<p>I refuse to do laundry. I will not do it. My husband and my son do the laundry. I do my son’s ironing for school and I select his tie every day. My daughters don’t do laundry at home, either. They pay their brother to do it, which is a business arrangement that pleases everyone.</p>
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<p>Well, my H is obviously not a construction worker, but he’s not a “desk potato” either. He’s on his feet quite a lot throughout the day. He may spend a couple of hours at his desk.</p>
<p>Many, many years ago when I used to work, I would take a break from my desk job every 2 hours and take a walk around the building. At lunch time, I would walk for an hour. On nice days, I would walk to and from work.</p>
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<p>The worst is the low-fat, high carbs, whole-grain culture.</p>
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<p>Very few people in the US eat like that (and it is not obesogenic with an Ornish-type diet).</p>
<p>How people actually eat in the US is high carb and high fat, with both carbs and fats biased toward the junky ones. Yes, the percentage of calories from fat has dropped (a little), but the absolute amount of fat per day has gone up (and absolute amount of carbs per day has gone up more).</p>
<p>Right! As I sit here drinking a beer and eating pretzels dipped in cream cheese. Happy Friday!</p>
<p>I exercise daily to maintain my weight. I’m not considered obese, but am overweight. Not much housework getting done here. I do all the laundry however.</p>
<p>Very interesting thread. Random comments/thoughts that may or may not be useful to anyone.</p>
<p>FitBit is this wonderful device that tracks steps and flights of stairs climbed. The data is captured by the device and sent to my computer and phone so that I can view it as a bar graph or a pie chart, depending on which data point is being viewed. The device itself maintains a running tally of daily steps and flights. It also tracks calories but I ignore that as I don’t know if it is accurate. It is VERY telling to see just how many hours I sit in front of this computer. Having the device reminds me to stand up if the phone rings and walk around while talking.</p>
<p>For those who need to wear ironed dress shirts to work—have you tried Brooks Brothers’ no-iron shirts? I believe it is $2 or more to launder a shirt where I live and the shirts’ lives are shortened by the somewhat harsh treatment of the dry cleaner’s irons. The top buttons ripped out of the fabric far sooner than they should have. Starch seems to weaken the interfacing, but I may be wrong about that as I don’t sew. Nonetheless, as long as the BB shirts are taken out of the dryer as it finishes (or before), they look ironed. Massive sale the day after Christmas. </p>
<p>I gained ten pounds within the first month of moving from Manhattan to the CT suburbs. I went from a commute that involved a walk to & from a subway with a short standing commute to the better part of an hour spent sitting on a train twice a day. I had to walk for anything and everything in NYC: groceries, a snack, the laundromat, a doctor’s appointment, etc. The two hour R/T commute left less time for exercise, but I also think I took for granted the amount of active time spent running errands. </p>
<p>On to the totally useless…laundry is a full workout in my house. I have a washer & dryer in the basement but only the washer half of a stackable on the second floor. The stackable unit’s dryer died and when I went to replace the entire thing, I learned that Maytag had changed the dimensions. Since the closet was custom built around the stackable, a replacement would involve a carpenter and disruption to the adjacent bedroom. Not happening, although I suppose I should entertain the idea of a service call to see if the dryer repair is simple. (I generally feel that repairing old household appliances is a waste of money, and by old, I mean 16+ years old.) </p>
<p>So, laundry becomes a workout if I have to carry a wet load down two flights to the working dryer. Since I also hang much of my clothing, this is not as bad as it appears.</p>
<p>Zoosermom–LOVE that your Ds pay your Ss to do laundry! I have my boys do their own laundry every summer (more free time) but I shudder at the thought of what will happen when they head off to college.</p>
<p>I’m pathetic about housework. My house is a wreck. But I do walk to work; that has to count for something, right? (actually, I walk a lot; I’m in a very walkable town).</p>
<p>Ran 7 miles and did a 20 minute weights routine.</p>
<p>Also folded laundry and put it away. I still have to take the stuff off the hangers that should be dry now and fold and put away. BTW, I fold common stuff and fold and put away my own stuff. Everyone else has to get their own laundry out of the basket that I bring from the washer/dryer.</p>
<p>On the broken dryer - our dryer is 25 years old - no problems at all. Dryers are usually simpler than washers. You might check the electrical circuits that the dryer is plugged into to see if it is getting the necessary power.</p>
<p>Dryers are dead simple. There are only a few things that can break. If it’s not turning, it’s probably just a belt. If it’s not heating, it either needs a heat element (just like the wires in a toaster) or the $5 thermostat that controls the heat element. A repair on any of those three will likely last as long before the next failure as buying a new dryer.</p>
<p>I had a friend with a dead dryer. Replaced the washer and dryer. The new dryer didn’t work. Called the company. They said that the power source wasn’t putting out. Called an electrician. Fixed in five minutes. No - they couldn’t get the old dryer back.</p>
<p>@BCEasgle, your running & laundry-folding is making me look bad…</p>
<p>MyDH creates most of the mess and I do most of the housework. He gets to the gym daily. I can’t find time. Nonetheless, we are both somewhat overweight. There is something wrong with this picture. We don’t eat a lot of fast food, but agree there is so much junk in our food. I am not even sure it is the serving size. I remember as a kid sitting down to eat a full meal each night and the servings were much larger but then everything was homemade. Basically, when I look at my dinner plate today it is much smaller than the dinner plate I grew up with and we were all thinner.</p>
<p>I wish we could walk more, especially after dinner or to errands on weekends. Unfortunately, where I live you have to drive everywhere as there are no sidewalks. I would not chance walking on the narrow backroads and possibly end up as roadkill.</p>
<p>On housework, I only trust him with vacuuming once in a while but it takes him 3 times longer to do so. Yesterday, I was watching him try to turn on the oven and finally he declared it was not working. Amazing he can program his smartphone to do so many things and he cannot figure out the panel on the oven. Is this a man thing or what?</p>
<p>I secretly (or not so) like doing laundry. I have a 3 part hamper in the MBR closet so the sorting is done that way. Each morning when I get up I take a load down and throw it in. By the time I leave for work I have one load washed, dried, folded and put away. Not saying everyone should/can do this but it works for me.</p>
<p>As for cleaning, all I can say is that I hired a cleaning service about 18 months ago and since then have lost about 10 pounds. Coincidence, I’m sure :)</p>
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<p>Well, you’d have to work to change that dynamic. It’s easier to keep a household clean if you don’t make the mess in the first place or clean up after doing something right away - otherwise things pile up and you feel like you’re never going to get it all cleaned up. Sometimes I get busy and let stuff pile up but I make todo items to eventually take care of things - even if the todo items take days, weeks, months or years. My latest project was to digitize a lot of paperwork and that’s resulted in a very neat desk - at least for the last week.</p>
<p>I generate a considerable amount of laundry from working out. I typically work out at the office and that means towel, socks, underwear, shirt and shorts. I then workout at the YMCA in the evening and that’s more laundry including a warmup or track pants. Cleaning up after someone that works out a lot can be a lot of work. Cleaning up after a couple of kids that do sports can multiply that work.</p>
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<p>There are three diet, exercise and workout threads on the Parents Cafe. I hang out on the diet/exercise thread and you’re certainly welcome over there to discuss things in terms of things work, why we gain weight, nutrition, exercise, working it into busy schedules, equipment, clothes, etc.</p>
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<p>I used to host dinner parties when I was single. I did all of the buying, cooking and cleaning (typically until 2:00 AM finishing up on the dishes). I’ve had lots of practice doing many of the household things since when I was single. If you do things for guys, they will often happily let you. There are some things that I used to do that I do less of but if there’s a big pile of something and it annoys me, then I’ll tackle it. Could be dishes, vacuuming, cleaning the outside dryer filter, taking the windows out and cleaning the inner sills, etc</p>
<p>Sometimes people enable their kids, some people enable their spouses/significant others. Both are not healthy for anyone involved.</p>
<p>My husband enables me. Right now he is cleaning and I am chatting with you guys.</p>
<p>Shaking my head in shame at you Zoosermom…(wink)</p>
<p>Thanks BCEagle and Interesteddad–I will have to look into that. I haven’t touched it in a long while, but I recall that it would turn on and immediately fail. It is a stackable unit so I believe the washer & dryer are plugged into the same outlet (one of those special ones for washers & dryers). Will have to investigate. Thanks!</p>
<p>On the weight gain thing–I think it is calories in, calories out. We are surrounded by food everywhere we go. What was a special treat a generation ago is now a daily stop along the way. Children are driven to their scheduled activities (instead of playing down the street) and even our YMCA now has a smoothie/raw juice bar in addition to the long-standing snack vending machine. Inexpensive carb & fat-laden food is on offer to our children during or after their swim practices or club competitions. Just think of those Costco muffins that range from 700 to 1000 calories each.</p>
<p>Abasket, I don’t have a lot good to say about my late mother in law, but I will say that she taught her son to clean a house and be willing to do it. I emulate her model with my son. He has been doing laundry since he was nine. What my husband can not do is cook. The worst cook I know. Thankfully, my mom taught me to cook. I am working on my son now.
I figure that if a future daughter in law has to put up with me, then at least my son should be able and willing to cook and clean. As well as play beautiful music. Of course, my son will be too good for her and she better know that.</p>
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<p>Strictly speaking, it is.</p>
<p>But the type of foods you eat have different satiation. Some foods make you feel full while other foods make you hungrier for more. That’s why it’s easy to down half a box of triscuits or potato chips or a bag of Pepperidge Farms goldfish. If you feel satiated, then you don’t feel like you need to eat as much or often.</p>