Housework Thread

[My Name Is Ian]

The sheets!

Goddam, I knew there was something I needed to do this afternoon.

Under normal circumstances, it's once a week here, but on this particular week it's going to be a week and two days.

Also, this house is the first I've ever lived in with a dishwasher, and hells bells that thing is a lifesaver. I wouldn't have needed one pre-kids, but it's a different story now.

[scratchmonkey]

Having all four of us home all day means we go through a dishwasher load every 1.5 days, more or less.

I personally don't like it and enjoy a big washing-up in the sink*; the wife would hang me by my toes if I suggested it though.

* - I lived in a 25-person co-op for a year and did two washing-ups a week, I have a system.

[Uncle Ethan]

Cooking - middle son and D (I do weekend breakfasts)
Cleaning - son the younger
Dishwasher filling/emptying - me or son the younger
Cleaning up after dog - me or sty
Dog walking - shared. I like the local park, D prefers to go to bigger park and chat with other dog owners
Chook management (egg collection, food, water, cleaning of coop etc) - me
Gardening - me
Washing - sons do their own, I do mine, D does hers
Bedding changes - Ours D. Sons their own
General dusting etc - D because nobody else does it well enough.

[Sporting]

Having all four of us home all day means we go through a dishwasher load every 1.5 days, more or less.

I personally don't like it and enjoy a big washing-up in the sink*; the wife would hang me by my toes if I suggested it though.

* - I lived in a 25-person co-op for a year and did two washing-ups a week, I have a system.

Why don't you like dishwashers?

[scratchmonkey]

Why don't you like dishwashers?

1. They (or at least ones in the houses I've lived in) don't do well with a lot of food detritus, which means that you're doing some scrubbing before something even goes in it, which seems silly to me, you should just wash it by hand anyway at that point.

2. I am very, stupidly, particular about how a dishwasher should be loaded for maximum efficiency, which means that I spend time reloading it when I could use it for better matters, like making short lists on the internet.

3. It's really less about disliking the dishwasher and more enjoying the process of dishwashing, as well as my suspicion that the latter is more energy-efficient.

[Jimski]

I'm pretty sure my wife does quite a lot more than me, but then again I quite often tell her off for doing it. ("That surely doesn't need doing yet", etc.) I do all post-cooking and post-meal clear-up, the laundry and ironing, putting out kids clothing (for school, etc.), bins, kitchen cleaning (sink, etc.), shopping delivery organisation, getting kids up in the morning, giving them breakfast. I think that's about it. It's definitely less than half timewise,but I think if it were just me I'd leave it a lot more than my wife can bear.

I also do the odd bit of cooking (very little though, as my wife actually - supposedly - enjoys it, whereas I absolutely hate it.)

[Jimski]

1. They (or at least ones in the houses I've lived in) don't do well with a lot of food detritus, which means that you're doing some scrubbing before something even goes in it, which seems silly to me, you should just wash it by hand anyway at that point.

2. I am very, stupidly, particular about how a dishwasher should be loaded for maximum efficiency, which means that I spend time reloading it when I could use it for better matters, like making short lists on the internet.

3. It's really less about disliking the dishwasher and more enjoying the process of dishwashing, as well as my suspicion that the latter is more energy-efficient.

The only dishwasher in the house is me, and that's the way it's staying!

[hobbes]

I'm given to understand that dishwashers use less water and energy than washing by hand (if you exclude the manufacture of the thing, of course.)
Unless there are chunks of food, (which you'd need to get rid of first even if you were washing by hand,) I've never had to scrub anything before loading it in the dishwasher. And never had a dishwasher break on me because of it.

The best thing about dishwashers though is that you don't get a pile up of crockery in the kitchen. You can just sling it in there and forget about it until its time to run a cycle.
They do fuck up your glassware though.

[Etienne]

We have a once a week cleaner normally, but not coming during Covid.

Cooking - Mostly me
Food shopping - nearly all her
Washing up/dishwasher - mostly me
Laundry - fairly even split
Putting away clothes - fairly even
Kitchen cleaning - mostly me
Bathroom cleaning - her
Bins - me
Gardening - mostly her, but I do the mowing
vacuuming - mostly me, but we've got a roomba in the absence of the cleaner
admin - fairly even split
mental load - nearly all her

I asked Mrs Etienne to make her own list independently, to see if my perception accorded with hers. All figures are the percentage that (she thinks) I do.

Overnight childcare 100
Food shopping 10
Shopping for kids and mental load for that 20
Clothes washing 50
Putting away clothes 30
Kitchen 30
Dishwashing 90
Bathrooms 20
Vacuuming 30 (unless asked)
Tidying 30
Food prep 60

I think the interesting one is that both of us think we do more kitchen cleaning. Clearly we need a time and motion study.

[Jimski]

I'm given to understand that dishwashers use less water and energy than washing by hand (if you exclude the manufacture of the thing, of course.)
Unless there are chunks of food, (which you'd need to get rid of first even if you were washing by hand,) I've never had to scrub anything before loading it in the dishwasher. And never had a dishwasher break on me because of it.

The best thing about dishwashers though is that you don't get a pile up of crockery in the kitchen. You can just sling it in there and forget about it until its time to run a cycle.
They do fuck up your glassware though.

I'm a bit obsessed with washing things as soon as they need washing. No pile-ups allowed here. And at least that way, you can almost immediately use the same item again, unlike if it's sitting ina dishwasher.

[Simon G]

I do all washing and ironing, especially as I'm pretty much wfh full-time going forward. During the NFL season, I do the ironing whilst watching Redzone on a Sunday evening, I'm currently doing the ironing on a Sunday afternoon - it took me 4 hours this past Sunday.

We tend to split the washing up and cooking, though she probably does about 70% of both.

Other cleaning would be about 95% wife and 5% myself. For example, I'll clean the bathroom when I have a shave, but that's very sporadic these days.

I am the only person who cleans out our hamster cage. We now only have one of those as our second passed away a month or so ago.

[Jimski]

I actually rather enjoy ironing. I find it quite therapeutic. I whack on some music and iron those creases away.

[Sporting]

This may be a daft question, but what's wrong with creases?

[Jimski]

I mean the sort of creases you get from wearing or washing - not the "official" sort you get in some clothing (although we don't tend to have much of that sort of clothing, school trousers aside.)

[Sporting]

No, I did understand. Many of my clothes are creased from wear, but why is that such an issue?

[ad hoc]

One of the positive things about Covid-19 is that nobody in our house has had to do any ironing for more or less a year

[Jimski]

No, I did understand. Many of my clothes are creased from wear, but why is that such an issue?

It's kind of the point of ironing to get rid of them, right? I have no problem at all if you don't feel the need for ironing, but it's pretty satisfying getting rid of them if you do iron, I can tell you!

[Sporting]

It's kind of the point of ironing to get rid of them, right? I have no problem at all if you don't feel the need for ironing, but it's pretty satisfying getting rid of them if you do iron, I can tell you!

I get that, but I think that the idea of wearing appropriate clothing etc. for work is a very overrated thing.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Our ironing board broke in the move, which was...three years and a week ago.

[Balderdasha]

Ironing is something that just doesn't happen in our house. When my husband went into London every day he used to iron a shirt in the morning and if we go to a wedding he'll iron a shirt for himself and a dress for me, but that is it. I find it hard to imagine having an extra spare four hours on a Sunday to just do ironing.

[ursus arctos]

I think that there is a general expectation in service industries that clients genuinely care about such things when in fact most don't give a monkeys.

Though that isn't universal.

I had a German client who was obsessive about his lawyers' manner of dress (down to requiring that ties match the corporate colour) and was equally surprised to find that having liveried household help is still a thing among the Italian bourgeoisie.

[laverte]

i detest doing domestic chores. i get no satisfaction at all from accomplishing them. After n years i'm still shit at folding clothes, ironing, and getting dishes clean, and i will procrastinate lengthily over any task that doesn't need to be done right away. The thought of spending four hours behind an ironing board makes me squeal with terror.

What i need is celebrity millionaire assistance*! "Many consumers are eager to spend more time cleaning their homes in the future." Many! Eager! What's wrong with these people? How did they become so dreary? "In my DNA is the extremely strong desire to always be cleaning everything." Well, my mother was a paid housekeeper: what's gone wrong with me, then? Am i illegitimate?

i mentioned this trend in the Gaze thread, the rebranding of housework and other traditionally feminine drudgery as a space for the middle classes, especially women, to demonstrate their love of work, no matter how boring and repetitive, in this age which values graft and a positive attitude above all else. The Kardashian matriarch couldn't not be on this bandwagon. And truthfully, i'd love to be able to find it therapeutic to get down on my knees and scrub a doorstep, or lust after a well-ironed pyjama. But i don't. i fucking hate housework.


*One for the Annoying New York Times thread, except it just barely qualifies as an article rather than a press release.

[ursus arctos]

These people are completely deranged

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Discovering that there are now "non-iron" office shirts in high-quality cotton (as opposed to the ghastly 1970s nylon drip-dry ones that felt rubbish and stank) was a joyful moment for me a few years ago as an hour or two a week of drudgery fell away. A bit academic for the last 13 months, mind.

[Fussbudget]

This may be a daft question, but what's wrong with creases?

Bizarre question, are you doing a bit? Most clothes look better without creases. It's up to you whether that matters to you or not.

Most of my clothes don't need ironing, but a few do, and if I'm going to bother picking something nice to wear then I don't want it looking like a scrunched-up rag anymore than I would wear it with a gravy stain on the front or whatever.