

I am with SAHDS...

I loathe folding laundry & also putting it all away. I would rather scrub toilets all day long than do this...

I HATE emptying the dishwasher...I'll leave a clean load in there for days and handwash everything else just so I don't have to do it. It's supposed to be dh's job (that and taking out the trash), but he always says, "later...later..."

Me too! Putting away clothes is awful, probably because it NEVER ends. And, all the closets need to be cleaned/straightened so it's aggravating to even open up the doors.

And the dishwasher, ugh - I hate it, even though I can empty the whole thing in less than 4 minutes. It's the first thing I do in the morning, just to get it out of the way.

[Irishmommy]

Originally Posted by songbird45

2) Ironing saris. If I were ironing normal clothes I'd just do it, because I can say "I'll do it for 15 minutes then come back later" but each sari takes a half hour to iron. I want to iron them all and put them away, then after I wear each one I just have that one to iron before I wear it next time. But to set up this system I have 5-6 hours of ironing ahead of me! *groan* help?

Can you take them to a dry cleaners for pressing? The money would be worth it to get them all done, then you can do the one at a time thing you want.

[songbird45]

that's a fantastic idea. I need to call a local dry cleaners or two and find out what they'll charge. If it's exorbitant that will be motivation to do them myself, but if it's reasonable I'll just get them to do it. I may never have to iron a sari again!

I knew posting here was a good idea!

[SAHDS]

Originally Posted by songbird45

that's a fantastic idea. I need to call a local dry cleaners or two and find out what they'll charge. If it's exorbitant that will be motivation to do them myself, but if it's reasonable I'll just get them to do it. I may never have to iron a sari again!

I knew posting here was a good idea!

Make sure you tell them you only want them pressed, not cleaned too. There's usually quite a price difference.

[KyleAnn]

Originally Posted by SAHDS

In the master, we have the full-size glass doors (so pretty) and DH and I squeegee them after each use. It keeps them incredibly clean. As for the tracks, I spray them w/ Method bathroom and let them set and then rinse them out. Works well.

....I did buy us a squeegee at ikea once...I think I used it once or twice, got sick of looking at it in the shower and it got buried in the closet. Might be time to dig that thing back out and force myself to use it!

I do spray down the tracks but I can only get in there so good. I think what I really need is for dh to take them off so I can really clean them-I don't think the people we bought the house from EVER cleaned anything.

[Shahbazin]

With knick knacks that are "must haves", if you can keep them in a glass case (like a lawyer's bookcase or something), they don't seem to get dust on them.

[TaylorF]

What do I hate? Cleaning toilets. My solution -- I still hating cleaning them, but I keep toilet bowl cleaner under the sink in each bathroom and a toilet brush in a toilet brush holder by each toilet and just do it really fast while I am in there doing something else. I squirt the cleaner in before I take a shower, or while my child is taking a bath, whatever, then just grab the brush after a few minutes and scrub really quick. Then, it doesn't take long and I don't have to gather the supplies, which was always my excuse before on why I never started.

I feel your pain about putting away clothes. I have found that I hate this task more when I and my family have way too many clothes stuffed in the drawers or closet. Then, I have to push and shove clothes in there and everything looks rumpled and horrible and I just have no desire to do it.

However, once you get your clothes clutter eliminated (just one drawer at a time!) then putting away the clothes is a really quick task for me that I do not hate anymore. Plus, bonus, you can get your children to do it when things are more organized. My 7 year old daughter and 4 year old son both put away their own clothes each time I do laundry.

I wrote a blog post on the issue of putting away clothes, and how to get your children to do it, if you want to check it out!

[filiadeluna]

• dishes - smelly, slimy, sticky, wet, messy... ICK!
• toilets - need I elaborate?
  
• grocery shopping:

I used to love it, but being 36 weeks pregnant I have a tough time walking anymore, and I become exhausted before I can make it down all the aisles/figure out everything I need. I am very indecisive b/c I am always weigh cost vs. whether I really need something. Then I still have to wait in line, walk out to my car in the parking lot, and put stuff away when I get home.

[miss_sonja]

I hate vacuuming. The noise, the cord, it's all icky. So I got a Roomba. It works great and because it needs clear space to work well, we are forced to keep the floor decluttered. Easy fix.

I also hate scooping the cat box, but the cats go outside it when it is messy so that's a huge incentive to Just Do It.

For the ironing saris, can you hire that out? That sounds like a nightmare to me.

[milkmamamerina]

[QUOTE=OakBerry;13122690]Dusting is the worst for me. The dust makes me sneeze and any dusting spray gives me a headache. If you just use a feather duster it just re-distributes the dust, plus sends it airborne.
QUOTE]

We have a cool little static duster on our vacuum cleaner. flip a switch and it spins in a little holster to charge it and/or suck the dust off it. It makes dusting kind of fun!

Laundry is the bear I hate. I spend all day getting done and put away and that evening...there it is more dirty laundry! the only thing I sort of like about laundry is that we have a bunch of those pop-open mesh hampers in different colors. We just toss our laundry in right color hamper and lug it down to the laundry room (/garage) when one gets full...or so the plan goes

-to the person who doesn't use baskets or hampers: how? none at all? where do you keep it?

[sapphire_chan]

If you love the knickknacks enough to keep all of them despite dusting being annoying, I'd start just doing one table a day (or two if you have lots of them). Grab a basket, dump the knickknacks in it, wipe down the table and then swipe each item as you put it back. It'll take less than 15 minutes and you can, if you like, spend the rest of the time arranging things in new and pretty ways--which IMO is the reason for having knickknacks at all.

As for the saris, you probably *can* iron 1/4 or 1/2 of one in 15 minutes, but if you're ironing that many that frequently, it might be worth seeing if you can purchase a mangle. Or seeing if you can get the wrinkles out by hanging them and using a steamer.

ETA: actually, you can leave the blinds half done. You just have to start with the half that won't make the other half dirty. You can iron 1/2 a sari, you just have to have a way to keep the already ironed 1/2 from getting wrinkled again. You probably can't dust 1/2 a table, but you can dust only one table.

[sapphire_chan]

double post...

[sapphire_chan]

Oh, I see, you only have 6 hours worth because they all need ironing. Yeah, get thee to a cleaning place. They probably do have mangles. Don't let them charge you any more per sari than they would for a shirt--saris might be huge but they're nowhere near as complicated to iron.

ETA: if they make a fuss tell them it's a "table cloth"

[njbeachgirl]

nak

i hate our bathroom. the tiles never look nice no matter what i do.... the ceiling always needs scrubbing (mildew, yuck).... i have been asking dh to caulk for months and he never does, which irritates me.... and the whole room is so tiny, you can barely turn around in it. ugh!!!

[songbird45]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

If you love the knickknacks enough to keep all of them despite dusting being annoying, I'd start just doing one table a day (or two if you have lots of them). Grab a basket, dump the knickknacks in it, wipe down the table and then swipe each item as you put it back. It'll take less than 15 minutes and you can, if you like, spend the rest of the time arranging things in new and pretty ways--which IMO is the reason for having knickknacks at all.

...

ETA: actually, you can leave the blinds half done. You just have to start with the half that won't make the other half dirty. You can iron 1/2 a sari, you just have to have a way to keep the already ironed 1/2 from getting wrinkled again. You probably can't dust 1/2 a table, but you can dust only one table.

This is really good advice. There's only one table of knicknacks. I'd been trying to pick up as many as I could, dust the table underneath, and put them back, dusting them as I went. Of course, this led to knocking them over as I picked up the next batch and the whole thing is a PITA. But if I just get a basket or box, put them all in (carefully, they're breakable) and just rearrange as I put them back, it probably won't be so bad.

As for blinds, maybe I should try to commit to doing 2 or 3 a week, instead of trying to do a whole floor in a weekend. There's 15 total and I'm less likely to lose patience if I know there's not that much to do. I'll talk to dh about it (he's awesome about helping with chores, particularly if they're on a schedule.)

[milkmamamerina]

for everyone that hates windows, try using a squeegie instead of towels (paper or cloth). Just spray the window, scrub any bad spots and swipe the squeegie across a towel after each stroke. It makes the windows easy!

[elephantmargaret]

the only way I iron is if I can watch TV. Put in a good movie and go to it. But drink lots of water while you do it!

[bender]

I hate washing the gladware containers my husband uses for his lunch. I make tons of frozen entrees, so he just pulls one out in the morning for his lunch. Unfortunately, that means there are usually 2 to wash each day. I can't get rid of them because they fit his cooler perfectly and he likes taking his lunch.

When they are all washed, there is no room for them in the cupboard, so I have to cook more food to fill them so they can go in the freezer and not sit on the counter. And thus, the cycle repeats.

[Irishmommy]

So get him to wash them.

[caiesmommy]

Originally Posted by KyleAnn

My last one is scrubbing the shower doors. I love the idea of glass shower doors but they are a b!tch to clean. I scrub those doors and tracks all the time but there is still always some gross mildew that gunks up in the tracks, then I sit there with q-tips & a toothbrush trying to clean it out...and two days later they look just as streaky/soap scummy.

Maybe we just need to stop bathing??

My mil had the perfect solution for this prob..when we lived w them I thought it was such a pain but now I believe its the smartest thing shes ever thought of LOL..Inside the shower she leaves a squege(sp) with the one side the sponge the other side the scraper, before you get out of the shower you run the scraper side down the shower doors. The look clean all the time and alot less work when you have to do a big clean.