Chores?

[Gregg]

I am just curious on how some of you handle household chores. Do you have a weekly schedule like grass cutting every Saturday 8-10? Do you just do chores as needed? What about special projects?

I have noticed that I do not have much desire to work on special projects during the work week. After a long day at work I am not very motivated to say paint or do repair work. I tend to do the special projects on weekends.

For those that are married do you split chores? Not a firm rule/practice in our house but I do most of the outside and my wife does most of the inside, although sometimes that changes. I handle car issues, either fixing myself or arranging work to be done. All paint work is done by me.

Do you have favorite chores that you like to do? I am not sure I can say I like to do any chores. I have some that I do not mind as much as others. My wife used to do the grocery shopping, somehow without words that got switched to me. I don't mind it. It is better than pulling weeds (which I also do).

My wife surprised me by cutting the grass last week while I was over at a buddies doing the brakes on our van. She was gone 3 days this last week so I surprised her by cleaning the house.

So how do you handle them in your house?

And if you feel like sharing any funny stories related to chores I am sure some of us would enjoy them.

[DJBeasties]

Ours has kind of evolved over the 5 years of being married. We basically had a draft years ago where we literally wrote down every chore we could think of that needed to be done. Then we each declared two things we WANTED to do and two things we absolutely didn't want to do. For me it was I wanted to mow the lawns and do snow cleanup. I absolutely hate doing laundry or dishes.

She hates cleaning the bathroom and didn't want to clean windows and mirrors. She did want to do groceries gardening. So basically right off the bat we had a baseline for each. Now, I felt like dishes and laundry far exceeded windows and the bathroom in terms of workload so we agreed to give me a few more things to balance it out.

Then, for everything else we had a snake draft. We also do stupid stuff like the 15 minute challenge, where we put on music and then try to go through the house as fast as we can putting stuff away, dusting, cleaning up and straightening out things. It makes a big difference and keeps us happy and working together.

[The Dane]

I live alone, so I do all the chores, obviously, at least until I can train my dog to do the laundry. I have a pretty set schedule. Every other day, I clean the catbox. Every morning before work, I do whatever dishes are there. I do the laundry on the weekday evenings, spread out over a couple of days. Every evening in Spring/Summer just before sundown, I water and work in my garden. I walk the dog first thing in the morning and first thing when I return from work. I mow the lawn on a weekend morning when it needs it. I try to work 15 minutes a day on some bigger project, either chores or a home-improvement thing, with the side goal of filling my yard waste bin every week.

[Mithrandir]

Since my wife works more hours than me, combine that with my OCD for cleaning, I do most of the chores.

I really enjoy the yard work, cutting grass, trimming, planting, etc. I really don't have any set schedules, just do the chores when needed. Although I do like to cut grass on the weekends.

Do not enjoy the litter boxes, but love my cats.

The main source of disagreement between me and my wife is that I throw things away, she saves.

How many men do the laundry? I do most of it, so easy as the machines do the work.


I can't believe how much stuff two adults and one child accumulate!

[dslaw]

Wife does almost all cooking, I clean off the table and do dishes. I do yardwork every weekend but no schedule so sometimes I out at 7:00 on Sunday mowing the yard. I do bathrooms, empty litter boxes, shampoo rugs once a month. The rest is split but she does the majority of the rest, she will sweep 3 times to my 1 and so on. I do all the begging for sex so if she ever says yes I am usually too tired. OK, kidding about the last part.

[TranaGreg]

well I'm probably a very small minority but we outsource our core cleaning once per week; both of us work long hours during the week & found that we just couldn't get it done. It's a price we're very willing to pay - the peace of mind is definitely worth it for us.

We still do laundry (shared) & clean the litter & I will take care of any fix-ups that are needed (drywall patching, paint touch ups, etc). I take care of any car maintenance (okay, I take the car in for any car maintenance). We share grocery shopping & actually enjoy when we can go together, usually trying to get to markets instead of grocery stores.

[TranaGreg]

Wife does almost all cooking, I clean off the table and do dishes. I do yardwork every weekend but no schedule so sometimes I out at 7:00 on Sunday mowing the yard. I do bathrooms, empty litter boxes, shampoo rugs once a month. The rest is split but she does the majority of the rest, she will sweep 3 times to my 1 and so on. I do all the begging for sex so if she ever says yes I am usually too tired. OK, kidding about the last part.

7 am on Sunday mowing the lawn? your neighbours must love you!!!

[Gregg]

7 am on Sunday mowing the lawn? your neighbours must love you!!!

I have to admit, that was my first thought too.

[Gregg]

We also do stupid stuff like the 15 minute challenge, where we put on music and then try to go through the house as fast as we can putting stuff away, dusting, cleaning up and straightening out things. It makes a big difference and keeps us happy and working together.

This is a great idea. Do you do this every day?

[TranaGreg]

I have to admit, that was my first thought too.

then again, we should give him the benefit of the doubt ... maybe he uses barber scissors ...

[DJBeasties]

This is a great idea. Do you do this every day?

Almost every day. It's fun and we act like we are about 12 years old. And always a high-five or low-five if we cross paths. Basically the idea started from pretending we were in a movie montage. Plus it gets our 5 year old to help clean when you are wearing sunglasses and listening to Huey Lewis. Make a game out of anything and it usually works. Plus it just makes a crappy chore somewhat fun to do.

[Fresno Bob]

Ours has kind of evolved over the 5 years of being married. We basically had a draft years ago where we literally wrote down every chore we could think of that needed to be done. Then we each declared two things we WANTED to do and two things we absolutely didn't want to do. For me it was I wanted to mow the lawns and do snow cleanup. I absolutely hate doing laundry or dishes.

She hates cleaning the bathroom and didn't want to clean windows and mirrors. She did want to do groceries gardening. So basically right off the bat we had a baseline for each. Now, I felt like dishes and laundry far exceeded windows and the bathroom in terms of workload so we agreed to give me a few more things to balance it out.

Then, for everything else we had a snake draft. We also do stupid stuff like the 15 minute challenge, where we put on music and then try to go through the house as fast as we can putting stuff away, dusting, cleaning up and straightening out things. It makes a big difference and keeps us happy and working together.

Should have gone auction instead....."I'll clean the bathroom and the windows for 2 BJ's a week, one of which you have to be wearing the fishnet catsuit I bought you...."

We do a variation of your 15 minute challenge called the "10 Minute Tidy", which we ripped off from a kids show called "The Big Comfy Couch" that our kids used to watch. The point is to run around the house picking up and putting away clutter/trash/recycling/dishes/laundry/shoes etc, with the faster you run the better...it does confuse the hell out of our dog though

[bryanbutler]

7 am on Sunday mowing the lawn? your neighbours must love you!!!

^this. we have a general agreement in our neighborhood that 9:00 is the minimum. if it's broken, the person is talked to, by either the direct neighbor or the neighborhood association president. that's just too damn early.

[bryanbutler]

Almost every day. It's fun and we act like we are about 12 years old. And always a high-five or low-five if we cross paths. Basically the idea started from pretending we were in a movie montage. Plus it gets our 5 year old to help clean when you are wearing sunglasses and listening to Huey Lewis. Make a game out of anything and it usually works. Plus it just makes a crappy chore somewhat fun to do.

man, i like this. i may have to bring it up with my wife.

[bryanbutler]

we do do the "go through every room in the house and pick things up" drill every night. takes about 10-20 minutes depending - in the summer with the kids at home it's more like 20; in the winter more like 10.

my wife and i have a good rule about dishes - the person that cooked the meal doesn't have to clean up. my wife does most of the cooking on weekdays because i get home so late, but i do a good fraction on the weekends, so it works out. the kids are expected to clean up their own dishes.

weekends are the big deal. i do most of the outside work, but my wife has the garden so she does that. kids do vacuuming and dusting. wife and i do anything more major, which we negotiate.

shopping for groceries is our biggest sore point. neither my wife nor i like to do it so much so it's basically a delay game. we each wait, thinking the other will do it, until we can't stand it. i take the kids, because they don't bug me while shopping (well, i just tune them out), but my wife always leaves them with me because they bug the sh1t out of her for some reason. that's our only really point of contention on "chores" as they are now. well, aside from the fact that our kids whine like hell when we tell them to do anything .