I don't disapprove of the things you remove

[venta]

The other evening I was sorting out some washing. Oh yes, I know how to live. Thus I ended up doing two of my least favourite domestic tasks.

I don't, in general, enjoy housework. But I appreciate that the floor won't vacuum itself, the rubbish won't walk itself out on the correct day and even - despite much hoping on my part - the flat surfaces won't dust themselves. I have to intervene. Perennially unpopular tasks like scrubbing the toilet are, while not my idea of fun, something I don't mind taking them on. Cleaning the cooker tends to get neglected, but sooner or later one of us will get round to it.

My pet hates are pairing socks, and putting duvets into duvet covers. Sadly, these are coupled with an equal hatred of wearing odd socks, and a fondness for kipping under a king-size duvet. Yes, I know there are various strategies to avoid having to pair socks like clipping them together in the wash (which doesn't work) and buying all-identical socks (which I will do, just as soon as I wear out all the varieties I own). I'm not after helpful ideas, I just want a nice healthy whinge.

If I am ever in the position to afford a small fraction of a cleaner, I'd like them to match my socks into duos and change my bed for me.

Which particular minor household tasks do you hate irrationally ?

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I hate putting duvets into duvet covers. My duvet is kingsize, so it's actually bigger than my outstretched arms, in both directions. This makes putting the duvet cover on a real struggle, usually involving climbing completely inside it.

I hate hoovering - no matter how I do it, it gives me horrible backache. And unclogging the bathroom draim makes me retch (though otherwise I find cleaning the bath quite enjoyable).

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yup, same with the kingsize duvet. I remember being around when a friend of mine who's 6'6" was changing bedding and he made it look so damn easy.

I also observed recently that it's something that's ridiculously easy with two people. Maybe I should start inviting friends round when it's new-bedclothes day...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Grr yes, me too on the duvet cover. I put the top corners in properly then pick the whole thing up and shake it over the stairs to get the sides to go down, then drape it over the banisters to sort out the bit that goes wrong in the middle. If I lived in a flat I have no idea how I would do it.

Household tasks I hate doing: getting the gubbins out of the sink drain. Vacuuming my bedroom floor, which is always covered in enough hair that I have to brush it before vacuuming. Anything involving ladders.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should start inviting friends round when it's new-bedclothes day...

Advertise it as an evening of playing around in the bedroom, stay inspecific.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

But climbing inside the duvet cover to get it into the corners is the best bit! Then you get to stand on the bed so you can shake it out to get the other corners down..

(not that I can do either at the moment, being a) unable to raise my right arm much above shoulder height and b) unable to carry much weight on that side anyway..)

Buying identical socks, however, doesn't help. They soon stretch and fade differently, so then you're stuck trying to pair up black socks without accidentally making 'near pairs' ab bc cd de leaving you with the completely different A and E, where A is an inch longer and E clearly grey rather than black.

[reddragdiva]

Oh God yes. Duvet covers.

I loathe ironing, but thankfully wear T-shirts to work now.

[erming.livejournal.com]

Dusting and vacuuming.

I have eczema, which means my room gets dustier at a rate of about 50 times faster than my mum's room, and the carpet soon turns to the colour of dust, in some patches in as little as 2 days after the last vacuuming.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Tidying.

I'm quite happy to clean anything, I just don't want to have to tidy all the stuff off it first.

Sadly, there's no such thing as a paid tidier.

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Hanging washing on the pulley.
Hate it hate it hate it.
Don't know why.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Picking up those foil seals from fruit juice cartons and putting them in the bin, ditto the ones from milk bottles. Why the hell can't my flatmate do it himself after opening them?

Non-flatmate-generated tasks: I hate folding clothes.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

As 90% of students know, they weigh twenty tons each. Those of us who possess the superhuman strength to lift them should not oppress the weakling masses by complaining when we find them on the worktop in a puddle of milk, where the poor sap who opened the bottle used his last calorie of strength and collapsed while heaving it inch by exhausting inch to the bin.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the duvet thing is one of mine, too. It's impossible to do to my satisfaction.

I have never in my life cleaned a toilet. I just can't. I can't think of it. I can't understand how anyone could do it. I wouldn't mind if I could do it with some kind of disposable widget that you just dropped down the toilet afterwards, but the idea of taking the brush out into my nice (psychologically) clean bathroom is unbearable to me. On the few occasions that my mother visits she sometimes does it for me, and I cope with that by simply not acknowledging that it's happening.

I'm mental, you know.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I saw an ad for this recently. Would that help?

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Yes! Hurrah.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Something like this: http://www.scjohnson.co.uk/products/product.asp?idr=2&idb=9&idp=62?

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike - thanks!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

But...the brush has a little pot that it lives in...and you flush the toilet over the top of it to wash the bleach off before you put it back in the pot. And then you wash your hands with soap. If I visit somebody's house and they have't cleaned the toilet in six months so that it is brown, I am strongly tempted to pee in the garden because it is cleaner.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Hey, I never said it was rational.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

..whereas I am strongly tempted to bring over my very own bottle of domestos with which to clean it next time I visit.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Ironing is the worst. But having long since got into the habit of wearing nothing that requires ironing it's seldom a problem (and on the rare occasions I do need to iron something I'm usually so shockingly bad at it that lathany takes pity on me and does it).

Of the jobs I actually have to do, cleaning up cat sick is probably my least favourite.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

long since got into the habit of wearing nothing

Gosh!

that requires ironing

Ah, right.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought I had read the first time, too!

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

I can tolerate vacuuming sometimes, however I get hayfever so I need to vacuum more often than I can be bothered with.

Similarly I enjoy cooking occasionally - especially messing about with different herbs and spices - but it's probably good to be able to eat healthy food more often than I can be bothered to cook it :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Hello, new friend. I wondered who you were :)

Er... not that I identified you from your hayfever and cooking skills, more from your own LJ.

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Hoovering, putting away clean clothes- fine with tidying just...dunno..much easier to leave in a pile- and I HATE washing up the little tray under the grill that catches meat fat..makes me retch but HLM never notices it full. YUK.

[triskellian]

Buying identical socks doesn't work, y'know. I did it for years, but after a few washes all of your identical black ankle socks have mutated: some are slightly greenish, some greyish; some have aspirations to be knee socks, others want to be trainer socks. Give it a a couple of months and you'll have lots of individual black socks none of which matches any other.

Which particular minor household tasks do you hate irrationally ?
I hate ironing; I have on occasion put a garment back into the wash rather than iron it if it was too creased even for me to wear it in public.

Otherwise, I'm bad at housework in general, but it's laziness rather than an objection to any specific tasks.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Identical socks works for me, has done for years. If yours change shape, size and colour in the wash, then I suggest your original choice of sock was poor.

Occasionally it does seem that one of my socks has shrunk in the wash, such that they no longer match, but on closer examination they always turn out to be secretrebel's.

Also, venta, you shouldn't wait until your current socks have worn out. If you buy a batch of matching socks now, then straight away you have (say) 50% less pairing to do, and that proportion will increase over time.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Hoovering is my big hate, I'll do it before we have people coming round but it takes a great effort of will to do it any other time. Actually, it's specifically the dusting part of it, I don't mind the pushing-hoover-round-the-floor bit. Partly because it's tedious, partly because it sets off my allergy.

I don't much like ironing, but for some years now have carefully avoided having any clothes that need it, so it's just a nasty memory.

But I quite like putting king-size duvet covers on, I find it a rather satisfying way of achieving regularity. Not so much so that I'd deliberately take them off and put them on again just for fun -- but on a scale of 1 -> annoying, it's pretty near the left-hand end. I also like pairing socks, maybe for the same sort of anal reason.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I have now decided I never want to visit almost anybody on your friends list in case I catch something.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I do visit most of them and I'm still alive, so I don't think their houses are significantly more dangerous (or ickly-looking) than the norm :)

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

Particular? I'm sorry, I don't understand.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I take it as read that no one likes housework. But I feel an above-average aversion to a few tasks, and thought you might too ;)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Dusting. And I'm another duvet-into-duvet-cover hater.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Interesting that there's so many duvet-covering haters. But presumably none of us hate it enough to think sheets and blankets are a viable alternative :)

[(Anonymous)]

Hate vacuuming? A chance to sing your head off and no-one will hear you. Hate ironing? Play a talking book. Icky jobs (and I've done 'em all)? Rubber gloves; as a skin problem child, I have to use them and found I could tackle anything.

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

The downside of having long hair is the rapid clogging of shower plugs and hair *everywhere*. The dry baulk is achieved by clearing the plug holes, and noticing your house is slowing turning ginger until you brush it clean is quite unnerving.

[glittertigger]

My flat turns slowly ginger in just the same way if I don't hoover for a while. Luckily my carpets are a reasonable good colour for camouflaging this!

[pm215]

None in particular and all of them in general. Specifically, I hate the way that you have to do housework, but then you have to do it *again* in a week/fortnight/month/whatever. I like tasks, which I can do once and cross off my list and so feel satisfaction at making progress. Housework is a chore, and chores just come back again and again; it's like trying to kill the Hydra.

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

I seem to have a great aversion to all forms of housework... Except putting duvets into duvet covers, which I actually don't mind so much. (Then again, I only have a single-sized duvet, and am just about tall enough to be able to shake it out without having to stand on anything.)

I did also get a batch of all-identical socks a few months ago, and it really is very effective!