# Rate housekeeping tasks from easiest to horriblest **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411 "2018-11-12T16:26:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/41 "2019-02-24T17:24:14Z")
I generally dislike any task where I have to bend over for a period of time. This means that doing the dishes is a PITA. (My wife loves to cook and, in her world, the cook doesn’t do dishes.) I would have the kitchen counter and sinks raised another 4" if I could, but my wife is short and she wouldn’t be able to see into the sink. This means I also hated vacuuming…UNTIL I bought a vacuum with a higher handle and center of gravity. Now I’m fine with it. Toilets? Cleaning the bathrooms weekly was my household job as a teenager. Doesn’t bother me a bit. I also couldn’t care less about changing litter boxes, cleaning up pet puke, and other nasty jobs. Just dig in and get it done. My wife dislikes changing the bed and washing the bedclothes. Again, it’s my pleasure. My most hated chore does not take place in the house at all. It’s grocery shopping. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I would change a dozen litter boxes to keep from going to the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/42 "2019-02-24T17:39:28Z")
> [@stolatt](#): > > I hate cleaning blinds so much, I buy the cheapest ones and replace them every two years. Thank you. I would never try to clean a $5 blind. I only have 2 in my big house due to no need for privacy (no neighbors). Toss them suckers. I recently found a paper blind. It has sticky tape on the top row. Easiest thing EVAH! Cut to fit. Love 'em. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/43 "2019-02-24T17:56:54Z")
You know, it wouldn’t be so hard to clean the bleeping microwave if certain people, who shall remain nameless because they aren’t yet adults, didn’t let food _explode_ in it. Getting those lasered on dots of tomato sauce off the ceiling is not my idea of fun. Webstering? I googled, but I don’t think the urban dictionary\* “definition” is the one I’m looking for, as always. - Has there been a more useless major website in the history of the internet? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/44 "2019-02-24T18:02:11Z")
I’ve never encountered Webster as a verb, but I understood it as cleaning cobwebs or dust with this type of brush: [http://199.67.254.167/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Webster-Aqua-New.jpg](http://199.67.254.167/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Webster-Aqua-New.jpg) Dust and hair is a never ending battle with multiple pets, but I don’t think blinds need THAT much cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/45 "2019-02-24T18:16:08Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Changing sheets is… okay. But: you know how inserting a USB device blindly requires at least 3 attempts? Especially with King beds, I end up alternating correct and incorrect multiple times. I had thought the corner stitching would be a clue, but nope. Some go up the sides, others the head or foot. Take a permanent marker and print BOTTOM at the (you know) bottom of the bottom sheet, in the middle. It saves me from screaming at the sheets. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/46 "2019-02-24T18:20:45Z")
Some tasks depend on how long they’ve been neglected. Giving the baseboards a quick dusting? No biggy. Bathroom baseboards that have a year of steam- and condensation-caked dust because you were a filthy pisschild back in your school days? That’s a hands and knees scrubfest ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/47 "2019-02-24T18:24:01Z")
1. Scrubbing the bathtub (I rather like the smell of Comet, and I love taking a bath in freshly-scrubbed tub). 2. Scrubbing the toilet (doesn’t bother me at all). 3. Vacuuming. 4. Gathering dirty dishes/laundry from here and there and putting them in the sink/hamper. 5. Making the bed. 6. Washing the dishes _before_ I put them in the dishwasher. 7. Loading/unloading the dishwasher. 8. Washing/drying laundry (requires a trip to our musty, stinky basement). 9. Folding/hanging and putting away laundry (I’ll live out of a laundry basket for weeks). 10. Sweeping and mopping. Special cases: You may have noticed that I left off dusting. You can count on two hands the number of times Mrs. Homie and I dust in a year. I doubt our blinds have ever been dusted, nor have the tops of our picture frames and such. Every now and then she’ll get a hair up her butt about dust on the ceiling fans, but that’s about it. We also don’t give two shits about windows. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/48 "2019-02-26T00:19:02Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I’ve never encountered Webster as a verb, but I understood it as cleaning cobwebs or dust with this type of brush: [http://199.67.254.167/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Webster-Aqua-New.jpg](http://199.67.254.167/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Webster-Aqua-New.jpg) . . . Wow, my thread from several months ago. Yep, you’re right - I used Webster as a verb, and I’d heard it used as such a couple of times. The Webster has stiff-ish bristles and in addition to clearing away cobwebs, it’s handy to brush off the tops of doorjambs and such. I forgot about cleaning behind the toilet. Gah, I hate it. The toilet is squeezed tightly between the vanity and the bathtub, and I have to kneel in the bathtub on a towel in order to get behind. Don’t get me started on all the twisty porcelain plumbing shapes on the outside - they’re designed to catch dust and filth. Good thing it’s hard to see well back there. I think it doesn’t get cleaned more than once every couple of years or so. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/49 "2019-02-26T15:47:21Z")
1. washing dishes 2. Vacuuming all the carpeted rooms (aka starting the roomba & monitoring it) 3. Loading/unloading dishwasher 4. Laundry loading / transfer to dryer 5. dumping compost into the compost bio-ball 6. Cleaning off bathroom sink vanity plus mirror 7. Laundry folding 8. Scrubbing toilet 9. Washing the inside compost bucket 10. Cleaning off one bathroom sink vanity plus bathroom mirror 11. Vacuuming / dusting all the cobwebs in the house 12. Sweeping/mopping kitchen floor (linoleum) 13. Sweeping/mopping a tile bathroom floor (tile) 14. Cleaning out microwave/scrubbing stove top and grates 15. Cleaning the grease from kitchen cabinets and ceiling and microwave 16. Scrubbing out the tub and its tiles 17. Removing the science experiments from the fridge / tossing dead leftovers 18. Washing the interiors of all the windows 19. Dusting one room (hate dusting) 20. Cleaning the venetian blinds. (bleah!) ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/50 "2019-02-26T22:17:08Z")
Funny, we were just talking about this last night. My partner and I try to swap out chores on a who-hates-it-least basis. Sadly, we’ve both found our most hated chore to be cleaning tub and shower surrounds, and it shows. Grout is Satan’s invention. I also hate trying to clean the contorted base of typical American toilets. I can’t even reach behind them in our tiny bathrooms. I don’t mind cleaning the rest of the toilet. My ideal bathroom would have a wall-mounted toilet, smooth stainless shower surround, and a drain in the center of the floor. I’d hose the whole room down and be done with it. I don’t mind folding laundry. Since I got a Swiffer duster I no longer hate dusting. I used to hate doing dishes, but the years have beaten me down, so I just get things done now without agonizing. Luckily, my partner doesn’t mind doing them most of the time. He won’t do windows at all, though. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/51 "2019-02-26T23:12:05Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I usually break out a copper pad, turn on the shower, and scrub a bit before taking a shower. I’m sure I’m not completely thorough because I’m blind as a bat when showering, but it eventually all gets cleaned. > > True. I’m only wary because last time the bolts were rusted on and it was an arduous several hours journey of trying to derust them, failing, and eventually having to saw one off. A copper pad on an enamel tub? EEEK. Or a fiberglass one for that matter. I don’t think I’d use a copper pad on anything except stainless steel or maybe cast iron. (I don’t know crap about cast iron because it’s too heavy for my delicate wrists) Cleaning the bowl isn’t so bad, it’s the outside and behind that’s so gross. The combination of dust, cat hair, and old lady hair meeting all those damp surfaces makes a pretty nasty collection even if I do clean back there every week. Dusting is a must if I’m going to breathe well. I don’t have a dishwasher so I try to cut down on dishes. Floors aren’t so bad if everything is picked up. If I could hire out just one job, it would be taking out the trash. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2019, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411/52 "2019-02-27T08:24:16Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > A copper pad on an enamel tub? EEEK. Or a fiberglass one for that matter. I don’t think I’d use a copper pad on anything except stainless steel or maybe cast iron. (I don’t know crap about cast iron because it’s too heavy for my delicate wrists) Copper has a Mohs of 2-3, enamel apparently 7. It should be fine, but on the other hand the scum hardens and I often don’t notice right away because I shower when I’m blind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rate-housekeeping-tasks-from-easiest-to-horriblest/824411.md?page=2)