OK, as we've made clear, Josh and I are not the cleanest people in the world. Our problem is maintenance. MAINTENANCE!! We clean up to the point where it looks great, but then in a couple of days, it's almost back to where we started. So in the interest of all of our readers understanding our plight, I'm going to rank the household chores, going from favorite to least favorite. This way you can see what's more likely to get done by me in the Desch household, and what's more likely to be "overlooked."
1. Vacuuming. I've always loved to vacuum. I think it's the most satisfying thing to sweep up crumbs and other floor debris and see those vacuum stripes in the carpet. I love seeing the kitchen linoleum or living room floor sucked free of its pine straw tracked in from outside, crumbs from cutting bread, etc. I hate that gritty, crumb-y floor.
2. Spraying down the counters. I also love this job. It's wonderful to go from slimy messes on the stovetop, in the burners, and on the countertops to squeaky cleanliness.
3. Loading the dishwasher. I like this job because it's fun to see how many dishes you can get in the dishwasher and still have them cleaned thoroughly. It's also a good job because it's a good return on energy investment- low energy required, big job done!
4. Washing dishes. I also usually enjoy this job pretty well. It's nice every once in a while to get through a big load of dishes to wash, see the wet, sparkling results, and see how you've made order out of chaos. It's also good because if you have a lot of dishes in your sink and you have a garbage disposal, there may be some old stuff waiting to go down the drain, and it's good to get that taken care of. That's gross.
5. Cleaning the toilet. I actually don't mind this job. Although we're getting to the point in my list where I'm not crazy about the jobs, I also don't hate this one. It's nice to have a clean toilet. And cleaning it isn't very hard.
6. Making the bed. We have a beautiful duvet and pillows and they should be visible more often, but all too often they're wadded up and pushed in a corner or something because we're not motivated to make the bed. This job isn't hard, but for some reason, it's mysteriously annoying.
7. Taking out the trash. Not one of my favorite things to do, but only because we have to hike to the trash cans from our apartment. Maybe if we had our own trash cans it would be different.
8. Other bathroom maintenance. Things that fall into this category are like keeping the sink clean, sweeping the bathroom floor, and cleaning behind the toilet. OK, we're definitely getting down on my list. I don't like this job. Bathrooms just get nasty.
9. Cleaning the shower. This is probably my all-time worst household chore. I hate cleaning the shower. I think I hate it so much because it takes too much elbow grease. My mom used to drive me nuts in the days at home when she always bugged me about spraying down the shower with that after-shower cleaner stuff, but maybe she was onto something if that maintains shower cleanliness and keeps you from having to go to town on any one occasion. I remember during dorm cleaning at Covenant that this was ALWAYS the worst job. So much soap scum, so little desire to wash it away. Those silly little RA inspectors. I think I got off easy at times because the RAs usually happened to be my best friends and/or roommates. YES!!
10. Mopping the floor. I'm putting this as the final household chore not because I necessarily hate it, but because it takes too much time getting ready and then cleaning up after you're done. If it were somehow possible to magically get the mop just wet enough and clean the whole floor with just that one mop, it would be OK. But no, you have to keep getting your mop wet and wringing it out. Such a pain.
That is all of the household chores that are coming to mind right now. I'm sure there are others that I'm overlooking, but these listed are the ones most commonly done by either Josh or myself. I'm so thankful for a clean apartment, but too often aren't willing to put the work into keeping it that way. Oh, well! Josh and I are happy even with things not quite perfect.
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