Least Favorite Household Chore

[monarch64]

I'll go first:

I hate making the dog's food. We prepare a week's worth of meals at a time for our dog and I HATE doing it. I love my dog, I love that my husband came up with the system, but I hate doing the actual chore. Our dog eats both wet and dry food, and spooning out portions of wet food makes me gag every time. We are a vegetarian household so dealing with dogfood "meat" is kind of beyond gross for both of us.

I just completed this chore and needed to vent. My husband does his fair share/we take turns but still, I hate hate hate it!

What do you hate doing and wish you never had to do again, or what do you just wish would take care of itself? Maybe I should have called this "First World Problems of the Middle Class."

 

[Gypsy]

Doing dishes when they are piled up in the sink. I don't mind the pots and pans. But the other dishes, I don't like to do. Also my husband is a martinet about how the dishwasher is loaded so I leave that to him.

Cleaning the bathroom isn't a favorite either. But I would chose that over the sink.

I generally do anything that requires organizing as my DH is hopeless at it (seriously, I asked him to organize the cans of wet food this weekend and it took me 10 minutes to separate out the urinary formulas from the others. I think he organized them by size??? Or color? Why would I ask you to do that? You feed the cats. You know some of them get different food. So why would you think that 'organize the food' means 'make it pretty???').

My DH generally does 80% of the laundry. 90% of the dishes. He also does any vacuming between cleanings and wields the carpet cleaner. I do 80% of the litter box cleaning. 90% of the grocery shopping. And as mentioned before, anything that requires organizing.

And we have a service for the other stuff every two weeks. And it is worth every penny.

With 6 cats (now 5 ) having someone come in to do the cleaning is a necessity for marital harmony.

 

[Trekkie]

All of them.

This is why I have a husband and a full time maid!

 

[CJ2008]

Floors.

Vacuuming, mopping, anything having to do with the floors.

Too much damn work. Even with a decent vacuum cleaner I like, and Scooba (the robot that mops the floors) I have to gear up to doing it. It's the one chore I neglect the most.

2nd least favorite: dusting.

 

[missy]

That's a good question and cleaning the toilets are my least favorite chore. We do have a cleaning person but she doesn't come often enough for us to not clean our bathrooms in between her visits. My dh cleans his own (we have separate bathrooms LOL) and I clean my own and that is my least favorite household chore.

I don't mind vacuuming but I don't like dusting but still not as bad as bathroom cleaning IMO.

My dh does most of the cleaning of the house in between our cleaning person's visits and he does most of the laundry too. I don't mind doing laundry and when we are at the beach where we have our own washing machine and dryer I do most of the laundry. However here in NY the machines are down in the basement of the building and I don't like it down there so he does all the laundry when we are here. My dh does all of the cooking and most of the cleaning of pots and pans etc but we do have a dishwasher so that makes that part easy. He cleans the litter boxes on the days I am working and I clean them on the other days. We do most of the grocery shopping together.

He is the organizer too and if I ask for help in organizing my closets etc he gladly pitches in...he's a doll because that is not a fun task.

Gypsy, you are so right. Having a professional come and clean is key for the marriage to run smoothly because my dh is very picky about the house staying clean and we used to argue because I didn't want to spend so much on having someone come and clean. However I decided (years ago) it wasn't worth fighting about since it makes him happy to have a clean house and so I bit the bullet and we now have our cleaning person/crew. Worth every penny for sure!

Monnie, I'm with you re gagging when serving their wet food. It makes me a bit nauseous too. LOL. What we do for our sweet fur babies. Whoever wakes up first feeds them in the morning and then usually I am home before my dh so I feed them in the evening.

Almost forgot, I make all the coffee but he grinds the beans.

 

[gregchang35]

cooking food.. cos that means i ahve to think about what to eat and then cook it. that also means that i have to go grocery shopping...

we have a cleaner so that HELPS and is worth every single cent!!!!!

i just need a cook and i will be set!!!! LoL..

 

[partgypsy]

Picking up the dog poop in the backyard. Taking out the garbage. Cleaning the toliets, cleaning the bathroom in general. (hubby does those!).
I actually kind of enjoy: vacumning, doing the laundry and putting it away, and putting away the dishes.

Sometimes I like picking up and cleaning the house, sometimes it's the last thing I want to do. Depends on if I am procrastinating on something worse or not!

 

[Niel]

Folding clothes.

Adult clothes are fine, but its the kids clothes. Instead of folding 19 things its 60 tiny things I have to fold.

Tedious

 

[blingbunny10]

I don't mind loading the dishwasher, but I HATE doing handmade dishes - pots and pans, china, wooden utensils.
We have a double sink, so most of my big cookware doesn't fit and this drives me crazy! It's also an old style that is not undermounted, so water runs everywhere including down my front. Our old house had a lovely big undermount single sink and I took it for granted.

My favorite chore is vacuuming. I don't know why, but it's the only chore I don't let my husband do.

 

[blingbunny10]

For those of you who have cleaners, how often do they come in? Just curious.

 

[missy]

For those of you who have cleaners, how often do they come in? Just curious.

Bling bunny, this is another source of contention for us. My dh wants the cleaners every week. In NY we have our person come twice a month. At the beach once a month though during the summer we might have the crew come more often depending.

If it were up to my dh we would have the NY apartment professionally cleaned every week and the beach house every 2 weeks. But this schedule works best for us IMO.

 

[gregchang35]

Once a week=$100. We have 2 kids under 5 and we both work full time. We have great family support. We are pretty clean, but the toilets and showers take the longest to clean, so we figure, the 4 hrs it takes for our cleaner to clean our house, is better spent elsewhere with the kids... We were fortunate to be able to afford one.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Every task in our household is mine. I don't want them but I apparently own them. I receive no help. At all.

Naturally/therefore, I dislike all household chores and am beginning to hate them.

I had a house cleaner and it worked out for a while, but schedule changes and property damage...I let them go.

Sorry, this is a vent but suffice it to say, I dislike them all equally!

cheers--Sharon

 

[missy]

HI:

Every task in our household is mine. I don't want them but I apparently own them. I receive no help. At all.

Naturally/therefore, I dislike all household chores and am beginning to hate them.

I had a house cleaner and it worked out for a while, but schedule changes and property damage...I let them go.

Sorry, this is a vent but suffice it to say, I dislike them all equally!

cheers--Sharon

Sharon, you're probably tired of hearing from me but I just had to chime in after reading your post. I am sending you big (((hugs)). And fwiw your post made me lol. Not because it's funny but because I love your honesty and the humor with which you deal with it. XOXO.

 

[jaysonsmom]

I hate cleaning the stove top after cooking. I love cooking and making a huge mess, and usually my husband or the cleaners clean everything else....but the stove top is my responsibility after cooking each meal and the iron grates are soooooooo darn heavy!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Every task in our household is mine. I don't want them but I apparently own them. I receive no help. At all.

Naturally/therefore, I dislike all household chores and am beginning to hate them.

I had a house cleaner and it worked out for a while, but schedule changes and property damage...I let them go.

Sorry, this is a vent but suffice it to say, I dislike them all equally!

cheers--Sharon

Sharon, you're probably tired of hearing from me but I just had to chime in after reading your post. I am sending you big (((hugs)). And fwiw your post made me lol. Not because it's funny but because I love your honesty and the humor with which you deal with it. XOXO.

Oh Missy--you are a darling and I appreciate you responding...because you make me feel better/appreciated!

cheers--Sharon

 

[tyty333]

Toilets...no surprise there and grout! Who's idea was it to put lines of usually light colored grout on the floor? As soon as I finish
cleaning the grout in the house, it's time to start again. Hate it! Would love to re-tile with groutless tile or wood looking tile with
thin, dark grout. Some day...

Toilets will always be there. Yuck!

Chore I mind the least...washing/folding clothes. I can listen to a book on CD or turn on the TV and stare mindlessly at it. I'm good
at both !

 

[cflutist]

When we had two german shepherds it was using the pooper scooper to clean up, especially after it rained. Just hated doing that.

Now my least favorite chore is cleaning toilets. I don't mind dusting or oiling the woodwork in the house, or doing dishes.

 

[mary poppins]

I don't like taking out the trash or cleaning the refrigerator, so DH does those chores and a few others including cleaning the separate shower.

I actually like doing the floors and laundry, and don't mind loading and unloading the dishwasher.

We only hire cleaners 3 or 4 times per year because we don't like having to prepare the house before they arrive and then looking for misplaced things after they leave. We keep up with things well enough as we go along but sometimes have them come in to do big cleans from top to bottom - it's nice to have everything clean all at the same time.

 

[blingbunny10]

For those of you who have cleaners, how often do they come in? Just curious.

Bling bunny, this is another source of contention for us. My dh wants the cleaners every week. In NY we have our person come twice a month. At the beach once a month though during the summer we might have the crew come more often depending.

If it were up to my dh we would have the NY apartment professionally cleaned every week and the beach house every 2 weeks. But this schedule works best for us IMO.

Honestly I did not realize that so many of my fights at home would have to do with chores! So it's good to hear other people vent about tasks they hate!
I would LOVE to have a cleaning person come in -- we had one at our old apt-- but now that I'm not working regular hours I feel guilty. Like I'm afraid of in-laws and acquaintances saying "Um she's a young able bodied person, doesn't work, and can't even keep the house clean without a maid?! " So no cleaning help for now. Man, it is a lot of work though. I think when we both worked full time, I had no idea how much work because we simply let a lot of things slip, e.g dishes would sit in sink for three days, I NEVER mopped, etc.

 

[iluvshinythings]

I hate picking up dog poo. We only have one dog but I think he invites friends over for poop parties when we aren't looking.

We have a lady that comes in once a week and cleans. If she didn't come, my least favorite thing would be mopping. We have a lot of tile!

 

[lorrissey]

the toilet and the shower. HATE doing those. I have delegated those particular tasks to husband. But of course, he doesn't clean up to my standard so I still have to do it myself from time to time.

 

[maccers]

Folding laundry, especially finding the mate of each sock, ughhhhh!

 

[hay joe]

Taking the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them away.

 

[sarahb]

HI:

Every task in our household is mine. I don't want them but I apparently own them. I receive no help. At all.

Naturally/therefore, I dislike all household chores and am beginning to hate them.

I had a house cleaner and it worked out for a while, but schedule changes and property damage...I let them go.

Sorry, this is a vent but suffice it to say, I dislike them all equally!

cheers--Sharon

Sharon, I too own all of them. Ugh. I do give him a bit of a pass, as his hours are long & hard.

He will help from time to time with dishes, or vacuuming in-between cleaning ladies--he does take out the trash & some out door maintenance--we have a lawn crew during the summer.. I don't mind bathrooms, laundry, or mopping. Hate vacuuming & dusting.

Cooking, cleaning, bills, money management, tax prep (collecting & taking to accountant), groceries, laundry, almost everything it takes to maintain a household I do. He has no clue what is in the house account. I even get our cash. He's got it made.

We have had cleaning help most of our marriage. They can be a blessing--right now am trying out a new crew, not sure our idea's of 'clean' synch--time will tell.

 

[kenny]

Probably scrubbing the shower stall.

We have no 'help'.

I do everything while my SO watches TV ... and that's my least favorite part of household chores.

 

[monarch64]

For those of you who have cleaners, how often do they come in? Just curious.

In the past we've had someone come twice a month. It was enough to make us feel like we didn't have to do a "deep clean" every so often (you know, the kind that takes you the whole weekend) but our favorite person moved and we haven't replaced her. My schedule is a lot more flexible right now so I just try to maintain what we had going. My husband helps A LOT, so I don't feel overloaded. Having someone once a week would be great, but probably not necessary for us. If we have more children I might look into it, though. Hard to keep up with messes and enjoy being with babies at the same time.

 

[CJ2008]

Oh I didn't put cooking up there because for some reason I thought it may not qualify as a household chore.

But now that other people have mentioned it here's my new list:

1. Cooking (it never freaking ends. All the work, and several times a day. Then you gotta do it all over again the next day. And the next.)

2. Floors

3. Dusting

4. Putting away laundry

5. Making the bed (this one never freaking ends either.)

6. Cleaning the stovetop after cooking (we have one of those flat top electric ovens - it's hard work to get the burnt stains off - love how it looks after though).

 

[AprilBaby]

Floors and bathrooms.

 

[Puppmom]

Laundry! I friggin hate laundry! I happily wash. I happily transfer to the dryer and/or hang. I hate folding and putting away! A close second - grocery shopping!

My husband stays home with the children ages 5 and 2 - he has for almost 2 years. I had hoped that meant he would take on more responsibilities around the house. No such luck! In his defense, he was learning a new skill during this time for when he does go back to work and took on two pretty time consuming freelance jobs in the last six months. I still can't get him to take over grocery shopping. If he does, we end up with bananas and granola bars - no actual meals. He has started helping with laundry (just the putting away) but does it his way which involves putting things away in the children's drawers unfolded. I keep my yap shut because everything is out of sight and I don't want to do it.