My Second Least-Favorite Household Chore

Making my house into a home is something I’m really passionate about. 

I want my husband to look forward to coming home from work and relaxing. I want my kids to enjoy spending time here instead of constantly wanting to go somewhere else. I want to miss this place when we leave and go on vacation. (And no, I’m not opposed to going on vacation. In fact, I’m a big fan of them. I just want to look forward to coming home as much as I look forward to leaving it.)

However, making a house into a home is a constant effort. Perhaps you can relate, mama?

Now, I realize there’s a lot that goes into achieving the goal of making one’s house into a home, and “home” will look different to each of us. For me, part of making our house into a home has to do with it being clean.

Enter… chores.

No, I’m not a neat freak, although, as the years go by, I feel like I’m becoming one. Maybe it’s the small living space and the four messy kids I live with. Yes, yes. I’m sure that has something to do with it.

I’ve realized that when my home is clean and tidy I’m less stressed and more productive in other areas of my life as well. This is where chores come into play. 

As the adult who is home all day, this area of our family life falls mostly on me, and I’m totally okay with that. I can not imagine what our home would look like if my sweet, amazing husband were in charge of keeping it clean. His idea of making a house a home is probably a bit different than mine. 

Okay, back to chores. Now, just because keeping our home clean is my primary responsibility doesn’t mean that I’m the only one that has to do it. Oh no! Our boys have daily chores that they are responsible for just like I have daily chores I’m responsible for. I won’t go into how I assign those chores in this post, but I will say the system I use is amazing, and it helps us all stay on track keeping our house clean.

Yes, having a system for chores does make keeping my home clean less stressful, but it doesn’t mean that I like cleaning. Far from it. I’d rather have a maid, but I can’t afford one… or, at least, that’s not an expense I’m allowing myself to prioritize at the moment.

Anyway, Thursdays and Fridays in our home are laundry days. Thursday is the day that they boys wash and dry their laundry, and Friday is the day I do my and the man’s laundry.

Doing the laundry, as in washing and drying it, is not a big deal to me. In fact, I like doing that part of laundry because the clothes are out of site and they’re getting clean. It’s the putting them away part that I seriously dislike. And yes, I procrastinate doing this in the worse way. 

I’m that person that would wear wrinkled clothes because I left them in the laundry basket too long. Sure, I’d hang my head in lazy shame and tell myself that I’ll never let it happen again, but sadly it would.

Yes, the clothes all get washed on their assigned days, but the putting them away part usually doesn’t happen until the weekend. I sort my clothes and put them away while the two older boys sort all of their clothes. Once they have their clothes sorted, I go in and fold and put them away. I’m sure the older two are very capable of folding and putting their own laundry away… I just haven’t gotten around to teaching them that part yet, but it’s coming. Oh, is it coming… lucky them. I’m sick of doing it!

Have you guessed that putting laundry away is my second least favorite household chore?

What’s my first, you ask?

Well, that’s another post too.

So what’s your least favorite household chore? Share with me in the comments below. I know I’m not the only one that hates putting laundry away!