Best and Worst
Household chores! Seeing as I spend a large portion of my days 'keeping house' at the moment, I thought I'd write a post about my favourite and most hated parts of the work involved.
Strangely enough, the task I enjoy the most is one I rarely do: ironing. In fact, we only acquired an iron on my return to Canada this April and were iron-less for a shockingly wrinkley six months prior. In England last year I had an cast-off iron from my Grandmother, but no ironing board. I did bits and pieces of ironing on a towel on our bedroom floor but it wasn't very comfortable or effective at all really. The love of ironing has been passed down to me from my mother and, I suspect, to her from Grandma. I remember watching mum spread the age-softened flannel sheet and large pink towel over the kitchen table in preparation for an iron-athon - she has never used an ironing board and has kept the sheet and towel she irons on for as long as I can remember. She has always ironed everything: sheets, towels, underwear, handkerchiefs, face-cloths...She taught me how to iron a shirt when I was pretty small, and I still remember the order: collar, cuffs, sleeves, back, front. Under a whoosh of steam creases and wrinkles were banished and trousers and shirts emerged crisp and neat and ready for a couple of days in the hot press or hung straight onto hangers to be put into our wardrobes or drawers. Over the past year or so of ironlessness and ironing boardlessness I had forgotton the pleasure of pressing clothes and so last Friday, when I noticed some of LJ's shirts were really too wrinkley for work and my light summer pants made me look as though I'd been dragged through a hedge I decided to give the new iron a whirl. I set up the board in front of the TV, switched it to Ellen and gathered a basket-full of crinklies. The whole job took about half and hour and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just find something very satisfying about chasing away the creases and and puckers and awkward folds under a cloud of steam. Stubborn seams were flattened with a spray of water and a firm pressing of the iron; cuffs and collars were crisped; and hems wrangled into straight lines. There was something very soothing about the experience, perhaps it is the connection to a happy childhood memory, or perhaps it is because I enjoy the order onto chaos factor, I'm not sure. Whatever it is, I vote ironing as my favourite household chore. Cleaning windows gets a an honourable mention by the way.
To the least favourite, the worst, the most hated. Well there are a few contenders for this title. I do hate cleaning the kitchen floor but that could be the floor and not the job of cleaning it - we have ancient lino that is scarred by years of little burns and scratches and stains from god knows what, and it seems that no matter how often or how briskly I scrub it, it never looks really clean. Anyway, the job that irritates me the most is cleaning the bathroom. I don't know why I hate doing it so much. I mean, perhaps the toilet is an obvious bit to hate (esp. with three roommates) but LJ actually does that part. No, I hate cleaning the tub and the tiles and the sink. I especially dislike cleaning the sink when people have been spitting their toothpaste and not rinsing it properly. I mean, how difficult is it to swill some water around the basin after you've gobbed into it? My roommates seem to find it very difficult indeed and at least twice a week I'm scrubbing caked on colgate off the ceramic - argggggggg.
So there you have it, my favourite and most hated household chores. What are yours?
Strangely enough, the task I enjoy the most is one I rarely do: ironing. In fact, we only acquired an iron on my return to Canada this April and were iron-less for a shockingly wrinkley six months prior. In England last year I had an cast-off iron from my Grandmother, but no ironing board. I did bits and pieces of ironing on a towel on our bedroom floor but it wasn't very comfortable or effective at all really. The love of ironing has been passed down to me from my mother and, I suspect, to her from Grandma. I remember watching mum spread the age-softened flannel sheet and large pink towel over the kitchen table in preparation for an iron-athon - she has never used an ironing board and has kept the sheet and towel she irons on for as long as I can remember. She has always ironed everything: sheets, towels, underwear, handkerchiefs, face-cloths...She taught me how to iron a shirt when I was pretty small, and I still remember the order: collar, cuffs, sleeves, back, front. Under a whoosh of steam creases and wrinkles were banished and trousers and shirts emerged crisp and neat and ready for a couple of days in the hot press or hung straight onto hangers to be put into our wardrobes or drawers. Over the past year or so of ironlessness and ironing boardlessness I had forgotton the pleasure of pressing clothes and so last Friday, when I noticed some of LJ's shirts were really too wrinkley for work and my light summer pants made me look as though I'd been dragged through a hedge I decided to give the new iron a whirl. I set up the board in front of the TV, switched it to Ellen and gathered a basket-full of crinklies. The whole job took about half and hour and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just find something very satisfying about chasing away the creases and and puckers and awkward folds under a cloud of steam. Stubborn seams were flattened with a spray of water and a firm pressing of the iron; cuffs and collars were crisped; and hems wrangled into straight lines. There was something very soothing about the experience, perhaps it is the connection to a happy childhood memory, or perhaps it is because I enjoy the order onto chaos factor, I'm not sure. Whatever it is, I vote ironing as my favourite household chore. Cleaning windows gets a an honourable mention by the way.
To the least favourite, the worst, the most hated. Well there are a few contenders for this title. I do hate cleaning the kitchen floor but that could be the floor and not the job of cleaning it - we have ancient lino that is scarred by years of little burns and scratches and stains from god knows what, and it seems that no matter how often or how briskly I scrub it, it never looks really clean. Anyway, the job that irritates me the most is cleaning the bathroom. I don't know why I hate doing it so much. I mean, perhaps the toilet is an obvious bit to hate (esp. with three roommates) but LJ actually does that part. No, I hate cleaning the tub and the tiles and the sink. I especially dislike cleaning the sink when people have been spitting their toothpaste and not rinsing it properly. I mean, how difficult is it to swill some water around the basin after you've gobbed into it? My roommates seem to find it very difficult indeed and at least twice a week I'm scrubbing caked on colgate off the ceramic - argggggggg.
So there you have it, my favourite and most hated household chores. What are yours?
3 Comments:
I have to say, that my pet peeve, when it comes to household chores, are dirty dishes left in the sink. It's not the dishes that bug me really, it's the little caked on bits of grizzle and old food. Also, how can you use the fucking sink when it's full of dishes? I mean, say you need a cold glass of water? Or perhaps you would like to rinse your apple, without the fear of air-borne bacteria floating up and causing a world-wide pandemic? Furthermore, when the time comes to finally clean the dishes, you have to empty the sink, finding places for the bowls, spoons and other stuff. It makes me insane. I hope it makes you insane too, then we could be insane together.
Oh yes - the dried-on-food situation. I'm not a fan either - especially when it's museli or any other breakfast cereal, sandblaster needed to get that stuff off. I have to confess that I'm guilty of being a 'soaker' - rather than wash stubborn looking pots and pans, I'll leave them 'to soak' and thus put off the evil deed in the hopes that someone else will do it (fat chance).
can i send you my ironing by post?
i don't think i've ironed anything for over a year!
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