As many of you are aware, I am sole caregiver for my elderly mother. She is no longer able nor willing to do any household chores, but is happy to make a mess, so I spend a medium-large part of the day doing chores just to keep up. You know what this is like if you have children. She uses the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room, and usually manages to spill something in each or otherwise make a mess. So those four rooms require daily attention. And I have always hated household chores! I think they are so boring that I can barely stay awake doing them, even though I’m on my feet scrubbing! I have asked for gremlins or pooties to come in overnight and take care of things for us, but that never happens. Sigh.
(That’s Mom’s cat, now Angel Pawlette)
When deciding how to tackle chores, I also try to do the responsible thing environmentally. This can be less obvious than you might think!
Take dishwashing, for example. We have a dishwasher, but I use it mostly as a drying rack. True that you use less water if you use your dishwasher, but you use more electricity, so your expenses will be higher if you don’t hand wash, or so they say at environmental-conscience.com. On the other hand, see Bob Vila, who says you will have lower utility bills from using much less water, but AFAICT doesn’t factor in the electricity needed for the dishwasher. On Homeliftup.com, they do factor in electricity, but with a modern dishwasher that’s hardly a factor, less than 1 kW. However, we do not have a modern dishwasher! And we have to pre-wash the dishes for them to get clean in the washer. Cleanfreak.com, like many of the websites linked above, says the answers depend. Although they also note that the claims made for energy-efficient appliances have been exaggerated! For the most part, if you need a few dishes cleaned at a time like we usually do, it may be more efficient to just go ahead and do them by hand. If you have big loads, though, go ahead and use your dishwasher. Note also that Cleanfreak links to Snopes, which investigated whether people have been killed by utensils in their dishwasher — and they have! So if you’re going to use your dishwasher, be sure all sharp objects point in toward the center or back or bottom of the dishwasher! I’d never thought of that — even though I have occasionally poked my fingers with a knife blade! Another consideration, of course, is where you live — if in a very drought-prone area, the amount of water used may be the primary consideration.
For now, given our inefficient washer and unaffordability of a new one and only two of us, in the humid Northeastern United States, I go ahead and wash by hand, wear gloves so can use the hottest water, and try to be reasonably efficient about it to minimise water waste. But it’s still unexciting enough that meanwhile I daydream or watch the squirrels in the backyard, visible through the window over the kitchen sink. If I had a big party, I’d go ahead and load the dishwasher and run it, but of course during Covid that’s not happening. How about you? What dishwashing method do you favour?
And what chores do you hate the most? What chores do you like the most? What chores have you found shortcuts for? What do you do when chores are such bores that they provoke snores? Why haven’t all these jobs been given to robots by now? And What is/are Your eFfing Problem(s)?
This is a community thread.
Please Note: Diarist wanted to post the diary as usual, but will attend the discussion later in the evening. Need to help Mom to bed first. Please chat amongst yourselves!