Awful domestic household chore poll.....

[NRaleighLiberal]

Which is the regular, pain-in-the-ass household chore that you dread doing the most? (and why, if you wish to go there)....

I just got done vacuuming - for me, it is the task most likely to produce a string of expletives as the cord gets caught, plug comes out of the wall, hose gets twisted, items get vacuumed up that should get vacuumed up...you get the idea.

My wife and I are both retired, and we've always shared all the tasks....so I could answer this will full experience of doing them all!

16 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Cleaning the toilets
	2 (13%)
	Laundry
	0 (0%)
	Vacuuming
	1 (6%)
	Dishes
	1 (6%)
	Ironing
	2 (13%)
	Mowing the lawn
	2 (13%)
	Cooking
	0 (0%)
	Pet matters - brushing, litter box emptying, pooper scooping
	5 (31%)
	grocery shopping
	0 (0%)
	other
	3 (19%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[Burma Jones]

1. If I had the wherewithal to farm out a household chore, it would be laundry

I do not like doing laundry.

[Phentex]

2. Cleaning the kitchen...

so I chose dishes. It seems like there's ALWAYS something to clean, put away, wipe up, move, rinse, or scrub every stinkin' time I walk into the kitchen.

Every day I'm Cinderella.

[woo me with science]

11. Yep. I especially hate kitchen surfaces.

I get so frikking tired of scrubbing cooking residue, grease, pot drippings, crumbs, sticky stuff off surfaces. Bleccch.

[Denninmi]

3. Actually, mine isn't any of the above.

It's cleaning out my car that just makes me crazy. Because it should be such a simple thing, just keep up with it and it stays clean. Except I'm always in between -- can't do it when I'm on route somewhere, I need to get there. At night, I just want to go in the house. And it's a thankless job, always fresh dirt, leaves, pet hair, whatever. Then there are the fun little spills when something tips over due to bumpy roads and the "spill-proof" lid comes off.

Hate it with a passion.

[rrneck]

4. For every hour of yard work I do

it takes me two hours to get over it.

[Kali]

5. pretty much all of them

Cleaning the toilets - oh yeah, this one is always fun - and always my job - "they" think all it involves is pouring a little clorox in the bowl. um no you have to clean the rim and outside (and floor) AND use a brush where you soaked that clorox water

Laundry - tiresome, but sometimes I can get into it - plus we use a line so at least you are outside

Vacuuming - so rare that my 10 year-old vacuum cleaner has only been through about a dozen bags

Dishes - ugh - pretty much hate this job and force others to do it

Ironing - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! packrats chewed the cord off my iron 20 years ago

Mowing the lawn - I use equines, kind of fun but a bit of work to keep them on the grass and not eat my potted plants and fruit trees

Cooking - when it is the fucking 3 meals a day chore, I HATE it. When it is fun, creative play for people that know the difference between fresh herbs and a package of ramen "flavor" I enjoy it. Otherwise it is just feeding animals mass quantities and is a pain in the ass.

Pet matters - brushing, litter box emptying, pooper scooping - one cat uses a box some of the time and it is out on the porch. it is a plastic bushel bucket and gets a half 20 lb bag of litter when ever the stench gets too bad then the whole thing gets dumped in the "cat litter dump" - nobody around here is into "scooping" and the cat isn't too picky about the matter. (although she will walk all over your pillows after using it if you let it get really bad). The macaw spends most days outdoors so his inside corner gets the feathers and body lint vacuumed up about as often as I vacuum (not often). The dogs aren't the grooming types although when the little one rolls in something gross she can be bathed in a sink.

Beyond the housepets are several horse bums that need feed and care

grocery shopping - I like shopping if I have money, hate it when I don't (which is most of the time, I am still good at it and even when I do have money I shop mostly on the cheap, but being free to grab some extra of that whatever that is on sale is nice)

[marzipanni]

26. Do men spray outside the bowl?

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-646731.html ............

My SIL gave my brother bathroom cleaning duty when the boy kid was being toilet trained, which resulted in his teaching the boy kid to sit while peeing.

I taught my kid the same. I hate wedging my upper body into the small space around the toilet trying reach under and around it.

[pipi_k]

32. Feeding animals...hahahaha

that's how I feel about cooking, even when I spend time trying to make something nice.

One of my stepdaughters and her husband love to cook. They make just about everything from scratch...no boxed crap for them, so special meals are always special.

They spend hours and hours cooking for the family, and it's all snarfed up in the space of 20 or 30 minutes.

I'm a slow eater under any circumstances, so I'm almost always the last one to finish, but I figure I'm paying respect to the time they spent when I take my time and really taste what I'm eating.

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. Cleaning toilets.

Happily, I have someone who does it for me. Ironing? So I'm wrinkled (my clothes, that is).

[ohiosmith]

7. Cleaning the shower!

It kills my knees!

[pipi_k]

31. I know what you mean...

and it's one of those jobs you can't avoid doing except on your knees.

Mr Pipi has bought me all kinds of contraptions on sticks for scrubbing the shower, but you just don't get the same leverage, angle, and scrubbing power as when you right into it close range.

[fizzgig]

8. tie between the cat box and grocery shopping

those are the two things that are left solely to me, my husband's pretty good about everything else.

i will admit to enjoying vacuuming, but we just got a new, fancy vacuum that i love.

[Kaleva]

17. I like grocery shopping

I look at it as a challenge to get the most for the least amount of money.

[Lars39]

9. Whichever is next up on the To Do List.

[elleng]

10. Dusting.

I HATE the small stuff, like dusting and organizing shelves/counters/tables.
Don't know why.
In camp (100? years ago!!!,) DUSTPAN was the most hated chore on the list!

[Ineeda]

12. Cleaning the oven.

Messy and awkward. Though my wall oven is a bit easier than the range oven in my old house. (The oven I have now is a circa 1962 GE, original to the house and it still works perfectly, so it's not time to replace yet!)

[GoneOffShore]

13. Weeding -

And picking up crap that people throw on the sidewalk outside the house.

[IcyPeas]

14. vacuuming - IT'S TOO DAMN LOUD

[femmocrat]

15. I hate ironing.

It takes forever and as soon as you put the clothes on, they wrinkle. I know, some people don't iron, but I don't like to go to work wearing clothes with closet wrinkles and hanger bumps.

I pretty much hate all household chores except working out in the gardens.

[zanana1]

40. Same here

Martha Stewart doesn't live here.

[GermanDem]

47. I hate ironing, too!

For some reason, all other household chores don't bother me that much, even cleaning the toilets. But ironing... if I can avoid it, I will not do it. The only thing that makes it more bearable is watching TV while I do it.

[pipi_k]

16. Most hateful chore for me

is cooking.

I detest it. I have a kitchen full of pots and pans but I still hate to cook.

I don't mind washing dishes or vacuuming.

Don't really have to deal much with cleaning the toilets because Mr Pipi got me a bathroom cleaning lady last year who comes once a month. She does the heavy stuff, and I do maintenance. I have bad knees, and it really helps.

[fizzgig]

19. i love cooking

we just moved and not only do i have plenty of room to cook, there's a kitchen table at which to eat.

if i could just stay home and cook, i'd be happy.

vacuuming is fine with me, freaks the cats out, though.

[pipi_k]

33. I think

I would probably not mind cooking so much if I had a larger kitchen. It's pretty small, and if there's more than one person in there, or if the dogs are lurking waiting for a tidbit, I get real annoyed. And the layout sucks. It's sort of a galley kitchen with the sink at one end, and the fridge and stove at the other. Countertop on one side, and another counter/snack bar that serves as a kitchen table on the other with built in dishwasher below it.

My previous kitchen was huge.

Oh well...

[fizzgig]

35. i completely hear you

the kitchen in our last place wasn't big enough for more than one person and it was miserable.

[Kaleva]

18. I don't mind household chores.

When I was married I almost always washed the dishes, did the laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed quite a bit, mowed the lawn, did the cooking about half the time, dusted, fixed things and so on.

Now I'm divorced and live in a small 900 square foot home and this place is damn easy to take care of.

[HERVEPA]

20. What is this thing called ironing?

[susanr516]

21. I hate to mop

I really don't like housecleaning at all, but mopping the floor really sucks.

[one_voice]

23. This...

I don't mind much else. But I hate scrubbing floors.

[luv_mykatz]

22. I hate all housekeeping, actually.

Most hated chores are:

1. Getting rid of clutter.

2. Cleaning out the refrigerator, stove, and toilets.

3. Mopping floors.

4. Mowing the lawn.

5. Any heavy work which makes my back hurt.

[Populist_Prole]

24. I don't really hate the inside chores, it's the mowing/yardwork I hate.

Sheer drudgery and since the vast majority of it is in uncomfortable hot/humid weather, I abhor every second of every minute of every hour of it and keep reminding myself how much I hate it. I actually like exertion as such, but I HATE to sweat, and I sweat in freaking geysers.

The only exception is maybe raking/bagging leaves on a very cool brisk autumn day. The exertion feels good and I never sweat. The best of both worlds.

[DebJ]

25. Laundry: because I have to run up and down the stairs.

Could never be ironing: haven't done it in years, except for a few curtains.

[laundry_queen]

30. I also dislike the up and down the stairs thing

I have 4 kids and thus a lot of laundry. The house we are renting has the laundry in the basement, which means I'm hauling the clothes up and down 2 flights of stairs. We have to do 3 loads a day just to keep up (landlord put in the smallest cheapest washing machine on earth, so what used to be 1 load with my old front loader is 2-3 loads with this washer) and god forbid I miss a day. Then I spend the whole next day trying to catch up. On the bright side it's a workout, but I often avoid doing the laundry because it's daunting and I hate basements.

I just bought a house (duplex). I had a choice between a house that would be ready in 5 months but had main floor laundry (in an inconvenient spot), or a house that would be ready in 10 months and have upstairs laundry. Yes, the extra 5 months is worth top floor laundry....LOL. I can't wait.

[DebJ]

36. Congrats! And I am green with envy.

My daughter has the laundry room in her new house upstairs, in the middle of all the bedrooms. Makes things so easy,
especially with the second baby coming.

[Major Nikon]

27. Churning butter

Darning socks.

Kneading bread.

Stirring the pot.

Liming the outhouse.

Making head cheese.

Canning vegetables.

Smoking meats.

Rendering pork fat.

Fetching eggs.

Shoeing the mule.

Chopping wood.

Milking the cow.

Mending the fence.

De-worming and de-lousing the dog.

Hanging up the clothes.

Plucking chickens.

Slopping the hogs.

Hard to decide which to dread most.

[laundry_queen]

28. I'm totally with you on the vacuuming

effing hate it. It doesn't help that I have a stupid bagless (clearly people like them - I totally hate them, got the vacuum as a gift) and I'm allergic to dust, and I have to empty the friggen thing 5 times when I do the whole house. I get dust all over, breathe it in, get it on my hands and arms (because the fucking thing gets so clogged I have to reach my hand in to unclog it, and get covered in dust) and then I get so itchy all over and in my mouth and start wheezing and have to go take my asthma medicine and an extra allergy pill.

And then there's the problem with my hip that isn't helped with vacuuming. And the stairs. Oh, how I hate vacuuming the carpeted stairs! I have a canister that has fallen down the stairs more than once. The hose is just short enough that I have to go up and bring the canister to the bottom to vacuum the bottom stair. ARgh.

And I can't delegate this particular job to my kids, because frankly they suck at it. I don't know why. I've tried to show them how. I make them redo it sometimes if I have to mop afterwards and I end up with lines of dirt because they didn't go over the area properly. So mostly I just end up doing it so I'm not being grumpy at them and making them feel bad about being terrible at vacuuming (I don't let them off easy though, I make them to a lot of other things. It's just I would prefer doing those other things to vacuuming).

When I get a job (currently a student), I think one of the first things I'm going to do is buy a nice, expensive vacuum that has bags (and a long hose). I had a cheap kenmore once upon a time and rarely had to even touch or breathe dust to get the bag out and into the garbage, and only had to change the bag once every few months. I want that again, but with more suction/better attachments.

[ButterflyBlood]

29. The one I always could not stand at home

Was collecting the smaller garbage bags from the downstairs. I really don't know why, that one just drove me crazy.

[NV Whino]

34. Laundry

I've been hauling the damned laundry down to the damned laundromat for 28 years.

It was even more of a hassle when I had some health issues and couldn't drive. I mean, how often can you call up a friend and ask them to come pick up and do your laundry.

Note: there are no hookups at my place and no room to install them. Believe me I've tried to come up with a solution for 28 years.

[SOteric]

37. Wiping out whole civilizations growing in my vegetable bin,

playing "Whatchagot Roulette" with little plastic containers, trying to decide if that unlabled freezer bag contains unproofed bread dough or a frostbitten chicken breast.

[harmonicon]

38. I'm a man in his 30's who lived alone for the past several years.

Trust me, most of those are not "regular" chores.

[zanana1]

39. I hate carpeting because it has to be vacuumed. nt

[Bertha Venation]

41. In all humility, I think I win the prize for poop scooping -- I have ten cats

Two litter boxes upstairs and six in the basement.

I detest that chore. But I gladly pay the price, because I love every single one of them.

Meow!

[mnhtnbb]

42. Cooking. After 27 years married and 2 kids I AM SICK OF COOKING!

I don't want to spend any time thinking about meals, shopping for ingredients,
preparing food...I just want somebody else to do it and put dinner in front of me.

I don't mind doing dishes. I just am SICK OF COOKING!

[GermanDem]

48. I am sooooo with you on that one!

I used to love it, but I have been married 21 years, with two teenagers now who are VERY picky eaters... it is such a chore now!
My husband is a very thankful eater though, he will eat everything I put in front of him... my daughters, not so much. I hate standing in the kitchen for 45 minutes, and then they refuse to eat what I cooked. Now that they are teenagers, I let them do their own thing, I just cook for me and hubby. If they prefer ramen noodles over my stuff, so be it! By the way, I think I really am a good cook, it's not that my food is bad.

[geardaddy]

43. All of the above.

[csziggy]

44. Cleaning toilets it top of the list for me

Though this year I got out of it and out of most house cleaning. Because of my knees and the surgeries I ended up hiring a maid service. They only come once a month, but they keep the house reasonably livable. The toilets need to be done a little more often than once a month, though.

We still do the laundry, dishes, and cooking, none of which bother us. Our cat is self cleaning and has only used a litter box once in the ten years he's lived with us - he goes outside unless there is a tropical storm coming through - so we don't have to clean up after him, just clean the hair where he sleeps.

[hunter]

45. We ripped out our carpet years ago.

Dogs and carpet don't go well together and I hate vacuum cleaners.

Also, why make it difficult for the ants and spiders to eat fleas?

I'm the worst housekeeper in the world, ask anyone.

I prefer to let things be until some sort of natural ecology develops that's favorable to pets and humans and unfavorable to pests and disease.

If a fly that's annoying me gets caught by a house spider living on the ceiling, that's a win! I look up from my desk and cheer. Go spiders!

[hkis5269se]

46. cleaning the toilets.

[Mr.Bill]

49. Windows

I attribute the long success of my marriage to the fact that I do windows.

[Broken_Hero]

50. Other-

Cleaning up the old/used piddle pads for our dog.

I almost picked laundry though, albeit I don't mind doing it really, but what irks me is trying to match up my wife's work socks that are all damn near the same color, with different patterns and what not. It takes me ages to match those damn things...and the kicker is, if I make a mistake she notices right off the bat.