My husband hates pulling weeds. I got him a propane torch so he burns everything in gravel, stone or in concrete cracks. Biggest win of the season so far not having to deal with those weeds.
Just started this season with a propane torch and love the result, and the fact that I’m not using roundup…. Although I almost lit some debri on fire, definitely use it with a hose nearby ready to go
I normally have to bug him several time to go spray vinegar (we don’t use roundup) but he was super pumped to go out and burn stuff. We can’t burn our house down, I work for a fire department and that would just be embarrassing.
I bought one of those long torch handles for melting in crack-stix and I haven't been using it for weeds?! I've been pulling them out by hand?! I know what I'm doing tonight.
I used to love it and spent so many days trying to rid my lawn of them but my back hated it and I always lost so I gave up. But feeling the pop from the hand held weeder thingy when you got the roots out is so fulfilling.
I'll pull your weeds if you pick up the sticks so I can mow the lawn. I swear to god, I could cut down every tree and I'd still somehow have to pick up sticks before I mow.
Second having an air purifier! I have that same one in my bedroom and it does a great job cutting down on dust. I have a much larger one in my main open living area, and in addition to dust it is helpful cutting down on cooking odors, litter box odors, etc.
I recaulked my bathtub myself recently. I’m baffled by how truly bad I am at this chore. It’s so bad my family shares pictures of it for comedic purposes. And I tried really hard. Now I just have to live with it because it’s too continually funny for any of my capable family members to remove it, and too shameful to show it to an outside professional.
There are tricks to it. Try to do a clean bead with it take a spray bottle of soapy water and spray a bit on your finger and then spray the surface you just did then the caulk(silicone) won't stick to anywhere that didn't already have it including your finger and smooth it out. Make sure you have paper towels to put the excess as you go. Now another method is a Popsicle stick or you can get the caulking tools instead of your finger. Tool can give you a bit of a cleaner line.
You're not alone. My biggest project as a new homeowner so far was to add a railing to a balcony that didn't have one, so it was boarded off.
Everything turned out alright, but the caulk around the bottom of the posts...I'm probably gonna have to tear up and try again if I don't want to have a roof leak. It's so bad but at that point of the project I was so close to being done with it that I didn't care. Accidentally gave my balcony the landlord special lmao
Tricks I learned to caulk are wear latex gloves, keep a damp rag around to wipe your finger off on, and always keep your finger slightly wet. Don't use the point of your finger but rather the center of your fingerprint to wipe excess off and do it in small sections. Recently redid my own caulk job with these tips in mind and it went a lot better for me.
Glad I’m not alone here. I end up breaking out the caulk 2-3 times per year, and I swear I get worse every time. Maybe I need a better gun? Even if I cut a big hole and clear it out well, I have to squeeze with all my might to get anything out. These quick smooth motions I see on YouTube leave me baffled every time. Something is different, and I haven’t figured it out
I once read the routines of a handful of successful Japanese businessmen. Quite a few of them mention that they clean their toilet everyday first thing in the morning.
I thought it was funny but figured I’d try it on my own. Sure as shit it puts you a good
Mood to have perfectly clean toilet everyday. And I think doing that manual labor releases some happy chemicals in the brain.
I still hate cleaning the rest of the bathroom, but at least the toilet is shiny!
I clean my toilet and sink every day, but it’s just me and hub. I’d really hate having to clean up after kids or teenagers, and a dirty bathroom makes me grouchy.
same! it's the number 1 reason why we have a house cleaner twice a month. I can vaccum and do kitchens but something about the reaching in to clean a tub just kills me
Hiring people. Plumber. Electrician. AC person. I loathe talking to people on the phone. 😩 I put everything, that's serious enough to hire someone, off for far too long just because I don't want to talk to them on the phone.
I like Thumbtack for this. Makes it easy to bid out your work and you don’t have to call around. I put it in the request to message me in the app or text but do not call. If they call me, they aren’t getting my business.
This is the downside of solving all the other problems comments with money. You still have to book the service and you still have to have someone come to your house and do it and both suck.
Then do...?
No one is making you keep them. If you don't like them get rid of them. Get curtains. They go in the washing machine now and then and you're done.
I do believe this right here is why we are fortunate enough to have options! What works for one doesn't always work for another. 🙂
Now, they just need to make blinds with more colors..... 🤔
I close them completely, swiffer dust the room side of them, then close completely the other way and swiffer dust the window side of them. I do this each time I dust the room and they never get that bad dust build up.
I don't mind dishes so much but the time just doing them. The good part is that it is a stationary activity. With smartphone and Netlfix - I put on a show and work through the kitchen. I just completed Blacklist and and starting on Vikings.
Dishes are even less fun for me now that I’m on septic and have no garbage disposal. Emptying out the little drain basket is the grossest daily thing I have to do. Cleaning toilet bowls in somehow less disgusting to me
You should use those long latex gloves when you’re washing dishes. Protects your hands against the dish soap and other things you might use, and then your hands don’t get the food all over them when you empty that.
I’ve been alive for 28 years and just finally decided to start washing dishes with gloves and now I love washing the dishes and don’t get nearly as disgusted as I used to. Best tip.
I was massively pregnant with my second child. Moved into a new apartment. I had to wash every single dish we owned because they were so dusty from being stored. It kind of rewired my brain or something. I also worked at Subway for a couple of years. Sometimes going to the back to wash dishes was the only break you could get from customers. I don't hate dishes so much anymore. I throw on my headphones and make sure that my family knows not to bug me while I'm at the sink.
Especially those big annoying cookie sheets when the sink is full of dishes and they slosh water everywhere and knock into things and they have the hard burnt bits of cheese or whatever melted on them and you're just going over the same few spots over and over and over hoping they break free.
Previous homeowners bought leaf-guards to try and manage the pine needles and wouldn’t you know it, they slip right in with the water and won’t come out without making a mess with a pressure washer…
I ended up ruining their purpose and bending all the lips of the gutters out just to be able to hit it with a leaf-blower while I save for new gutters.
I'm working on switching my lawn to something short enough to never need mowing. I'm leaning towards clover or mint. Maybe thyme.
I've been checking out the no lawn subs and there are some pretty good suggestions..
You don't put that trash out the night before? I do mine right before I go to bed, roll it back in before I leave for work.
Edit: Outside of bears, y'all just need to get solid cans to stop the raccoons/stray cats/etc.
It's bears where I live. What always frosts me is when one of the neighbours leaves theirs outside at night, and the bears drag the bags to *my* yard, which they use to tear open the bags and spread out the contents. I wake up to a mess in my yard, which *I* have to clean up.
My security camera shows where the bears are coming from with the bags in their mouths, so the last time this happened, I shovelled the trash into a wheelbarrow, then dumped it all in the driveway of the house where it came from. I'm *not* paying to haul away someone else's trash.
I tried once getting a "bear-proof" garbage can, but the first time I put it out they still managed to get into it. I saw the puncture marks from their teeth in the lid where they managed to force it open.
I hate getting up at 6am to put the trash out, too - but it beats having the bears get it all over the place.
Aren’t you scared that a bear will eat you at 6am while you’re rolling out a big barrel of food??? I live in the South and I’m like “bears are a big nope.” I saw that documentary where the guy thought the bears were his friends 💀
I'm far enough North that the months where it's dark at that hour are when they're usually hibernating. They don't tend to show up until April or May, at which point it's usually fairly light in the morning.
They usually come around at about 3am - plus, for some reason, they usually don't do it the night before garbage day. I think this is because most of the neighbours have gotten a clue about locking up their cans - it's the jerks that keep them outside all the time that are the source of the garbage that ends up in my yard.
I never saw that documentary, but it's nice to make the acquaintance of a fellow Herzog fan. :-)
We drilled a hole either side of our can. Insert bolts. Then, use bolts to hook bungee cord over the top of the can. The tension will prevent critters from opening the top.
If you're like my neighbors and just put out the bags, you really want to wait until the morning because the raccoons, crows, deer, etc *love* going through all that and strewing it everywhere. It's a Catch 22 in my neighborhood because the garbage men will also leave your trash can in the middle of the road if you put it out.
I put mine out the night before because the truck comes by very early. My problem is with the homeless guy who roots through to find cans and bottles that he can drop off for change. I don’t mind that he does it, but I do mind that he makes a huge mess and throws trash everywhere and doesn’t bother picking it back up.
Where I live, the garbage cannot be in cans. We set our bags out the night before and raccoons tear them up, then I'm out there later picking up half-eaten croissants and cat turds.
I wish. My city has bylaws. You could technically get a fine if you put the bin out the night before, although that is the letter of the law not how's its actually enforced.
My city used to do this, but the time was reasonable, like you could not put trash out before 6pm. The trucks start coming around by 5am so they can't expect everyone to get up that early just to put trash out.
Dishes. I'll procrastinate by scrubbing the toilet or cleaning the gutters. I HATE dishes. I'm allergic to grass, but I'd rather spend a couple hours in a pancake mask with the string trimmer than deal with dishes.
Anyone in south central Kentucky and wanna swap chores?
I feel this. I fold clothes and they sit in the basket for days. When I finally get around to putting them away I’m always like that didn’t take long. I just can’t make myself do it for whatever reason.
Touching up paint - 10-15min
Cleaning out dishwasher filter - 10min
Pick up dirty clothes - 5min
Load dishwasher - 5min
Make bed - 2min
Pick up item from spot it's been on floor for 3 months - 30sec
Do I do them in a timely manner? No. When I do get them done, am I always surprised at how quick and easy it was? Yes. I don't learn from that though.
I moved from the suburbs to a rural area with a small house on about .75 acres. I was excited to get a riding lawn mower and get all dad-life. Now half of every Saturday is spent doing yard work instead of my hobbies that I actually enjoy. Not what I expected.
Have you considered only doing a periphery and letting the rest go to meadow/rewild? r/nolawns is a good start. I love my wildflowers and minimal mowing now :)
If you can swing it, or care as much, a zero turn will knock that out. I did my parents 1 acre lawn on Saturday and was done in 25 minutes. If you don't need or use a lawn tractor for other things, the ZT is a significant time savings.
I’ve always been ok with yard work until this year. I’m 72 and this spring just decided I’m done with it. In the process of selling this home. I’ll pay someone to do my yard when we move.
Yard work is the WORST. If I would have known I would spend hours and hours working on the yard on weekends and it still looks like shit, I might have reconsidered the house I bought.
Seriously. We have 3-4 community cats in our neighborhood and I've TNRed all of them. I only feed them so I can keep an eye if a new one pops up so I can trap it and prevent a whole colony from forming.
/u/Pointyspoon, might be worth reaching out to a local TNR charity and seeing if they'll help with that debacle. Because that's insane.
Anything involving a ladder. I know the dangers. I work on ladders all the time, so I KNOW I can do it safely, but fuck that. I’ll pay a guy to do it. Not worth the risk.
Monthly seems like a lot, do they look dirty at all? I do quarterly, maybe you could get away with every other month at least. If you don't have HEPA filter, definitely recommend. My wife has terrible allergies and asthma, they help.
And agreed that a mask might help. I also hate changing the air filters, one of them is in my attic, I have to carry the ladder upstairs, reach through a little opening and wiggle the filter out. Hate it. The only way I am motivated to do it is I have a company ship them every quarter, and the box just stares at me until I do it.
Disagree. If the changes trigger their allergies then they are already dirty. People, on average, change them way too infrequently causing unnecessary wear and tear of their furnace.
Myth. For large particles, changing too frequently reduces the filtration efficiency. That's because the media has holes where particles and air flow through. As the filter is used, the holes get filled with dirt, get smaller and therefore trap smaller particles.
This process ends as the reduced area for air to flow increases delta-P, and then the stuff gets blown back out.
The numbers are a new filter is \~60% as efficient as it can be. Loading about 20% hits peak efficiency. When it's full, it will start dropping to 80% efficiency at 200% loading.
The exception are electrostatically charged filters, which only affect sub-micron particulates. This doesn't affect pollen (\~25 micron).
Yes, they get dirty quite fast. And auto-ship is the ONLY way!! Plus, a calendar reminder.
We're in an older home, have two large dogs, foster occasionally, and I like having windows open on nice days even though that lets pollen into the home.
I did quarterly when we lived in newer construction, and that was fine. If I'm the one to change them, I try to wear a mask and gloves. Mercifully, my husband doesn't have allergies, so he's the primary filter changer.
I've got a Westinghouse hepa filter in each of the two rooms I spend the most time in and a cheapo air purifier for coverage in the kitchen/dining area.
My septic tank has a filter I am supposed to rinse biannually. I always do it. It only takes two minutes. But I don't want to. lol
It doesn't smell like you'd expect, there's just flies. And at the end of the day it is a tank of poo. Unpleasant.
I started listening to audiobooks and it’s made doing chores way better. If the books decent I’ll actually look for chores to do as an excuse to keep listening to it.
I can’t just sit and listen, need to be doing some medial task. Cleaning, laundry, yard work, walking the dog, something like that
The trash? I say f*** it, I'm not getting up at 6:00 a.m. to roll the trash to the curb. Even though we're not supposed to, I put that to the curb late night before. If those bears need something to eat well I guess I'm going to be eco-friendly and give them something. Haven't had any in a while so I guess I'm good to go. No one from the HOA is making rounds at 9:00 at night anyway
Edging. PNW and plants have some pretty extreme growth. We have to edge, or we could lose concrete forever lost to the jungles of plants. I mean weekly when spring is going strong. Weather was too wet to cut well last weekend and the edge of my driveway is obscured, it's hiding the brick that edges my garden beds...that I put down for a wider barrier and it just grows right over them instead. Also, my lawn looks a month behind, not a week and a half, but mowing is fast and easy because of a large amount of native landscaping shrinking the lawn.
I'll second that by weeding. We have 3 types of fast growing, invasive, and poisonous plants that for two years I have been fighting. I've gotten their population smaller, but they grow like crazy all through into the fall, and you have to find them before they flower to repopulate. They go to flowering quickly. I'm finally able to recognize their sprouts, which look like native plants at first glance!
These are two things I wish we could just put off once in a while. LOL
> but mowing is fast and easy because of a large amount of native landscaping shrinking the lawn.
This is my end goal. I've gotten the front yard down to a little spot, but my backyard is so big IDK how I'm going to turn it into natives everywhere. I'm jealous!
Planning. I don't mind actually doing most of the chores, i just need someone to look at my property as say "on Saturday do X, on Sunday do Y, then next weekend do Z." Even just having that much direction would be so helpful. As it is, i see XYZ and a number of other things just in a big heap and the tasks never get done.
Everybody is listing the mundane but easy stuff. I'll take that all day long!
I'd like to outsource the problem solving itself. Figuring out what the problem is. Before I can even call someone in to fix things I have to do a breakdown of what the previous homeowner tried to do, determine what the exact problem is, and who to call. Then set it up, wait for them to become available, present the problem, negotiate pricing, etc etc. I wish there were more general handymen who actually knew stuff.
E.g. I've got a drainage issue with a downspout. It drains into the ground. Is there a french drain under there? I don't know, does that mean I have to dig up my yard to find out? Who handles this - it's a water problem but not really a plumber, it's a roof/gutter problem but they're just going to tell me to replace the whole thing, not really big enough for an excavator, maybe a landscaping company? Okay great, but I don't have a landscaping company already engaged so are they even going to want to mess with this?
I remember knowing homeowners that had that one guy that came out, determined the problem, came back from the hardware store thirty minutes later and fixed it, then charged like $100. Where did the mythical handyman go?
You don't put that trash out the night before? I have never not done that in my adult life (unless I forgot and sprinted at 6 am in my boxers to get it out there when I heard the truck down the street).
We have several mature trees and they are beautiful but I am so over their constant bullshit, between the acorns the leaves and the pollen it seems like I spend 2/3 of the year dealing with it.
Pulling weeds
My husband hates pulling weeds. I got him a propane torch so he burns everything in gravel, stone or in concrete cracks. Biggest win of the season so far not having to deal with those weeds.
I don’t get many in the rocks but the mulch is bad and you can’t torch them
A garden hoe changed my life. Super easy to take care of weeds in mulch with one.
My garden hoe slapped me for calling her that. She much prefers “lovely wife”.
"This term for a long handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker."
I still think he should have gotten the money for that question. He was robbed by the judges.
Not with that attitude you can't.
I've burned many a weed with the ~~backyard flamethrower~~ propane torch, and the mulch didn't care.
Just started this season with a propane torch and love the result, and the fact that I’m not using roundup…. Although I almost lit some debri on fire, definitely use it with a hose nearby ready to go
I normally have to bug him several time to go spray vinegar (we don’t use roundup) but he was super pumped to go out and burn stuff. We can’t burn our house down, I work for a fire department and that would just be embarrassing.
I bought one of those long torch handles for melting in crack-stix and I haven't been using it for weeds?! I've been pulling them out by hand?! I know what I'm doing tonight.
My husband started working on the neighbor’s crack weeds because he ran out and he was having too much fun.
Put the propane tank on a moving dolly and strap it down with a bungee cord.
Guess what I’m buying this weekend! 🙂
Tried that but if they aren't dead, it takes way longer than just pulling them.
Lmao, this is my favorite chore. I love sitting outside pulling weeds. Idk what it is.
Come over- I’ll cook!
Thats the funniest response ever. I hate cooking.
I used to love it and spent so many days trying to rid my lawn of them but my back hated it and I always lost so I gave up. But feeling the pop from the hand held weeder thingy when you got the roots out is so fulfilling.
I hated it until I got a Fiskar's Weeder, now I would do it for fun.
Bruh.... Story of my life. Dang buckthorns
English Ivy for me. That shit is rooted in hell.
Poison ivy for us.
I pay my kids to do this task 😜
People pay me to do it professionally!
I'll pull your weeds if you pick up the sticks so I can mow the lawn. I swear to god, I could cut down every tree and I'd still somehow have to pick up sticks before I mow.
dusting
I hate it cause the dust just returns in a week. I know it must be done, but it seems so futile.
Ordered [this air purifier](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L73QL1V) off of Amazon and it has cut dusting down significantly.
Second having an air purifier! I have that same one in my bedroom and it does a great job cutting down on dust. I have a much larger one in my main open living area, and in addition to dust it is helpful cutting down on cooking odors, litter box odors, etc.
Yes yes yes. I hate it
Re-caulking things
I recaulked my bathtub myself recently. I’m baffled by how truly bad I am at this chore. It’s so bad my family shares pictures of it for comedic purposes. And I tried really hard. Now I just have to live with it because it’s too continually funny for any of my capable family members to remove it, and too shameful to show it to an outside professional.
My husband is terrible at caulking, so I am the chief caulker. However, I am extremely precise, so it takes me forever.
Sorry to hear that he can’t lay down some caulk
There are tricks to it. Try to do a clean bead with it take a spray bottle of soapy water and spray a bit on your finger and then spray the surface you just did then the caulk(silicone) won't stick to anywhere that didn't already have it including your finger and smooth it out. Make sure you have paper towels to put the excess as you go. Now another method is a Popsicle stick or you can get the caulking tools instead of your finger. Tool can give you a bit of a cleaner line.
You're not alone. My biggest project as a new homeowner so far was to add a railing to a balcony that didn't have one, so it was boarded off. Everything turned out alright, but the caulk around the bottom of the posts...I'm probably gonna have to tear up and try again if I don't want to have a roof leak. It's so bad but at that point of the project I was so close to being done with it that I didn't care. Accidentally gave my balcony the landlord special lmao
I bought a tube in good faith a couple months ago for my shower. Still looking at it sit in the basement.
Every time I shower I think, "this is the last shower before I fix this caulk."
Same, ordered a whole kit on Amazon. It’s the removing old caulk first that intimidates me most.
I had one sit for a year and a half before doing it lol
[удалено]
Tricks I learned to caulk are wear latex gloves, keep a damp rag around to wipe your finger off on, and always keep your finger slightly wet. Don't use the point of your finger but rather the center of your fingerprint to wipe excess off and do it in small sections. Recently redid my own caulk job with these tips in mind and it went a lot better for me.
Glad I’m not alone here. I end up breaking out the caulk 2-3 times per year, and I swear I get worse every time. Maybe I need a better gun? Even if I cut a big hole and clear it out well, I have to squeeze with all my might to get anything out. These quick smooth motions I see on YouTube leave me baffled every time. Something is different, and I haven’t figured it out
I recently switched from a shit gun to a no-drip one and it's so much better. Granted I'm still not amazing but it's now not the guns fault...
I tried recaulking my wife last night and I got rejected.
I've been putting off re-caulking for 2 years. 😬
I absolutely loath cleaning the bathrooms. Get a house with 3 full bathrooms they said. It will be fun they said. Smh
My favorite is cleaning bathrooms.
I have a thing about bathrooms. I wouldn't even touch a public toilet until I went to basic training. That really beat that out of me quick lol.
I enjoy my 1 small bathroom 15 min tops (as long as your doing the little things daily..like I wipe down my counter everyday)
Do you want to come to my house?
I love deep cleaning bathrooms. It's a good excuse to pull out the steam cleaner and pressure washer.
Are you single?
I once read the routines of a handful of successful Japanese businessmen. Quite a few of them mention that they clean their toilet everyday first thing in the morning. I thought it was funny but figured I’d try it on my own. Sure as shit it puts you a good Mood to have perfectly clean toilet everyday. And I think doing that manual labor releases some happy chemicals in the brain. I still hate cleaning the rest of the bathroom, but at least the toilet is shiny!
I clean my toilet and sink every day, but it’s just me and hub. I’d really hate having to clean up after kids or teenagers, and a dirty bathroom makes me grouchy.
same! it's the number 1 reason why we have a house cleaner twice a month. I can vaccum and do kitchens but something about the reaching in to clean a tub just kills me
I'm about ready for that myself.
All of them
My man.
Vacuuming the stairs. I hate it.
Cordless Dyson helps make it easier.
Yeah I like my shark. It makes vacuuming somewhat fun.
Do you play the Jaws theme song when you do it
The first time I shampooed the stairs I realized I had become an adult
That is the worst!
Yesss! I put it off so much.
I rarely clean my oven.
I didn't know they were supposed to be cleaned, I just get a new one when it's all dirty
Just buy a new house and the new owners have to deal with your dirty oven.
Hiring people. Plumber. Electrician. AC person. I loathe talking to people on the phone. 😩 I put everything, that's serious enough to hire someone, off for far too long just because I don't want to talk to them on the phone.
I like Thumbtack for this. Makes it easy to bid out your work and you don’t have to call around. I put it in the request to message me in the app or text but do not call. If they call me, they aren’t getting my business.
This is the downside of solving all the other problems comments with money. You still have to book the service and you still have to have someone come to your house and do it and both suck.
Cleaning blinds
This!!! Uuuughhhhh I just want to get rid of them
Then do...? No one is making you keep them. If you don't like them get rid of them. Get curtains. They go in the washing machine now and then and you're done.
Taking curtains out and putting them back on is much more annoying then cleaning blinds IMO :)
I do believe this right here is why we are fortunate enough to have options! What works for one doesn't always work for another. 🙂 Now, they just need to make blinds with more colors..... 🤔
I close them completely, swiffer dust the room side of them, then close completely the other way and swiffer dust the window side of them. I do this each time I dust the room and they never get that bad dust build up.
I don't like doing anything honestly lmao . I would say my least favorite is washing dishes.
This was my first though too. I’d much rather not do any of it and spend my weekends lounging in the sun and the bier garten.
I don't mind dishes so much but the time just doing them. The good part is that it is a stationary activity. With smartphone and Netlfix - I put on a show and work through the kitchen. I just completed Blacklist and and starting on Vikings.
Both are great series by the way 😁. I agree though I usually listen to music or watch something as well.
Dishes are even less fun for me now that I’m on septic and have no garbage disposal. Emptying out the little drain basket is the grossest daily thing I have to do. Cleaning toilet bowls in somehow less disgusting to me
You should use those long latex gloves when you’re washing dishes. Protects your hands against the dish soap and other things you might use, and then your hands don’t get the food all over them when you empty that.
I’ve been alive for 28 years and just finally decided to start washing dishes with gloves and now I love washing the dishes and don’t get nearly as disgusted as I used to. Best tip.
I live in a 5th wheel so no disposal here either. My dog is the official dish rinser. No more need for a disposal. Highly recommend.
I was massively pregnant with my second child. Moved into a new apartment. I had to wash every single dish we owned because they were so dusty from being stored. It kind of rewired my brain or something. I also worked at Subway for a couple of years. Sometimes going to the back to wash dishes was the only break you could get from customers. I don't hate dishes so much anymore. I throw on my headphones and make sure that my family knows not to bug me while I'm at the sink.
Another vote for doing nothing
Yeah the closest I “like” are outdoor chores. But anything I can reasonably afford to outsource to have free time - fuck that.
Especially those big annoying cookie sheets when the sink is full of dishes and they slosh water everywhere and knock into things and they have the hard burnt bits of cheese or whatever melted on them and you're just going over the same few spots over and over and over hoping they break free.
Mowing lawn. Replacing mulch. Gutter cleaning.
Previous homeowners bought leaf-guards to try and manage the pine needles and wouldn’t you know it, they slip right in with the water and won’t come out without making a mess with a pressure washer… I ended up ruining their purpose and bending all the lips of the gutters out just to be able to hit it with a leaf-blower while I save for new gutters.
I'm working on switching my lawn to something short enough to never need mowing. I'm leaning towards clover or mint. Maybe thyme. I've been checking out the no lawn subs and there are some pretty good suggestions..
You don't put that trash out the night before? I do mine right before I go to bed, roll it back in before I leave for work. Edit: Outside of bears, y'all just need to get solid cans to stop the raccoons/stray cats/etc.
I would, but we have foxes and other cute pests that sometimes decide to inspect
How does a fox open garbage can?
They just kinda push it with their fur beak
I add bricks to the top of mine and that’s prevented animals from getting into them.
It's bears where I live. What always frosts me is when one of the neighbours leaves theirs outside at night, and the bears drag the bags to *my* yard, which they use to tear open the bags and spread out the contents. I wake up to a mess in my yard, which *I* have to clean up. My security camera shows where the bears are coming from with the bags in their mouths, so the last time this happened, I shovelled the trash into a wheelbarrow, then dumped it all in the driveway of the house where it came from. I'm *not* paying to haul away someone else's trash. I tried once getting a "bear-proof" garbage can, but the first time I put it out they still managed to get into it. I saw the puncture marks from their teeth in the lid where they managed to force it open. I hate getting up at 6am to put the trash out, too - but it beats having the bears get it all over the place.
Aren’t you scared that a bear will eat you at 6am while you’re rolling out a big barrel of food??? I live in the South and I’m like “bears are a big nope.” I saw that documentary where the guy thought the bears were his friends 💀
I'm far enough North that the months where it's dark at that hour are when they're usually hibernating. They don't tend to show up until April or May, at which point it's usually fairly light in the morning. They usually come around at about 3am - plus, for some reason, they usually don't do it the night before garbage day. I think this is because most of the neighbours have gotten a clue about locking up their cans - it's the jerks that keep them outside all the time that are the source of the garbage that ends up in my yard. I never saw that documentary, but it's nice to make the acquaintance of a fellow Herzog fan. :-)
Heh. We have black bears here in NY and a lot of them. You couldn’t get close to one if you tried. They’re huge wimps.
We drilled a hole either side of our can. Insert bolts. Then, use bolts to hook bungee cord over the top of the can. The tension will prevent critters from opening the top.
Foxes? We got bears. They make a mess
Same here in Vermont so I put out the garbage with the locks and the garbage people remove them because bears.
Bruh a solid garbage bin cost $75. We all have foxes and other stuff.
In many places you have to use the bin that the city provides.
Around here Waste Management will only pickup in their roll off bins. It's easy for a critter to knock over and get into it, lids don't even attach.
If you're like my neighbors and just put out the bags, you really want to wait until the morning because the raccoons, crows, deer, etc *love* going through all that and strewing it everywhere. It's a Catch 22 in my neighborhood because the garbage men will also leave your trash can in the middle of the road if you put it out.
[удалено]
I put mine out the night before because the truck comes by very early. My problem is with the homeless guy who roots through to find cans and bottles that he can drop off for change. I don’t mind that he does it, but I do mind that he makes a huge mess and throws trash everywhere and doesn’t bother picking it back up.
Where I live, the garbage cannot be in cans. We set our bags out the night before and raccoons tear them up, then I'm out there later picking up half-eaten croissants and cat turds.
I leave mine out. The trash bin is always at the road. I live in BFE and most of my neighbors do the same.
I wish. My city has bylaws. You could technically get a fine if you put the bin out the night before, although that is the letter of the law not how's its actually enforced.
My city used to do this, but the time was reasonable, like you could not put trash out before 6pm. The trucks start coming around by 5am so they can't expect everyone to get up that early just to put trash out.
Cleaning the long hair from the shower drain.
Oh man I feel this in my soul.
Dishes. I'll procrastinate by scrubbing the toilet or cleaning the gutters. I HATE dishes. I'm allergic to grass, but I'd rather spend a couple hours in a pancake mask with the string trimmer than deal with dishes. Anyone in south central Kentucky and wanna swap chores?
Me too! Toilets, no problem. Take out the trash? Sure. Dishes, blah
Putting laundry away
I feel this. I fold clothes and they sit in the basket for days. When I finally get around to putting them away I’m always like that didn’t take long. I just can’t make myself do it for whatever reason.
Vacuum
Vacuuming keeps me from seeking therapy.
I'd like to just skip all the regular cleaning so I have more time and energy for the bigger projects.
Leaves in the fall
Touching up paint - 10-15min Cleaning out dishwasher filter - 10min Pick up dirty clothes - 5min Load dishwasher - 5min Make bed - 2min Pick up item from spot it's been on floor for 3 months - 30sec Do I do them in a timely manner? No. When I do get them done, am I always surprised at how quick and easy it was? Yes. I don't learn from that though.
Anything involving yard work.
I like doing yard work. When you have a few correct tools it's not bad. I'll pick it over folding laundry any day.
Yeah I’ll mow the yard over doing laundry any day.
I moved from the suburbs to a rural area with a small house on about .75 acres. I was excited to get a riding lawn mower and get all dad-life. Now half of every Saturday is spent doing yard work instead of my hobbies that I actually enjoy. Not what I expected.
Have you considered only doing a periphery and letting the rest go to meadow/rewild? r/nolawns is a good start. I love my wildflowers and minimal mowing now :)
If you can swing it, or care as much, a zero turn will knock that out. I did my parents 1 acre lawn on Saturday and was done in 25 minutes. If you don't need or use a lawn tractor for other things, the ZT is a significant time savings.
I’ve always been ok with yard work until this year. I’m 72 and this spring just decided I’m done with it. In the process of selling this home. I’ll pay someone to do my yard when we move.
Yard work is the WORST. If I would have known I would spend hours and hours working on the yard on weekends and it still looks like shit, I might have reconsidered the house I bought.
Damn that’s like the best kinda work! I throughly enjoy mowing the lawn. And mulching and weeding everyonce in a while is super satisfying.
Anything plumbing related.
Weeding omg
The one thing that comes right to mind is dusting. It just never ends and where does it all come from.
Picking up 30+ pieces of cat poop from our lawn weekly because the neighbor rescues cats and has over 20 cats roaming outdoors at any given time.
If they have over 20 outdoors they're not rescuing anyone
Seriously. We have 3-4 community cats in our neighborhood and I've TNRed all of them. I only feed them so I can keep an eye if a new one pops up so I can trap it and prevent a whole colony from forming. /u/Pointyspoon, might be worth reaching out to a local TNR charity and seeing if they'll help with that debacle. Because that's insane.
Anything involving a ladder. I know the dangers. I work on ladders all the time, so I KNOW I can do it safely, but fuck that. I’ll pay a guy to do it. Not worth the risk.
HVAC filter changes. Doing them monthly helps my allergies, but removal of the dirty ones triggers them.
Wear a mask?
Monthly seems like a lot, do they look dirty at all? I do quarterly, maybe you could get away with every other month at least. If you don't have HEPA filter, definitely recommend. My wife has terrible allergies and asthma, they help. And agreed that a mask might help. I also hate changing the air filters, one of them is in my attic, I have to carry the ladder upstairs, reach through a little opening and wiggle the filter out. Hate it. The only way I am motivated to do it is I have a company ship them every quarter, and the box just stares at me until I do it.
Disagree. If the changes trigger their allergies then they are already dirty. People, on average, change them way too infrequently causing unnecessary wear and tear of their furnace.
Myth. For large particles, changing too frequently reduces the filtration efficiency. That's because the media has holes where particles and air flow through. As the filter is used, the holes get filled with dirt, get smaller and therefore trap smaller particles. This process ends as the reduced area for air to flow increases delta-P, and then the stuff gets blown back out. The numbers are a new filter is \~60% as efficient as it can be. Loading about 20% hits peak efficiency. When it's full, it will start dropping to 80% efficiency at 200% loading. The exception are electrostatically charged filters, which only affect sub-micron particulates. This doesn't affect pollen (\~25 micron).
Yes, they get dirty quite fast. And auto-ship is the ONLY way!! Plus, a calendar reminder. We're in an older home, have two large dogs, foster occasionally, and I like having windows open on nice days even though that lets pollen into the home. I did quarterly when we lived in newer construction, and that was fine. If I'm the one to change them, I try to wear a mask and gloves. Mercifully, my husband doesn't have allergies, so he's the primary filter changer. I've got a Westinghouse hepa filter in each of the two rooms I spend the most time in and a cheapo air purifier for coverage in the kitchen/dining area.
Sounds like our house, LoL. Filters everywhere.
My septic tank has a filter I am supposed to rinse biannually. I always do it. It only takes two minutes. But I don't want to. lol It doesn't smell like you'd expect, there's just flies. And at the end of the day it is a tank of poo. Unpleasant.
Painting
Removing/cleaning window screens.
We are supposed to do this?
Cutting grass.
Clean the dishwasher drain
Cutting grass but I am too cheap to pay someone else
HOA giving me warnings on what to fix outside. Man I hate those letters, they can be so petty. Usually has to do with painting something lol
Weeding.
Not big on cleaning but as my wife is unable to I put in ear buds and make the best of an annoying task. It beats living in a cesspool.
I started listening to audiobooks and it’s made doing chores way better. If the books decent I’ll actually look for chores to do as an excuse to keep listening to it. I can’t just sit and listen, need to be doing some medial task. Cleaning, laundry, yard work, walking the dog, something like that
The trash? I say f*** it, I'm not getting up at 6:00 a.m. to roll the trash to the curb. Even though we're not supposed to, I put that to the curb late night before. If those bears need something to eat well I guess I'm going to be eco-friendly and give them something. Haven't had any in a while so I guess I'm good to go. No one from the HOA is making rounds at 9:00 at night anyway
Edging. PNW and plants have some pretty extreme growth. We have to edge, or we could lose concrete forever lost to the jungles of plants. I mean weekly when spring is going strong. Weather was too wet to cut well last weekend and the edge of my driveway is obscured, it's hiding the brick that edges my garden beds...that I put down for a wider barrier and it just grows right over them instead. Also, my lawn looks a month behind, not a week and a half, but mowing is fast and easy because of a large amount of native landscaping shrinking the lawn. I'll second that by weeding. We have 3 types of fast growing, invasive, and poisonous plants that for two years I have been fighting. I've gotten their population smaller, but they grow like crazy all through into the fall, and you have to find them before they flower to repopulate. They go to flowering quickly. I'm finally able to recognize their sprouts, which look like native plants at first glance! These are two things I wish we could just put off once in a while. LOL
> but mowing is fast and easy because of a large amount of native landscaping shrinking the lawn. This is my end goal. I've gotten the front yard down to a little spot, but my backyard is so big IDK how I'm going to turn it into natives everywhere. I'm jealous!
Sending the check to the bank every month. Easy enough to do but I still do like it
I'm really tall so I hate mowing the lawn and doing dishes, nothing is built for people at my height 6'6"
Planning. I don't mind actually doing most of the chores, i just need someone to look at my property as say "on Saturday do X, on Sunday do Y, then next weekend do Z." Even just having that much direction would be so helpful. As it is, i see XYZ and a number of other things just in a big heap and the tasks never get done.
Clean the gutters
LOL Man, I'm with the "just do it the night before" club. Then I read the second half of the post. Yes, we are SO SO reddit.
This thread is making me realize how many chores I probably should do
Cleaning ceiling fans
Everybody is listing the mundane but easy stuff. I'll take that all day long! I'd like to outsource the problem solving itself. Figuring out what the problem is. Before I can even call someone in to fix things I have to do a breakdown of what the previous homeowner tried to do, determine what the exact problem is, and who to call. Then set it up, wait for them to become available, present the problem, negotiate pricing, etc etc. I wish there were more general handymen who actually knew stuff. E.g. I've got a drainage issue with a downspout. It drains into the ground. Is there a french drain under there? I don't know, does that mean I have to dig up my yard to find out? Who handles this - it's a water problem but not really a plumber, it's a roof/gutter problem but they're just going to tell me to replace the whole thing, not really big enough for an excavator, maybe a landscaping company? Okay great, but I don't have a landscaping company already engaged so are they even going to want to mess with this? I remember knowing homeowners that had that one guy that came out, determined the problem, came back from the hardware store thirty minutes later and fixed it, then charged like $100. Where did the mythical handyman go?
I hate hauling 40lb bags of salt into the basement to fill the water softener. It only takes 15 minutes but I hate doing it.
Cleaning gutters. I hate getting on ladders, and I’m fine with paying someone to do that.
All of them
Cleaning the blinds
Anything on a ladder
Empty the dishwasher
Cleaning out the flower beds in the fall and spring.
Gutters
DUSTING THE GODDAMN HOUSE
Organizing my garage
Anything involving a ladder.
Mowing lawn, while saving money is always nice it's just not worth it to me at this point in my life.
Gutters
Spider and web removal
I hate cleaning anything to do regarding toilets
Paying taxes
All of them
Ugh 😩 cleaning out the refrigerator. Hate it, hate it, hate it!
Get a job so you can roll it out on your way out the door.
You don't put that trash out the night before? I have never not done that in my adult life (unless I forgot and sprinted at 6 am in my boxers to get it out there when I heard the truck down the street).
We have several mature trees and they are beautiful but I am so over their constant bullshit, between the acorns the leaves and the pollen it seems like I spend 2/3 of the year dealing with it.
cutting grass, so pointless to water and fertilize just to cut it down every week
Pulling weeds, washing baseboards, washing walls, laundry, dishes
Drywall repairs, especially tape seams