Your least favorite chore
 

So I am going to come right out and admit it, I hate housework. I hate everything about it, but I like having things neat and tidy, so I do it and I grumble the entire time. :cursing:

I don't care for any part of it, but my least favorite chore is sweeping/mopping. I suck at it. Seriously, I don't know what my problem is, but when I sweep, I feel like I have no control and am just spreading the dirt around more. No matter how careful I am being whenever I look back, I see something I missed. So I go back and redo it, but no matter how many times I go back and re-sweep, I still miss/move stuff. Because of that I find it completely frustrating and just a waste of my time.

Vacuuming is better, but it is still sweeping, ya know, so I hate it. I brought a fancy sweeper/mop all in one thingy thinking it would help, but nope, still hate it. Honestly, I would rather clean the toilets than sweep the floor.

How bout you, what is your least favorite chore, it doesn't have to be housekeeping related, and why?

Oh, and if you know the secret of successfully sweeping with a broom and want to share it with me, please do. Maybe this old dog is not too old to learn that new trick. LOL

Cooking dinner. I could most happily have someone else do the cooking.

I'm sitting here gearing up for my least favorite chore, and that is cleaning our Florida room. It's a carpeted, screened in room off the back of our house, and it gets filthy. I have to haul seven huge chairs, a heavy table, a deck box, and a grill out front to the drive way to scrub and hose everything down. And I have to haul out the hose from the shed. And it's supposed to be 90 degrees today. Yay! :( My favorite part is trying to vacuum up all the dead bug carcasses that get clog the hose. But, I'm having my family over to celebrate by sister's 60th, so I have to get it done. I should quit stalling. lol

I almost never sweep… I vacuum instead. Or make my kids do it! Lol. My least favorite chore is a toss up between grocery shopping and clipping nails on my guinea pigs. I dread both!

Pretty much the same as you. That's why I have a cleaning lady that does the heavy duty cleaning every 2 months.

I can't dust... it makes my eyes itchy and I sneeze. And, if I get even a smidge of dust on my hands I have to immediately wash them because other wise the dust will get in my eyes because I invariably rub my eyes since they itch.

I have a bad back so mopping is hard for me. And, I have a 1400 sq feet of laminate in my house. Got rid of all the carpet 4 years ago. Because of the back I also have issues with most vacuums as well.

What I do between cleaning lady visits is use a regular old fashioned dust mop to get the dust bunnies hanging out. For some reason swiffer type products never worked well for me... the pad kept falling off. With the dust mop, I just go outside and shake it real good. I do have a smaller vacuum that is very lightweight that I will use to pick up what the dust mop can't get when needed. I did get a spray mop made by O-Cedar to do spot mopping when needed.

On a related note, I did one of those at home allergy tests and guess what my worst allergy is... <<drum roll>> house dust.

I did just make an expensive purchase that I hope will help (cleaning lady swears by it). In a few days I will be the owner of a Roomba. I had been thinking about it for several months and the allergy test results made the decision easier.

Oh yeah, washing windows is up there on the list too.... for multiple reasons!

3 things are at the top of my least favorite list.... 1 - cleaning toilets (this one gets put on the short list of 'honey-do' chores ;) lol), 2 - washing / putting away silverware.... I guess because they are small and there's always so many of them, I absolutely hate washing then sorting and putting them away (i've put this one on the kids chore list lol), and lastly, 3 - I hate folding socks!! I hate socks in general and don't wear them myself (besides the odd time when I go out in the winter.. but my 3 pairs are at least manageable).... but for the rest of the family, there are tons of socks and I hate them! I've ended up giving up on the struggle and just throw them all in a laundry basket... whenever someone needs a pair, I let them figure it out for themselves. haha

I'm not a fan of housework either and I don't consider myself good at it. I'm one of those perfectionists that gets wrapped up in the tiny details of one project and doesn't actually get the big stuff done.

That said, while it's not housework, the most dreaded chore for me is anything food related. Planning, shopping, putting it away, food prep, cooking, and cleaning up after. To be honest, I don't even like eating.

Beyond that - I hate washing dishes. Actually, I hate the drying and putting away part. I could wash all day if someone else would dry and put them away. I wash and leave things on the drain board to dry but they take forever. We have a dishwasher that sucks. I have to pre-rinse or nothing gets clean. I need a new one I guess. This one is only 5 years old.

Well, I wouldn't be winning any awards for my housekeeping abilities... I loathe it all, and will find things to do to not do household stuff (and why I can get so many layouts done in a week, haha). My least favorite is also floors and windows. I have bought ever gadget to make it more fun, nope, hate it - and it becomes a stand off with my husband on who is going to do the floors. haha.

All of them?

Housework is one of those things that I don't notice when things are only mildly untidy/messy so I don't think about doing it & then things get out of hand and I get overwhelmed at how much there is to do. I'm also an Obliger (Google Gretchen Rubin's The Four Tendencies) which, basically, means I don't feel like I'm worth doing things for but I will do them for other people/if other people hold me accountable so I generally do more housework when my kids are here with me and/or I can involve them in some aspect of the housework.

I find noticing and keeping up on housework extremely anxiety-inducing & stressful so I'm looking into having someone come in a couple times a month for bigger "proper" cleans to make it more manageable for me to keep up between times.

Lorie maybe your broom is missing a few bristles and that's why you can't sweep properly?? lol

I don't sweep. I vacuum. Once every month or so. I hate all cleaning chores. I hate dusting the most probably.
I never clean bathrooms unless I see gross stuff. A quick scrub with the toilet brush and it does the trick, or a wipe on the seat. I also use the bleach cakes in the toilet water tank. It helps.

I actually enjoy doing the dishes and doing laundry and folding it so that's a plus.

But right now the thing I hate the most is this stupid crepe myrtle tree that's going right over our back deck. It drops this sticky dew all over it and it gets sticky under our shoes, sticky on our patio furniture and it turns everything black after a while. Sucks!!! Thinking of cutting that tree down because it is such a nuisance!

I don't sweep, either. The vacuum does everything. haha
I also don't do tubs or toilets.
I used to have a cleaning service come in regularly to do the really gross stuff, but with COVID, we discontinued that. I look forward to being able to start it up again. It's not as expensive as it sounds and it's worth sacrificing a few nights of take-out every month to pay for it.

Put me in the "hates housework" camp, too. Floors are my least favorite, especially vacuuming. I put off sweeping and mopping, too, but at least when I do those I see a visible difference. I don't know why I hate the floors so much. Maybe it feels like a much bigger chore since I have to do an entire level of the house at a time. (Our main level is all hard flooring and our second story is carpeted except for the bathrooms.) I frequently choose to clean bathrooms instead of floors!

Cooking is a close second. I'm the only vegetarian in the house, so a lot of what I cook I don't even eat. I'm a simple cook--I want a minimal ingredient list and quick prep. It's too much work to do more than that day after day.

I grew up drying dishes. Mom washed, I dried and put away. When my parents built this house, dishwashers were not common. When they became more common, Mom refused to give up the cupboard space to put one in. I got the house from them over 25 years ago and it was only 4 years ago that I got a dishwasher when I had the kitchen redone. With me being the only person in the house I don't have to run it very often and there are times that I will hand wash something instead of waiting a couple of days until there is a full load.

So doing dishes is something I actually don't mind doing :D

I totally hate cooking too. Especially in good weather -- it's too hot to cook. I struggle with my diet in the warmer months because it is so much easier to just drive through.

Growing up, my mom never cooked because she hated it so much, so we survived on sandwiches, pizza, etc. When I had my son, I told myself that I was going to make him a "proper" dinner every night and I did. I didn't hate it so much then because it was for him and I think it served him well. He is a healthy weight and will not eat fast food because it is "gross." My DIL said she could heartily kill me some days, because they always have to have a proper dinner and some nights she just wants to drive through and be done. Only saving grace is that my son does most of the cooking. Oh, and he thinks I am the best cook ever, and I most definitely am not. LOL

I am totally feeling you right now. It's 90 degrees here as well and I just finished cleaning out and organizing my garage, with the help of my son and DIL. OMG, I thought I would melt. We got the cleaning all done, there wasn't much because I do not keep things, so that was pretty easy. Building the new storage shelves is taking longer than we had hoped, but my DIL is the only one who is good at building stuff. My son is like me, he can decorate, but he can't build. Life lesson from a single mom did not include building. LOL

On a side note, I thought I would need to get a dumpster to get rid of the bigger items I no longer wanted and my DIL said no. She took pictures of the stuff, dinning table and chairs, lawnmower, weed whacker, old storage shelves, freezer, etc and posted them on FB market place saying they were free and everything except a garage door opener, a salmon ladder and a boxing dummy were gone in less then two hours and that curb was full. It was crazy, but to be honest, I throw out some good stuff when I get tired of it. But some lady tried to take stuff that wasn't even on the curb. I had to explain to her that things in the actual garage were not free. WTH? LOL

LOL, I remember taking care of that for our guinea pigs. It sounded like I was killing them. They were sweet, but never again!

Hate grocery shopping too, so I order all that online and just pick it up. Makes is some what less painful.

I've been thinking about the heavy duty cleaning lady every month of so too. I used to have one come every week before my son moved out and my mom passed away, but now that it is just me, I don't need that much done. I was going to do it and then Covid hit so I have not gone ahead with it, but I probably should.

As to dust, I once saw a sign that said that dust is a country accent, and since I am not allergic to it, that is how I view it. LOL

Jenn, we could swap chores because none of those things bother me as much. I mean, I don't like doing them, but if it got me out of doing floors, I would be willing to do them. But the socks would be an issue because I never mate mine either. I buy the same socks over and over, dark blue because I wear jeans every day and I think they go with jeans well, LOL, and just throw them all in the same drawer and grab two as I go. It's a great system. ;)

Meal planning is such a good idea and such a freaking chore, that I totally feel you on this. I don't care for much about the food process either, except eating. I like to eat. LOL

Windows? You're supposed to wash the windows? :p

I wish I had someone to have a stand off with it about, but I just have to suck it up and do it. My mom did not do house work, so each of us kids had certain jobs we had to do everyday and a "room" we were responsible for. I had the living room, but I didn't sweep it because she said I made more of a mess than anything. So she swept and I was okay with that. LOL

I find it so much easier to keep up with things rather than let it get messy. That totally overwhelms me. Oh, my poor mom and the negative things I am saying about her, but she was a horrible housekeeper and us kids did most of the work. Even after we left home, my sister and I took turns going over to clean her house twice a week or my father, who was a quadriplegic, would have drowned in filth. She just didn't care about that stuff and my dad was tidy, so we had to help as children and adults. Mom came by it honestly as her mom was not much of a housekeeper and neither are her sisters. I will not even go in two of my aunt's homes because they are hoarder dirty and I can't deal with it. A few of my uncles "married" their mother so I stay away from their houses as well. Messy I can handle, but dirty makes my stomach turn. My dad's family all have neat, well kept homes and I would like to think that I take after them cause I do the work, even if I hate it. LOL

LOL, Lea, you would not believe how many different brooms I have bought and tried out. Even now I have four different ones in my house.

That tree definitely sounds like it needs to meet the business end of an axe. ;)

I am with you on it being worthwhile to have a cleaning service. I am really going to have to look in to it soon.

I am totally with you on the simple cooking. If it takes more than 20 or 30 minutes to make a meal, I am not interested. I don't care what it tastes like, I want nothing to do with spending that much time in the kitchen. And forget about baking. I will do it at Christmas time, but other wise, that is why there are bakeries in every grocery store! LOL

I just want to say that when I came in the forum today and saw my post, your LEASE favorite chore, I cringed. LOL I wrote this just before I went to bed last night, which was about 4 am, and obviously, I was more tired than I thought. Yeah, that is the excuse I am going with. Never mind that I have been spelling stuff wrong for years and years. LOL

We are soul sisters! I hate housework! I am not a fan of dusting, which desperately needs doing. I don’t mind vacuuming but not the stairs ( I convince my son to do those). Sweeping I have to do daily as I have a Lab who emits brown fibres of love in huge quantities during the summer. I just finish and there is another tumbleweed.

That is why she only comes every 2 months with it just being me in the house. She actually started cleaning this house for my mom in the early 90's and Mom's dying wish for me was to "keep Sharon" because she knew I hated cleaning! She came once a month for mom and I kept her on that schedule for a long time. I had to stop when I had the bathroom and kitchen remodels done and when I started back up, I asked if we could do every other month. Works out great for both of us. FWIW, I do keep both kitchen and bathroom counters clean, wiping them down quite often. And, I squeegee the shower doors after every shower. So she just gives the furniture a good dusting, cleans the bathroom and mops the floors. She can get it done in 3 hours... it would take me 3 weeks to get it done with all the stopping I'd have to do in between each chore!

Oh ladies, I love this thread. I've truly found my people! I hate household chores - vacuuming, dusting, putting away laundry, cleaning the shower. I hate meal planning and prepping and putting the groceries away and the time it takes to cook and the heat the stove emits into the kitchen in the summer. I hate it all. I hadn't even thought of washing windows until someone mentioned it above. I occasionally wipe kitty nose prints off the front windows but that's it. Oh and I hate cleaning the bathroom mirror. Where's the whole house cleaning roomba?!?!?!?!

It's the "folding the laundry."

https://i.imgur.com/Ivgybzg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/LIphuz8.jpg

LOL. That would be nice, but to be honest, I had a roomba and gave it to my aunt. I was terrified that one of the pets would have an accident and it would be drug through the house. (I've heard horror stories about that) I am not sure it would be any different with a whole housing cleaning roomba! LOL

It is always nice when you find you people, isn't it? LOL I am glad that there are so many of you who hate housekeeping as much as I do.

Yeah, this sucks. :D

Yes! I too hate sweeping- so I mostly just vacuum the entire house. I do also put the kids to work when they are home for the summer & weekends! My least favorite of all is cleaning the tubs/showers. I feel like you just have to do it while you're in it since I end up soaking wet anyways... thankfully I have a housekeeper that comes twice a month & she just does the bathrooms & mops. She's possibly my favorite person ever!!!

That is why I've been hesitant about a roomba for so long (and the price). I've read those same horror stories. I've been told by people that have them and have dogs that you never run them when you aren't home just so you can check out the house before you do!

And, now having confirmed that I'm highly allergic to house dust, I need to have my house as free from it as possible. Since I can't do it, I'll let the roomba do it... only when I'm here to corral the dog. :D

So many of us who hate cleaning! There are just soooo many things I'd rather be doing!

I also don't like mopping!! For similar reasons, I don't like cleaning the bathtubs. Feels like I'm just moving all the dust & fuzz from one place to another (just like mopping) PLUS kneeling/leaning over for so long. Blah.

Also, laundry. I mean, doing the laundry is not so so bad in & of itself, it's just so depressing that everyday I do laundry and...every day there's more.

DISHES.... I HATE DOING DISHES!

I am not a fan of any kind of cleaning... But I probably hate bathrooms and cooking dinner the most...not the actual cooking... the planning... I totally hate planning what to cook each night!!!! UGH!

Dishes. I hate doing the dishes, all that nasty old food on the stuff. Gross.

Just moving it all around is totally how I feel too. Like it's a waste of time and energy. I am lucky on laundry these days. Since it is just me, I do 3 loads a week and I am done. :)

Me too! I use paper plates a lot because I hate dishes that much. LOL

The hardest part about empty nesting is figuring out what to eat for dinner. Cooking for one sucks! But then so did cooking for three. LOL

I have a dishwasher, but I have to make sure all the nasty stuff is off the dishes before I put them in there. My son says I should just put them in the drainer because I've already washed them. He may have a point, but I like to use the sanitizer cycle on the dishwasher, so I just do what I want. :)