Answer? Because we generally hate doing them.
Following on from Elisabeth’s post, 10 Chores I wouldn’t Be Sad To Never Do Again, over at The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist, I have a solution. I won’t say it’s foolproof or ideal for everyone, but it works for me.
One: don’t do the chore you hate the most. Delegate it where ever possible. This helps if you have a good relationship with your OH and plenty of kids. Delegate, delegate, delegate.
Two: just don’t do it. I mean, at all. Like ironing. If I had kids they would probably be calling me from the school asking me why X child turned up looking like they were dragged through a hedge backwards.
I have long since given up on doing any ironing. When push comes to shove though for something really really important then, well, I can be found iron in hand flattening wrinkles into submission. But that is probably a once a year or even once a decade event. Just ask the OH who has become very adept at ironing.
My mantra when it comes to household chores is don’t grumble, work smarter. Think outside the box on how to do things quicker, and or make them easier to do.
True there are any number of chores that pop up we have to do that we cannot escape and just have to face and do. As my mother was fond of saying, it’s called adulting. Of course, my mother would probably die of a heart attack knowing I don’t iron my towels and sheets or household linens. But that’s a whole other story for another day.
Don’t sweat the small things, delegate where possible, share were possible, and think smarter (as for creating and cooking meals) about how to make the chore easier.
Remember, folding laundry can be your daily work out. Dump all the clothes on the bed, put on the music loud, and dance to Cyndi Lauper telling us, “Girl’s just wanna have fun” as you annoy the next door neighbours folding your smalls.
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
I love the suggestion of not doing it! Some chores should really get abolished because they’re such a pain. It beats me why anyone would want to iron bed sheets – we lie on them so of course they get wrinkled, or we use fitted sheets, and hey presto.
Podcasts for doing your ironing by can also be a good option.
Yeah, podcast obviously help distract you from what you’re doing. There are so many ways to work a way around doing chores. We just need to figure them out.
I am all about delegating – like the major household cleaning – we have cleaners come every 3 weeks and it’s been great. I am very time is money so paying someone else to clean makes sense to me!
Oh, I am all for that kind of delegating, Kim. If you have the means to an end, definitely go for it. Major housecleaning, especially spring cleaning, can be the worst. Me and mine are thinking about doing this once a month.
Some things I just don’t do. Like ironing. But I kinda HAVE to clean up kid vomit (one on my list) if it happens and my husband is away.
Now I just have to think about what jobs I can officially banish forever.
How do you think the Canadian government would feel if I just stopped doing taxes each year? Sigh. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to give that a try, but wouldn’t it be blissful?!!!
I think we can all say hand on heart that ironing is the one thing we’d all ban. I guess with a young growing family it’s nigh on impossible to get rid of that one. But I’m sure there are a few you can delegate to the kids; like load up and empty the dishwasher.
Ha! Yeah, I kind of think taxes are a given. No way we can get around that one unless you use H&R Block or similar. The OH uses TurboTax to do ours and, in fact, download this years version to get a start on them all.
When I was a kid, my mom delegated a lot of the housework to us once we got to be about 10 or so. She built up to it, of course, but by the time I was in 5th or 6th grade, we did all of the housework. She worked full time, she cooked 3 nights a week, and my brother and I each cooked 2 nights. We took turns…one kid cleaned the kitchen one week, then the bathrooms and living room the next. Eventually we realized that he hated cleaning the kitchen and I hated cleaning the bathrooms, and we just stuck with what we hated least. We all did our own laundry.
I used to iron our sheets, they are SO SOFT and feel so nice when you do that. But it’s a lot of work and generally I can’t be bothered. Occasionally I will iron the pillowcases.
Ah, you came from a home like mine then, J. As there were six kids in our house, my mum did the same thing. We had dishes, cleaning, shoe polishing (back in the day) and small household chores. And me and my sister had the ironing. Which is why I never EVER iron.
My parents even taught us all to sew, knit, do crocheting, change tires, cook, and so many other things that have made life so much easier as an adult. But always, they made it fun, and less a chore. Well, except the ironing.
My sister is still talking about my tea towel drawer that she happened to see inside when she was over for our early family dinner. She was horrified that they weren’t all perfectly folded and lined up. I normally fold them loosely and throw them in the drawer. The state of the drawer doesn’t bother anyone in the house so I figure why make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Ha! Ha! Your sister would have a nervous breakdown in my house then. Like you, I keep things tidy to a point, beyond that? Ha!
I’m with you with the why make it more complicated than it has to be.
Yes to that!!!
I used to delegate the cleaning until Covid because we both didnt feel this was time well spent.
Right now I am not delegating it because I dont want to spend money on it.
I have a few things I don’t do
– I don’t iron. Unless I go to wedding or something
– I don’ used to fold my underwear – waste of time. Now the husband is in charge and he does.
– I don’t always clean in the intervals I should be cleaning. That is called living life I guess.
– I delegate the vacuum and mobbing to my robot. Does he (his name is Axel) do a perfect job? no. But I don’t have to do it.
Amen to that. A cleaning service is a life saver, especially if both partners are working fully time. And yay to not being so rigorous to a cleaning schedule. Life’s too short to waste time on the unnecessary. It’ll get done … eventually, right?
And those cleaning robots may not do a great job but they do a necessary job. That’s fine by me too.