# Housework enrages me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 22, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083 "2011-12-22T15:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/41 "2011-12-22T23:50:37Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I never understood the point of making the bed. Its stupid I don’t care about unmade beds. What I do care about is stuff on the bed. If you throw something down on the bed while you go do something else, fine, but PUT IT AWAY once you’re done. Don’t leave it for me to throw off when I’m tired and want nothing more than to climb in and snuggle under the covers. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/42 "2011-12-23T01:03:52Z")
> [@FrancisCastle](#): > > Your house sounds the same as mine. I have no idea how two kids and two dogs can completely destroy the house so quickly. Getting them to help clean up turns me into a drill sergeant, and then we all get upset. I’d rather just do it myself. If only there was a house cleaning fairy… > > ETA: I really don’t mind doing the laundry or vacuuming, its those damn dishes… Two kids and one dog. I feel your pain. And as much as we try to get the kids to help clean it turns into a royal battle. “Kids aren’t supposed to put the garbage out!” “No one I know has to make their bed!” “I’m too tired!” The petty excuses go on and on. Unfortunately for them the tired and weary parents also go on and on. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/43 "2011-12-23T01:16:07Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Somebody has to do it, I know. When will we have ROBOTS?! Bite me. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/44 "2011-12-23T01:30:01Z")
I just purchased a condo with light creme carpeting. I’m thinking of wearing sunglasses inside to avoid seeing the marks. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/45 "2011-12-23T01:39:31Z")
You can take the approach my dad did when I was a kid and completely BLOW UP and yell at the top of your lungs every time somebody leaves something out of place, doesn’t do their chores, etc. Seemed to work for me… now I’m a very clean person! _don’t hurt me daddy_ ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/46 "2011-12-23T02:35:21Z")
My kids, after 3 years of living in our “new house,” have finally, FINALLY gotten pretty good at their cleaning chores. I’m not much of a housekeeper, but I like the living room and kitchen to not be an active health hazard. It has taken an enormous amount of patience, persistance, and tenacity on my part, but now I can finally say, “Everything (electronic) off until the living room is clean!” and they can actually DO it. It’s very rewarding! And yes, by the next morning (if not earlier) it all has to be done again! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/47 "2011-12-23T02:47:36Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > I also never make my bed, making the bed has even less point than keeping a living room clean. I don’t ever make the bed since our cleaning lady changes the sheets and re-makes the bed. But I generally do take the 15-20 seconds each morning to pull the sheets and covers more or less straight. To some extent, this is a relic from my younger days, when I usually shared a house or apartment with others, so if I wanted to be alone, the bedroom was the only place, and the bed was really the only place to sit or lie down in the bedroom. So it really made a difference if it was already neat. But even now, our bed takes up a pretty significant portion of our bedroom, and if one of us wants to organize clothes or some similar task, it helps to have the bed readily available as a surface where you can put stuff without its disappearing into the rumples in the sheets and blankets. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/48 "2011-12-23T02:53:00Z")
I am a sick, sick person. I love the feeling of a clean home and I have cleaning OCD. But my life is a living hell because dust will gather _before I’ve finished dusting_. Damned dirt lot! ---
**Author:** ![truthbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@truthbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthbot)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/49 "2011-12-23T04:01:05Z")
> [@Al\_Bundy](#): > > I just purchased a condo with light creme carpeting. I’m thinking of wearing sunglasses inside to avoid seeing the marks. **Al** , I feel your pain. For seven friggin’ years I had off-white carpeting in my three-level house. Company coming? Spot-clean and steam clean the carpet, about 2400 sq feet. Thanksgiving morning? Spot-clean and steam clean the carpet. Christmas morning; was I doing the Cha-Cha with Santa and sipping champagne with Baby Jesus? Nope, I was up at six AM spot-cleaning and steam cleaning the friggin’ carpet. Last February as mr. bot caught me on the verge of suicide-by-Spot-Shot, we agreed to replace the Friggin’ Carpet from Hell. We now have a multi-colored Berber in shades of brown, and I now just have to vacuum before company arrives. It’s magic! And Al, I highly recommend Folex Spot Remover. It’s the Napalm of carpet grungies. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/50 "2011-12-23T04:32:28Z")
I like doing housework. I do it so rarely that I also redecorate as I go along. ---
**Author:** ![Butterscotch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Butterscotch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Butterscotch)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/51 "2011-12-23T08:06:22Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I’ll take my chances! The link is to an article that shows it is unhealthy to MAKE the bed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/52 "2011-12-23T08:23:37Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > I lived alone in a small apartment. This worked for me: > > 1. Pick a place for everything you own. Everything! If you can’t find a place for it, GET RID OF IT. > > 2. Every item coming into your home needs to find its place as soon as it comes into the home. > > 3. Using an item consists of taking the item from its place, using it, _and returning it to its place_. > > 4. The dishes are done at the end of each meal or, even better, cookware is clean before you are allowed to eat the prepared meal. > > 5. Your home should look the same when you go to bed as it did when you woke up that day. If not, then don’t go to bed until it does. _Every Day_. You might allow yourself ONE weekday of slack. > > 6. At the end of the week, all that’s left is laundry, sweeping, wiping down the kitchen, and cleaning the bathroom. I spent only an hour or so per weekend on housework. > > 7. Dirty dishes go in the dishwasher, not in the sink. > > My place was always clean and orderly under this plan. If anyone came over, the place was ready at all times. > > In finding places for my things, my rule was that it should never take me more than 1 minute to find anything. That was great because I was never looking around the place trying to find that little thing I had misplaced. > > I loved living that way. I’m married now. 😛 Read Henry David Thorou’s On Walden Pond. In it he writes about needing/wanting stuff. He asks himself…how many years worth of dust accumlination that I have to clean do I want to devote to this? The world’s first hippie. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/53 "2011-12-23T17:02:29Z")
> [@Butterscotch](#): > > The link is to an article that shows it is unhealthy to MAKE the bed. 😉 Even better! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bloodless\_Turnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@Bloodless\_Turnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bloodless_Turnip)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/54 "2011-12-23T17:15:11Z")
I like a very neat and clean home. I make my bed every morning. My towels are all folded and stacked in the same direction, same with washrags. My pantry is neat. My cabinets are neat. I’m not a neat freak, my desk is clean but has the normal workday clutter. The kids room looks like a normal kid lives there, but it’s not a disaster. I was always pretty neat (once I reached adulthood) but I think after living in insane chaos with my ex it soothes me to have things clean, neat and uncluttered. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/55 "2011-12-23T17:58:15Z")
I live alone in a one bedroom condo. I’m thinking of doing without my eyeglasses just so I don’t have to see the housework that needs to be done. Of course if I didn’t wear those glasses I couldn’t see well enough to find the bathroom so the situation would further deteriorate. I wish I had paid more attention to my mother; she had the house cleaning thing down cold. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/56 "2011-12-23T18:43:25Z")
What \*\*Bearflag70 \*\*said. My wife & I have lived like that for 25-ish years now. Works great. If the kids are old enough to speak English they’re old enough to live neatly. You can win if you try. Or you can surrender & clean a house every day. Your call. Now if I could just figure out a way to make meals sustain me for more than 6 hours. … ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/57 "2011-12-23T19:39:41Z")
You could try what some of my older friends do. Get blazed and put on some ZZ Top. Or you could try what some of my younger friends do. Get blazed and put on some Nirvana. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/58 "2011-12-23T20:13:20Z")
Self cleaning oven? Forget that - I want the self-cleaning bathroom! _sigh_ The only self cleaning things in this household are the cats. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/59 "2011-12-23T20:23:45Z")
I think it was Roseanne Barr who said, “i’m not using a vacuum cleaner again until Sears makes one I can ride on.” We have a Dyson, but I’ve been jonesing for a Roomba for a while now. 🙂 I seem to be awash in gift cards and 20% off coupons from Bed, Bath and Beyond. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083/60 "2011-12-23T21:03:10Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Hopeless and pointless. Exactly. I don’t mind doing chores. I do mind looking around two days later and realizing that they made abso-frikkin-lutely no difference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housework-enrages-me/607083.md?page=4)