What household chores do you do everyday, and why? Do you make your bed everyday? Vacuum? I believe most of us wash dishes every day, or at least load the dishwasher. But I have known people who do neither and let dishes pile up.
I thought of this when I was making my bed this morning. I do it every day and I wondered, not for the first time, why. No one would notice if I didn’t. Probably not even H. My room is on the second floor and the few people, other than family, in the house on a regular basis is few and do not go upstairs.
I’m not sure why, but I feel an unmade bed is dirty. A made bed feels fresh and clean. I am not talking about clean vs slept in sheets. Just a made vs unmade bed.
I can leave a sink full of dirty pans overnight. And I do not necessarily wipe down the stovetop every night. My sister couldn’t go to bed before doing this.
I make my bed every day. I didn’t used to until we put our first house up for sale. Three houses later it’s just habit. I also try to scoop the litter box everyday. No explanation needed for that one. I also can’t leave things out on my bathroom counter and have to wipe the sink out every morning.
Make the bed everyday. My kids, all living on their own or in college say they do the same. It signals a routine to start the day.
Load the dishes anytime I’ve got dirty dishes or utensils. I hate dishes in the sink!
My kids would tell you the think they remember growing up that I swept the kitchen floor daily and often more than once. Almost the first thing I would do upon returning home from work. I enter the house through the kitchen - if the kitchen is cluttered, my whole mood changes - not for the better!
Putting dishes in the dishwasher and/or washing them, is probably the only chore I do everyday. But even then I can easily imagine a day where I leave my cereal bowl in the sink, eat lunch at work and then eat out for dinner and therefore a day has gone by without doing even that single chore.
I’ll answer for Dos–the sheets, computer, the remote, the phone, pillows, bills that need paying, laundry, work files.
Doesn’t matter. No need to make the bed anytime. All you do is get back in it. Just a routine boring something that makes no sense. Especially a bedtime.
Dishes- and just general kitchen stuff. That’s it.
I will never understand making the bed.
Though Mr R’s chore is to clear off the 20 books, computer, tablet, dog, papers, and so on when he wants to lay down on his size of the bed
My kids are totally against unnecessary reorganization, they only make bed on weekend when they change sheets. We do it every day in our bedroom but even I can see now that it’s just out of habit, wouldn’t matter if we didn’t.
By habit bed is always made first thing in the morning. Never leave dishes in the sink as it is very small (one of those split in two sections) Throw out trash everyday (trash shoot down the hallway) Broom kitchen and bathrooms everyday. Run dishwasher and laundry as needed. Home stays clean just needs regular maintenance. Put things that are out of place where they belong at night so that place does not look cluttered.
My mom’s carpet will always have vacuum marks on it when you enter her home. She keeps her home very clean. She is ready for guests without any notice. When she comes over I spend the whole day making sure the house looks clean so that she doesn’t notice a speck of dust.
Make the bed every day, everyone loads their place settings into the dishwasher after every meal (H was hardest to train), Night: no pans in sink overnight, clean kitchen sink and stovetop, lay out H’s clothes for M-F work (he is color blind), usually set out my clothes if I am working. Weekly housekeeper, so I don’t do much in between. Son with autism keeps kitchen floor clean. We are also a no-shoes house, though H slips up the most.
About making a bed…cracks me up… but has me thinking.
My 94 y/o dad WON’T make the bed. (“all I’m gonna do is climb back in.!”…)
We say just “throw the comforter on top and put the pillow at the top”. NOPE. (He appreciates the effort though!)
(He didn’t make a bed at 20 and he ain’t gonna make one seventy plus years later).
His reasoning: There will never be enough valuable time left in his life to make a bed. There never was. Never will be.
Life is better spent elsewhere.
God I love him.
I used to make my bed every day, however a visit to the allergist when D was young convinced me of the need to throw back the covers and let the beds air out for an hour or two every day. Apparently, those little dust mites that feed on our skin cells prefer a warm, somewhat damp environment. Letting the linens air out and get really dry cuts down on their numbers which is very good for us allergy sufferers. Now the beds don’t get made until I get home at night…and sometimes not even then.
ETA: I do like a clean kitchen and bathroom so will tidy those rooms before I turn in.
With just a duvet making the bed takes about 5 seconds.
Load the dishwasher and wipe off all the counters. That’s really the only thing that always gets done daily. Dishes occasionally get soaked over night if there is no room in either the dishwasher or the dish drainer.
Things I do every day: Make the bed, do the dishes/load the dishwasher, empty the dishwasher, make dinner, clean the kitchen/keep counters wiped off, scoop the cat litter, feed/water the cats. For the first almost-20 years after I had kids, I vacuumed the house & cleaned the bathrooms every day … then I went back to work full-time, and that gets done once or twice a week now (unless it gets to me & I feel the need to do it more often - which happens less & less, the older I get!).
I also can’t leave things out on my bathroom counter and have to wipe the sink out every morning.