<p>I hate having a job that is constantly being “undone” as soon as I do it. I have 7 kids and H will have nothing to do with the house, yard, shopping, cooking, etc. After so many years, I pretty much hate it all. I am tired of cooking. Someone always complains, and no one will sit and enjoy the food–it is gobbled in 5 minutes and kids run off to other activities. I never seem to get laundry put away (I don’t mind doing the laundry–it is the putting away that I get behind on. . .I just find the folding and sorting so tedious. It is an “easy” job, physically, but I just wish I had someone around to talk to while I am doing it.) I hate washing dishes. I grew up in a family of nine and had no dishwasher. Mom was adamant that dishes be done immediately after eating. In MY house we let them pile up. The kids are supposed to do them. One son and I get the “Tetris” rush and feel that no one else knows how to pack them in like we do. Here is our solution to the “unloading” dishes problem. (Also solves the “clean or dirty?” problem) We NEVER unload our dishes into the cabinets. We just keep the clean dishes in the dishwasher and take them out as needed until they are used up. Then we are out of dishes and all the dirty ones are in the sink (on counter/table, etc.) Then someone loads the dishwasher and turns it on. So the dishes in the dishwasher are always clean dishes (unless the dishwasher is running.) Whenever my relatives visit, they always try to switch us to the “correct” system of loading each dirty dish as it it used, and then unloading the clean dishes into the cabinets. This results in everyone using the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher that is partially loaded and hasn’t been run yet. . .as soon as our “guests” leave, we are immediately back to our system of keeping clean dishes in the dishwasher and letting dirty ones pile up.
I don’t mind shopping (I think of the workout I get with all that lifting!) but no one appreciates it. I actually enjoy doing floors–sweeping with a broom is my favorite, and vacuuming (even stairs), and washing floors on hands and knees. And I don’t mind cleaning other people’s houses–just have a hard time with my own. I can’t explain it. What seems like a “doable” task at another house somehow seems (mentally) impossible in my own.
Two things I detest the most are sorting/organizing/shredding papers (I let things pile up forever–usually if someone is coming over, D or H will go on a rampage and just throw out everything. . .) and Sorting through/getting rid of old clothes and junk. Why I hate this: it takes me forever. I have to examine each paper/item, which usually brings back some memory or emotion, and I get distracted with something else and never finish the job. I find “sorting” incredibly depressing. I also hate decorating. I have no talent for any of these things. I moved 5 years ago and still have no furniture, curtains, or pictures on my walls in several rooms. And I rarely dust (It makes me sneeze and itch.) Scrubbing toilets? No problem. Dusting, sorting papers/clothes, putting away laundry, cooking: big problem.</p>
<p>I can’t believe no one has mentioned washing windows, so I will.</p>
<p>@atomom – I can’t blame you for hating ALL chores … 7 kids … enough said.</p>
<p>Sorting papers is also a struggle for me. I accumulate piles of papers in various places throughout the house (kitchen counter, kitchen drawer, bedroom, home office). When I finally decide it’s time to take care of the clutter, I try to triage the items into piles to file, discard, and decide later. I typically clear out about half of the volume, but unfortunately my ‘decide later’ pile is usually the biggest and becomes the beginning of a new clutter pile. Sigh.</p>
<p>As for the dishwasher, I would think a large family might have enough dirty dishes to fill the DW after just one meal. </p>
<p>@emeraldkity4 - I guess I must hate washing windows, but since I never actually wash windows, I didn’t think of mentioning it.</p>
<p>re house cleaners: As a general rule, I don’t like to pay other people to do things for me that I am capable of doing for myself.</p>
<p>"have 7 kids and H will have nothing to do with the house, yard, shopping, cooking, etc. After so many years, I pretty much hate it all. I am tired of cooking. Someone always complains, and no one will sit and enjoy the food–it is gobbled in 5 minutes and kids run off to other activities. I never seem to get laundry put away (I don’t mind doing the laundry–it is the putting away that I get behind on. . .I just find the folding and sorting so tedious. It is an “easy” job, physically, but I just wish I had someone around to talk to while I am doing it.) I hate washing dishes. I grew up in a family of nine and had no dishwasher. Mom was adamant that dishes be done immediately after eating. In MY house we let them pile up. The kids are supposed to do them. One son and I get the “Tetris” rush and feel that no one else knows how to pack them in like we do. Here is our solution to the “unloading” dishes problem. (Also solves the “clean or dirty?” problem) We NEVER unload our dishes into the cabinets. "</p>
<p>@atomom
I know that your H is a physician so I don’t know if he works long hours and that affects his desire to do things around the house. My H only takes out the trash, so I’m really dreading when he retires. I have visions of him either being a couch potato or going from golf course to golf course…and leaving a trail of dust for me to clean. </p>
<p>I’m seriously thinking of selling our large home and moving to a condo in a very nice complex so that the outside is cared for, and I just have to care for 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. </p>
<p>However, you have a bunch of wonderful kids (I don’t think a few are still home, right), but those remaining kids should be your “staff”. lol. I know, we moms sometimes didn’t do a great job at getting our kids trained to do enough chores (guilty here!), but your kids should be at least putting away their own folded clothes…otherwise their little bodies can run nakie. ;)</p>
<p>I recently saw a list of age-appropriate chores for kids - starting at age 3! I wish I had had that list when my kids were younger. I would have plastered it on the fridge and had my kids think that “this is what kids do.”</p>
<p>"Here is our solution to the “unloading” dishes problem. (Also solves the “clean or dirty?” problem) We NEVER unload our dishes into the cabinets. “”</p>
<p>:) that’s why I think having two DWs would be awesome! One dirty, one clean. </p>
<p>Ok…I was wrong. The list starts at AGE 2! (wow)</p>
<p>Here’s a small sampling:</p>
<p>age 2-3</p>
<p>put toys in toybox
stack books on shelf
put dirty clothes in hamper
fold washcloths
fetch diapers and wipes
dust baseboards</p>
<p>I’m not posting all the different age lists, but here’s more samples:</p>
<p>age 4-5</p>
<p>feed pets
wipe spills
put away toys
water house plants
sort clean silverware
disinfect doorknobs with non-toxic cleaner</p>
<p>age 8-9 </p>
<p>load DW
do the laundry
fold laundry
put away laundry
sweep/wash patio and porch
walk dog
wipe table</p>
<p>12 and up</p>
<p>mop floors
vac floors
paint a room
cook complete meal
simple home repairs
wash windows
iron clothes
babysit</p>
<p>A 12-year-old can paint a room? No, thank you. </p>
<p>But in general I do like the list and wish I had had it back in the day.</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4, re: washing windows…YES I hate that too. </p>
<ol>
<li> I have a 2 story house</li>
<li> I don’t have tilt-in windows</li>
<li> My windows have those little plastic grill thingys that you have to take out</li>
</ol>
<p>For Christmas, my mom gave me this because my aunt raved about it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/E-Cloth-Window-Cleaning-Pack-2-Count/dp/B004G621ZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391959057&sr=8-1”>http://www.amazon.com/E-Cloth-Window-Cleaning-Pack-2-Count/dp/B004G621ZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391959057&sr=8-1</a></p>
<p>On a lark I tried it out on my sliding glass door and was AMAZED. I can’t wait for spring so I can try it out on the windows. No cleaners, nothing but a dampened cloth.</p>
<p>ETA, I absolutely HATE that after the upgrade, links show up like that and not as the page title…</p>
<p>^I have the E-cloth floor mopper. It’s kind of like a reusable Swiffer. It really works (provided there is someone to operate it:)). I got it at Marshall’s.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree. When the kids were home, I always insisted we go out to dinner and some other activity afterwards every other Friday after the housecleaners left. I couldn’t stand to see my pretty house immediately messed up.
Now that we are empty nesters, it’s easier to keep the house pristine for even days afterwards. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s pretty funny. I can’t stand to have dishes in the sink. Even while I’m cooking, I’m cleaning each dish used for the meal preparation and loading it into the dishwasher. After dinner, I have a compulsion to immediately clean up the kitchen. But if I had 7 kids, I would probably be a lot more like you! </p>
<p>
Lol, I have no problem with it. :D</p>
<p>I find that now that there are only 2 of us that everything is so much easier. </p>
<p>I do have to say that having an open concept great room and first floor master really helps. I find also when I keep up with the small stuff it makes things so much easier. </p>
<p>That being said, I hate gardening. I hate getting my hands and nails (mostly my nails) filled with dirt. Ugh! Neither my H or I like it. When it’s nice out, I want to be out on the golf course or hiking or running. I like to be outside, but weeding the garden, I hate. There is nothing about yard work that I like. </p>
<p>Oh, and taking cans to turn in (which is a Michigan thing to do) I procrastinate until I have bags and bags. </p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>lol…it says 12 and up. A parent would wisely need to consider their child’s abilities. I was painting rooms and furniture at a younger age, but I was artistic and used to doing stuff like that. A child who can be a “bull in a china shop” may not be trusted with a paint brush at age 30! </p>
<p>I like the idea of having 2-3 year olds dust baseboards (a hated chore of mine). My son begged my mom for a dustbuster at age 3. So, I can see a 2-3 yo using some kind of duster to do baseboards.</p>
<p>Wow! This thread took off! Looks like you hit a nerve Mom2collegekids.</p>
<p>For me it would be easier to list the things I LIKE to do than the things I don’t. I hate housework! Partly because I spend a significant part of my work day cleaning. I teach elementary school art and instruct about 150 kids per day. You can imagine the paint spills, stains, dirty paint brushes, printmaking supplies, clay etc. Not to mention the organizing of materials, artwork. etc. Sometimes, when I am up to my elbows in glitter and glue, I reflect on the two degrees I have and think “How did this happen to me?!” Lol. The last thing I want to do is come home and do it some more.</p>
<p>I do enjoy doing laundry but, like most of you, HATE putting it away. I have a small antique house with very little closet space and it is very frustrating to find places for everything. There has GOT to be some kind of business opportunity in putting laundry away for people who hate it!</p>
<p>I also enjoy washing dishes in hot soapy water. I find it soothing. Toilets don’t bother me because they are fast to do and the fact that I have only daughters may factor into that. My H is pretty neat in the bathroom! 
</p>
<p>I feel like it would have been easy enough to make a list… but it is so slow if they do it, and starting in elementary school they had homework every night (we didn’t get home until right before dinner time). it took all of our energy to get them through homework, bathed, and to bed. My kids did/do some of these items (take out the dog and feed her if I ask, empty dishwasher, clean and vacuum their own rooms). And D2 is grownup, she can cook now. :D</p>
<p>@Atomom, I feel bad for you. I have heard of moms who went ‘on strike’ until their family helped more when polite requests didn’t work. That is probably what I would do…</p>
<p>CC friends, don’t feel too sorry for me, because my standards are pretty low! I also love washing windows and gardening, weeding, leaf raking, etc. H does work long hours, but he is really shameless about watching me do physical work! Sometimes he’ll “threaten” to hire a maid, which he knows I won’t do. I’m embarrassed about how messy the house is, so I’d kill myself cleaning before the maid got here. I just couldn’t ask someone else to clean up our mess. 4 of my kids are still at home now (and another one home AGAIN) and some of them do help. (Unfortunately, “Tetris” son is away at college.) And most of them do their own laundry now–except the youngest two. I will wash bedding for everyone.
H and I should live in an apartment because home maintenance stresses us out. We definitely see ourselves downsizing in the future (we are not attached to our house–we’ve lived in a bunch of different places). I would miss the garden, though.<br>
BTW, one D painted her own room --with no help–when she was 13. She did a good job. She had seen/helped me paint another room right before that, so she knew what to do. Any of my sons at 13 probably would have made a big mess.</p>
<p>I have to admit, there are some things that people have said they hated, and I said to myself, “People DO that??” :"> </p>
<p>I never thought to empty everything out of the fridge and wipe it down unless I’d actually spilled something or it looked/smelled dirty… and I probably never would. By “cleaning out the fridge,” I just mean, “hey, that chicken stir fry is two weeks old, I guess someone should put it down the disposal and put the bowl in the dishwasher!” We are really bad about that. My fiance would let spoiled food sit forever, and right now I am not doing much cooking so it can take me a long time to notice. I am taking over all the dinner cooking soon and then that will NOT be happening anymore. I doubt I will ever wash the outside of our windows, though, I can’t imagine them ever getting dirty, but for the ones with screens I will take the screens out and clean out the dust and clean the inside maybe once a year. My grandma had me clean the outside of her windows once and I have no idea what I was doing besides smearing them, they didn’t look dirty to me…</p>
<p>But though my house is usually really clean (except for the fridge?), I am probably a terrible housekeeper by conventional standards. I’m bad, unless a garment is important and a solid light color, or black/red or dark and brand new, I don’t separate darks and lights in the laundry. Fiance used to make me separate his clothes when I washed them, and I stopped, and he has not noticed the difference. Never had a problem with my whites not staying bright white. I’ll get on my hands and knees and scrub baseboards, but I won’t separate laundry.</p>
<p>I am way tired of cooking dinners. I have been doing it for 41 years, since I was 20. My H wants a hot dinner every night and we live in a rural area now with few restaurants. I need to get into cooking larger amounts less frequently. </p>
<p>atamom: you need some housekeeping help! Find someone nice who needs the money and will come in once a week. You get over that “can’t them see the mess” once you get to know the person. It would help a lot if the person just did all the floors and bathrooms and cleaned up the kitchen. I have two lovely older teens who come once a week and they have become like honorary family. they are from a big family so messes don’t scare them!</p>
<p>And while you’re at it, hire someone to do the windows once a year – in the early spring. You wouldn’t believe the difference it makes in the amount of sun that comes into the house!!</p>
<p>Wow, @atomom, I would be taking him up on his threat in a heartbeat! Not a maid, but a cleaning service once a week. Yes, you have to pick up before they come (otherwise they can’t vaccum, sweep, etc). But really… it is still SO NICE to have someone come in and do it. Trust me, if you can afford it, you should give it a try. Just do a trial for a few months. if you are worried about the first visit, tell the service they will probably take longer that time. And press you kids and hubby into a weekend of cleaning in preparation for the first time (tell them it is a one-time thing, and you will only ask them to pick up a bit every week going forward). We used to have someone come in back before our divorce and college expenses – it is just completely worth it.</p>
<p>I hate doing dishes (wet hands yuck!) and taking out the trash to the bins in the alley. </p>
<p>Sometimes I get embarrassed someone might see how high I have let my garbage pile up in my trash bins out back before I get around to unlocking the gate and hauling them out there. I do try to do it once a month whetehr it needs it or not. (haha) But my bins are fair enough away at the edge of my back yard, behind the shed, that I can easily ignore it until then.</p>