- What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most?
At first thought it's easy to say that I despise all chores equally. But I think the reality is that I despise the thought of chores, and once I actually get myself motivated enough to do what needs to be done, it usually takes less time and is much less horrendous than anticipated. Does this get me to clean more often? Heck no.
Luckily it doesn't really matter so much anymore since we've been handing over large chunks of cash to have someone come in and clean the house every other week. It is the most marvelous feeling to walk in after they have been here and know that the dust bunnies are no longer lurking in corners to taunt me in my reluctance to vacuum them away.
- Are there any that you like or don't mind doing?
Washing dishes by hand is probably one of the chores I despise the least. There's something rather relaxing about standing at a sink scrubbing things. It's requires practically no thought whatsoever so I can just let my mind wander away.
Now that I've got a dishwasher I rarely wash dishes by hand anymore. I suppose I could pretend that I miss it, but we'd all know I was lying.
- Do you have a routine throughout the week or just clean as it's needed?
In our house, the routine, such as it is, is relegated to only a few tasks – mainly cleaning the litter boxes and making sure the water and food bowls are filled. The rest tends to be done on an as-needed basis. Laundry gets done once a week, usually, and since we both do our own laundry, it's never that much of a hassle. Shared laundry (towels, sheets, the bedspread during a major hairball hacking fest) gets done as needed. Kitchen counters get cleaned and wiped as needed, usually as I am in process of cooking or preparing a meal. Dishes get washed when there are enough in the sink to fill the dishwasher. I suppose I could put them in the dishwasher as we use them but I am extremely anal about how the dishwasher gets filled and I just know that this would end up with me having to unload and reload the darn thing every time a new set of dishes was dirtied.
Back before we had someone in to clean every other week, the rest of the chores tended to get done when I finally got sick enough of tripping over dust bunnies to grumble-nag Richard into vacuuming – which would also guilt me into cleaning the bathrooms because if vacuuming was his chore, scouring the toilet bowls was mine. And dusting – well, let's just not talk about dusting, shall we?
- Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules?
I already mentioned my issues with loading the dishwasher. It is so bad that if Richard loads the dishwasher I literally cannot look at what he is doing or I will start rearranging it and driving us both crazy. Once the dishes are clean I really don't care how they were loaded, but pre-washing it's an issue. Yes I know I need help.
Other than that I can't think of any other bizarre little quirks regarding cleaning, unless you count the fact that even at the ripe old age of 34 I still have this wishful fantasy that somewhere out there, cleaning elves really do exist.
- What was the last thing you cleaned?
The last thing I cleaned (I'm going to say that the daily litterbox scooping fest doesn't really count) was the kitchen counter. The next thing I should be cleaning are the dishes, since it appears it's time for another trip to obsessive-land with the dishwasher.
