Growing up, we were taught to clean--not cook. It might also have something to do with the fact that we just weren't interested in cooking. You wouldn't find us offering to help out in the kitchen but we were always willing to help fold the laundry or sweep the floor. And because my mom was a stickler for a chore done right, we became very good at detailed work (and the satisfaction that came from doing that). Gregory's post yesterday reminds us of how we like to get into the zone when we have spare time on our hands (which got us thinking about what chores we don't mind doing). Therapeutic work is how we like to describe it. We know there have to be a few folks like us out there, so Apartment Therapy readers--weigh in with your favorite chores in the comments!
We get as much satisfaction from doing the chores as the result that comes from their effort. Our obsession with cleaning our apartment and then sitting back and surveying our newly spotless space is one of our favorite ways to spend an afternoon (with wine and music of course). The chores that rank high on our list are organizing drawers and cabinets, doing the dishes, making the bed and mopping (not to be confused with sweeping). Just yesterday, we started fantasizing about organizing the boyfriend's DVD collection (with a corresponding notebook to highlight movie genre and a brief synopsis). We quickly put it on our "some day to-do list" but secretly wish we had the time to commit now. We've also been known to tell a roommate or two that we actually like to do the dishes (it gives a chance to mull over the day) and the opportunity to compromise on chores we hate doing. And lately we've started multitasking with our blue tooth headset on while cleaning house--we've never felt so accomplished.
Apartment Therapy readers, what are your favorite chores and why?
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Sweeping! Instant gratification and less pet hair.
I'm a cleaner not a cooker as well. Although I hate doing dishes.
I love ironing. I think it's the repetative motion, the steam and the march toward perfection. I love the act, but I also love pulling out a pair of perfectly ironed pants at 6am, and not having to worry about anything but putting them on.
vacuuming! I'm always equally delighted and horrified by how much crap collects in the canister.
Organizing is fun too, I go on organizing binges from time to time.
Vacuuming for me too! Sweeping, dishes, and cleaning the bathroom! On the bottom of the list: dusting, mopping and ironing.
I love cleaning, there is no chore I don't like except ...I HATE HATE HATE ironing. It really bugs me that my husband and I both go to work looking wrinkled, however, there is nothing worse then ironing!
SticksnLoans I'll do the rest of your chores if you do my ironing
MOPPING! I only do it every month and a half, but the smell of pinesol, and the shinny-ness of the kitchen... ooo it makes me fall in love!
I am also a cleaner and not a cooker! I actually love to do almost all cleaning in our new house. Then I, too, sit back and look at it. I feel proud! I like dusting, and vacuuming the white dog hair off the dark carpet!
http://www.makemineeclectic.wordpress.com
I love setting the table and then cleaning up--I'm not interested in preparing the actual meal though. I tend to wander off before I can get anything accomplished. Give me a set of dirty dishes though and I'm relentless.
How true is this. And I thought I was the only one.
couldn't bring yourself to write "our boyfriend," huh? : ) Ah, the perils of the royal we!
My favorite chore: scrubbing the shower. Heaven knows why. I end up looking like a drowned rat.
Satisfaction? From doing chores?
Man, I'm clearly doing something wrong!
yeah, I haven't ironed since 2001! Who needs it when you have wrinkle release! seriously folks, once you try it, you're hooked.
I'm a freak....I enjoy doing dishes. It's terribly satisfying to get through a big pile, and it gives me a chance to listen to the radio.
I like to clean up the dishes and have the kitchen looking all ready to go again. I do like to cook, too, so I usually clean up as I go along. Mostly I like to do what I call "puttering," just tackling small projects as I move from room to room: moving things from one room to another, straightening, a little sorting and rearranging. I love how the house has a different vibe after I've finished cleaning and sorting...the air feels vibrant and clean, everything shines, I appreciate all my belongings again.
What dtremit said. I'm a cooker, not a cleaner.
I'm a cooker but I'm also a cleaner !!!watering the plants on the balcony and inside the house, also vacuuming is one of my favorite chores I'm always delighted and horrified too,by how much dust bunnys the vacuum collects,
I don't know that I have a favorite or least favorite chore. I clean as a stress reliever, at which point pretty much everything is fair game: washing dishes, vacuuming, laundry, sweeping, etc. And if there's nothing to clean when the need strikes, I'll start rearranging furniture or sorting buttons.
Honestly? I love cleaning the litter box. It's gross and disgusting work, but my cats and my nose are grateful afterward.
Polishing silverware - it was my favorite chore as a kid and still is. Sparkly!
I really don't like cleaning, so everything is a CHORE, but if I had to pick one, it would definitely be vacuuming. My mom gave me a sweet new canister vac for my birthday last year and it kills my old upright. Nothing like sucking dust bunnies out of a corner or particles of dirt from in between the floorboards that sweeping can NEVER get.
Vacuuming is a religious experience for me!
Anyone who wants to come to my house and get their cleaning fix is more than welcome....
I am thoroughly in love with folding laundry and organizing -- I get to see what I own, and I love the feeling of everything-just-so when I'm done. (incidentally, liking laundry is also a great way to explain to coworkers why I don't pay extra to send my laundry out. :)
good one, ilovenature, watering plants didnt cross my mind as a 'chore' around here its practically a privilege. likely to find yourself sleeping on the couch if you do it out of turn.
I HATE doing the dishes, so I always cook and someone else cleans. My favourite chore is the laundry. What's nicer than folding warm clothes that smell lovely? Love of the laundry emphatically does not extend to ironing, however.
Cleaning to me is like going to the gym. The hardest part is getting myself to go, but once I start I get into it.
I enjoy cleaning when there's an obvious difference. Like wiping off layers of dust or going through my box of bills and junk mail and throwing a pile of it away. It really clears my head!
I actually love to clean as a stress reliever, too. I hate, hate, HATE doing laundry or the dishes, but my boyfriend usually does those while I handle dusting, vacuuming, and scrubbing the kitchen. There is something so wonderfully satisfying about walking away from a good cleaning job...and looking like a mess yourself!
I clean regularly and it is often a procrastination / clear-your-head technique. But even so, it's not my favorite thing. I do like to cook, and am very pleased that while my husband also likes to cook, he's perfectly happy to do the dishes after a meal. Lucky me!
amen tasteduds, takes an act of congress (or a scary bathroom) to get me moving, but after that I'm a steamroller...whole Saturdays fly by, NPR blaring, dust bunnies cowering in the corner.
Love to cook, though, and am a messy cook to boot...My wife, thank goodness, long ago made clear the division of labor: I cook dinner, she handles the clean-up...it's worked so far...
My favorite chores are:
- Decluttering, arranging and organizing
- Washing the dishes
- Vacuuming but not carpets (allergies)
- Cooking (Very relaxing, especially with some interesting podcasts on)
- Putting things away (I'm definitely a hider).
Least favorite chores:
- Laundry (it's easy but I live on the third floor and the machines are in the basement. I hate the continual running up and down of six flights of steps while doing a couple of loads.)
- Taking out the garbage and recycling
- Grooming the cat, who hates it and me while I'm doing it
- Cat litter
- Cleaning the tub/shower
- Cleaning windows
I like doing the dishes, I think it stems from loving to cook. It's nice to get all of my tools clean so I can get them messy again. :)
I hate putting away laundry though. I like washing and drying it, but putting it away is no fun. Neither is ironing, but I think that's just because I don't have a full-size ironing board. I might enjoy that more if I did.
I love to declutter and organize...although by the time I'm done organzing everything is so set in it's space with it's measured borders of space between everything that it's nearly impossible for me to keep it that way. I also love vacuuming, it's the cherry on top! Once everything is cleaned up, off the floor, in it's place then it's *flip* and zoom around a obstacle free floor.... I feel giddy just thinking about it :} As far as cooking goes i LOVE to cook, but I like to see if I can have everything cleaned up before I'm done cooking. It makes me feel like a chef having the such and such steaming and the whatnots boiling and all having it timed in my head while doing the dishes and wiping down counters.
laundry for me, and dishes.
having the house smell of clean laundry, and having a clean kitchen sort of symbolize hominess. um, and having clean undies ;P
I like organizing, and wiping down the counters. I don't much like anything else...
i enjoy doing the laundry. I went from spending hours at my parent's doing only 1 load of my laundry and having to clean/fold clothes as payment... do being able to get 4 loads of clothes plus pillows and blankets washed and folded in less than 2 hours at a laundrymat.
anything else, i am willing to pay someone - or do their laundry - in exchange
I like organizing/decluttering. I get into phases where I enjoy folding laundry and washing dishes. Cleaning floors and wiping down counters definitely do NOT do it for me.
I'm with those of you who say it's hard to get going, but once you do, it's kind of fun. That's me, too.
I want all you people to come visit! As soon as possible and for as LONG as possible! (Honest, I have a lovely guest room!)
I hate it all. I hate hauling the central vac hose all around the house, it's heavy and it fights back, even though it does a good job of cleaning. I HATE cleaning the cat litter boxes, and most especially, the lovely little deposits my sick, elderly cat leaves on the carpet (or anywhere she is) when I don't respond instantly to her whims. Doing dishes and laundry aren't as obnoxious, but they are boring, tiresome, weekly chores. I have better things to spend time on. I REALLY hate cleaning bathrooms, but squeegeeing the shower minimizes the need for heavy cleaning, so at least it's minor hassle, usually. Tidying up is not fun, but since I do it mindlessly as needed, I don't noticce it too much...
In a perfect world, either my home wouldn't NEED cleaning because of the wonder materials that keep themselves clean, or somebody else would do it for me! (I admire those of you who enjoy any part of it! Maybe I have just been at it longer...)
For me it's laundry and watering plants. Basically, the easiest and least gross chores. I also like putting clothes on the clothesline and taking them off. I'm not really sure what it is but I've always loved doing laundry.
SherryBinNH, right on. I hate it all too. The only chore I enjoy is weeding in the garden. I have always liked digging in the dirt.
I hate cleaning and I do a bad job of it generally. The exceptions are that I love scrubbing and disinfecting the litter box, and grooming my cat. I guess it's a mater of taking carae of someone else.
I enjoy laundry and ironing. I hate almost every other household chore. It's the entropy AND dealing with dirt, which I really don't like. For some reason the clothes don't bother me because the washer does the work, really, and then the clothes are nice & clean when they come out, so I don't mind hanging them, folding, and pressing.
I love to, a la FlyLady, find 17 things to throw away. I wish I could figure out how to organize my CDs. There are so many of them.
Cooking and baking...I don't mind the doing laundry, but I dislike folding. Vacuuming is also fun - mostly because then I don't feel weird about sitting on the floor to fold laundry when I get around to it.
I LOVE cleaning out my closet, beauty cabinet, etc. I also love mopping - but I hate the dishes and laundry
When I embrace my inner homemaker, there's nothing i like better than laundry (instant satisfaction- wear clean, fresh smelling clothes! What could be better!) or vacuuming. Windex-ing various glass / plexi surfaces in my home also gets me hot 'n bothered.
Pathetic, I know.
Forgot to add; I LOATHE ironing. Actually started crying the other day when I finally decided to tackle a huge batch of cotton coordinates I had been putting off...