Alright, we all love to know how other people get all the sh*t done every day, right? So I figured I track my day to day household chores for a week and share them with you.
A little info up front. My husband is in charge of laundry – washing, folding. I am in charge of food. And yes, that is a household chore for me when I have to cook for both of us and consider preferences. 99% of the time I don’t like it. But I hate laundry more. So that is our deal. Since I mostly work from home I am also mainly in charge of cleaning. Do I like it. No. Do I want my husband to spend time doing it in the rare off hours? No. Did he suggest getting a cleaning support. Yes. But for now I have the time and it is money we can save. When I commuted to Dusseldorf for 16 month we had that support.
Anyways, let’s get started with a nitty gritty detail of all the un-fun stuff to do at my home in regular week.
Monday
9.30am – putting away dishes, starting the dishwasher
2.20 pm – unloading dishwasher, reloading dishwasher
2.30 pm – Axel the robot vacuum on kitchen duty
2.45 pm – taking out paper recycling while on my way to the lunch time walk
7.35 pm – cooking , while checking sales at grocery stores, after cleaning kitchen, loading dishwasher
8.05 pm – cleaning Axel and doing some maintenance work
9.57 pm – putting dinner dishes into the dish washer
Tuesday
11.55 am – using the shower squeegee after being done
2.30 pm – Axel the robot vacuum on kitchen duty
2.35 pm* – quick dusting of living room low boards
11.55 pm – loading the dishwasher and starting it
Wednesday
8.12 am – making the bed – usually the husbands job but he was in a time squeeze
9.25 am – using the shower squeegee after being done
9.35 am– gathering towels and starting a load of laundry – I take care of this
1.42 pm – putting towels in dryer
1.55 pm – unloading dishwasher
6.30 pm – hanging towels back up in designated places
Thursday
8.10am – updating grocery shopping list
8.28-8.35 am – updating Axels firmware, changing cleaning scheduled for today as I am in an important meeting
9.30 am – soaking toilet and sink in cleaning products
9.42-9.50 am – removing all obstacles on the floor so Axel can run his full vacuuming and mobbing cycle
11.15 am – Axel starts his cleaning cycle (vacuuming & mobbing)
1.28-1.46 pm – cleaning bathroom and bathtub
3.53 pm – soaking guest bathroom toilet and sink in cleaning products
4.30 pm – changing bathroom trash bags and gather trash for take out later
4.43 pm – being annoyed with Axel as he AGAIN didn’t clean a few rooms properly. New Update. New Issues. Manually starting cleaning process for certain rooms.
5.23-5.34 pm – cleaning guest bathroom, changing trash bags guest bathroom & kitchen for take out
5.46pm – taking out trash and glass recycling on my way to Zumba
5.58 pm – dropping of glass recycling
7.45 pm – starting Axel again as still parts of apartment are missing. Very annoyed.
8.15 pm – using the shower squeegee after being done
9.45 pm – kitchen clean up, loading dishwasher
Friday
7.50 am – writing a shopping list while still in bed
8.30 am – heading out on a grocery run – goal to be back in time to be at the desk by 10 am, on the way to the car dropping of paper recycling, also taking bottles deposits with me
8.39 am – arriving at the drugstore
9.19 am – back in the car, annoyed it took this long but I had a few things I couldn’t find,
Fun encounter though: A little old lady came to me saying: I am sorry to bother, I am very embarrassed but I am looking for condoms. My grandchild turns 18 tomorrow and we want to make a basket with funny things he now needs. And I am on condom duty.
9.32 am – pulling up at grocery store
10.03 am– back home
10.09-10.23 am – putting shopping away
2.30 pm – Axel the robot vacuum on kitchen duty
3.09 pm – kitchen cleanup while waiting for a client call
7.30 pm – cooking dinner
Saturday
0.04 am – kitchen clean up and starting dishwasher
12.00 pm – using the shower squeegee after showering
2.58 pm – unloading dishwasher
5:56 pm – loading dishwasher
10.15 pm – making dinner
11.53 pm – loading dishwasher
The husband had a long night folding many loads of laundry.
Sunday
8.35 pm – putting away laundry
8.45 pm – loading dishwasher
Did I do everything I wanted to do this week? Nope. My plan was to go around and remove all the spiderwebs. I need to it’s getting spooky. But every time I wanted to do it it was already dark. Can’t see anything then.
What is the worst household chore? Do your household members have specific jobs? Do kids chip in? Is there a task you would gladly do for others?
13 comments
I hate cleaning the bath and shower, but it really doesn’t take that long, so I don’t know why I put it off. G helps a bit with laundry, he always cleans up after dinner and he often goes to the supermarket.
Yeah cleaning the bathroom isn’t a favorite but it’s nice when it’s clean.
After dinner clean up is nice to have.
I hate all household chores, and although I have things scheduled for certain days, I am never able to follow the schedule. Cleaning the bathrooms is my most hated chore. I’m not fond of emptying the dishwasher and putting things away either.
I have found the best thing for me to manage my time best is to break things down into 30-minute blocks. I do a chore for 30 minutes, and then do something else for 30 minutes. It used to be school work, now it is usually preparing blog posts for the next couple of days. This way I don’t get sick of cleaning, and I can schedule in a little fun time without feeling like I’m wasting time.
Cleaning is such an ingrate task. Once done you could start again right away. It never ends.
I break it up to over some work stuff. It gets me moving and not just slumping on my desk.
I’m dying at the old lady shopping for condoms for her grandchild. Oh my goodness. I also chuckled at your giving Axel a talking to for missing a few rooms or spots of rooms. I relate to that – but in my world it’s a child that didn’t do what they were supposed to do.
Yes, we all have chores Kay and Rae empty the dishwasher in the morning and that’s a bigger help than it should be – it takes a few minutes but I don’t want to bother first thing before babies get dropped off. I want to start my workout. Curly has jobs, but she’s way busier than the little girls and her jobs get overlooked more often. She does drive Kay to school every day when she leaves for school and Kay annoys her so I’m willing to let other things slide or give her reminders. I do most of the cooking, but Coach grills and uses the air fryer and has started helping more than in years past. I do most of the housework. My least favorite is the shower in our bathroom. Coach and I trade off cleaning it at least. the kids clean their bathrooms. I do the laundry. I’m home during the day. Kay vacuums the family room and Rae empties bathroom garbage on the weekend.
I’m having a chuckle at Axel! We are looking at getting a new vacuum and keep changing our minds as there are so many options.
There are a lot of options indeed.
Good luck finding one.
The grandma! Such a funny story.
Living alone has a lot of perks – being solely responsible for all of the household chores is not one of them! My least favorite is cleaning the tub.
Well a pro would be that you know it’s only your own filth – not saying the husband is filthy.
But yeah dividing chores is definitely better than having to be having sole responsibility.
Give me an empty house and a glass of wine and a cheese plate and I’d happily clean the whole house! But people cannot be underfoot.
This house is rarely empty so I clean in spurts. The majority of cleaning falls on my shoulders but it has to change because I’m cracking under pressure.
It almost sounds like me time the way you describe it.
Hope you find some support for the tasks.
Ugh. Household chores are not my favorite (although when I get into a cleaning frenzy, I can be quite productive. Just doesn’t happen this often.) I am a big fan of cleaning up after ourselves to minimize an actual “cleaning schedule” (although I do vaccuum/mob once a week on Saturday or Sunday).
Hey, at least you have a robot helping you with chores :)
Yeah, since we have axel floors get mopped. Don’t ask how that was before.
I try to clean up after ourself but argh… it’s a drag. So much time down the drain just tp do it again tomorrow/next week. Sigh.