Cheating at housework

[corazon]

I am dreading the pile of clean laundry downstairs that needs to be folded. Time to pull my favorite cheat, I'm just gonna throw it back in the dryer with the other waiting clothes. dh will come home to a clean house in the morning.

How about the rest of you? Do you sweep the dirt under the rug?

 

[Little Miss J]

I try not to but I do have a large pile or ironing waiting to be done. Will have to wait until their is something on the tv I can iron to!

 

[pdswife]

I've been known to do the same thing cora.... lazy lazy me.

 

[corazon]

I even put dirty clothes in the washing machine. dh is gonna get home and see no clean clothes waiting to be folded on the couch, no dirty clothes in the basket and an empty closet. LOL

 

[expatgirl]

Corazon----favorite tip that I love concerning what to do to resurrect already dried laundry that is still left in the dryer and now full of wrinkles because I've been lazy, busy, etc., is to throw a very damp washcloth in there and heat on a lower setting--it really does help to get out a lot of those wrinkles---now if it's 100% cotton stuff you might have to actually get that iron out after all. Hope this helps!!

 

[philso]

you guys iron?!?!? wow! in my opinion, clothes just finished from a dryer don't need any ironing. here in japan, dryers are virtually nonexistant. they're starting to make washing machines that dry the clothes too. i doubt that more than 1 or 2 out of a hundred homes have a dryer here.
an interesting feature of newer washing machines is that they have a hose which allows you to use your used bathwater for the laundry. in theory anyway, the bathwater stays clean because people wash up outside of the tub, and then just soak in the hot water. the drill in my house is that after bath time, just before bed, i put a load on and use the bathwater (still fairly hot) for the first 2 out of 3 cycles, using regular water for the final rinse. i hang the laundry in the morning.
i used to have to dress up for work when i taught at college or highschools here, but now i run my own school, and jeans and a cotton t-shirt or sweatshirt are the order of the day. un-ironed. i let my daughter fold her own laundry. well, i suppose make is the more appropriate word.
i don't "cheat" at the housework, but i suppose you could say that i'm pretty comfortable in a house that has that "lived-in" feeling. lol

 

[philso]

I try not to but I do have a large pile or ironing waiting to be done. Will have to wait until their is something on the tv I can iron to!

weighing in again here, i like to crank up some tunes when the housework gets serious. housework & a little dance workout, coupled with some caffeine and maybe some chocolate!!

 

[lulu]

My cheats: clean windows make the room look cleaner (and the vinegar seems to "clean the air") failing that, furniture polish sprayed in the room makes it smell clean, lol. We don't use central heating much, but when we do I often put a sheet of the things you put in the dry to soften and freshen clothes behind the rad, they smell great. I have only had one dryer, the one in our London home, but we don't use it that often, I love it but I am used to coping with out so my environmental tingle goes if I dry too much, lol.

Oh yeah, if you wax bathroom tiles with car wax (which is admittedly hard work) for the next six months ish you can hose them down with out scrubbing or cleaning and the dirt and limescale don't stick, so bathroom cleaning takes mintues rather than an hour!

IMHO there is a secret to ironing. Resign yourself to doing it, but don't think of a household chore, think aromatherapy steam treatment. Get some fragranced water (I know lavender is traditional, but I prefer violet) spray away and steam your clothes and you face in front of goood tv or the radio. As soon as its a beauty treatment rather than a chore it seems slightly less bad.

 

[Reanie525i]

I just got this new product called "Wrinkle Free" - It is a spray you mist on wrinkled clothes - you put on hanger and smooth with your hands - wrinkles gone - Try it you will be amazed - I have also known to put clothes back in the washer on rinse cycle and retoss in dryer to get the wrinkles out - lol

 

[goboenomo]

I used under my bed for about 4 years untill my parents found out and forced me to do an empty and complete clean of my entire room. It took me 4 hours.

 

[In the Kitchen]

Dryer Sheets

What brand of fabric sheets do you throw in dryer to make clothes smell good?

 

[lulu]

I use Bounce.....are they a global brand? I have no idea. I was just packing up our house for storage and I stuck one in each box too, lol. I have a theory that the washing powders/fabric softeners in yellow boxes have the most nuetral smell so I tend to go for those....I know, barking, absolutely barking mad.

 

[shannon in KS]

this is so funny! Are you all in my house?!?!?! aah, the perpetual housecleaning cycle.... I just said to my fiance this weekend, I could quit my job and stay home, and the work here still would not be done! This is a funny one- thank goodness I can laugh about it now that I have cooled off. My fiance's weekends are on Tues and Weds, and like the rest of us, dangit, its the weekend and we wanna relax. So on a Friday, I go to get the pup some food, and I see three walmart bags, stuffed with......... yes, dirty dishes. I was fuming! Now I can giggle a little, but he had a hard week, and didn't feel like helping, but didn't want to be a bum either. He swears he was going to do them!

lulu, LOVE the car wax idea! My downstairs apt is ALL linoleum!!!

 

[amber]

I dont mind washing the clothes, but when there is alot and I forget they're in the dryer, I just turn the dryer back on to get the wrinkles out.

I never iron clothes

Lulu, we have bounce dryer sheets here, but I just use the store brand that smells the best.

 

[Corinne]

My best tip is this: remove your contacts or glasses when you're at home. What you don't see isn't really there, is it?!

Corinne

 

[Dove]

When Paul retired after 42 years total...so did my iron.

 

[corazon]

Shoot. I have way too much laundry to stick it back in the dryer tonight. Ah well, I'd best get folding.

 

[Katie H]

We don't use dryer sheets in our house, but for those of you who do, please follow a simple safety step.

The dryer sheets are impregnated with the softner/non-cling components. Regular use of these products can hamper the functioning of your dryer and make the motor work harder. This is caused by the lint trap being clogged with the softener/non-cling residue. The lint isn't filtered properly and this could lead to overheating and, in some cases, a dryer fire.

To test your lint filter, remove it, clean all the visible lint from it and then run it under your kitchen faucet with running water. If the lint filter allows the water to run through it like a colander, your filter is just fine. If the water runs off the filter and doesn't pass through, your filter is blocked.

Just give it a good soap-and-water wash and run water over it again. This time it should run through just fine. Try to do this about once a month if you use your dryer frequently. Your dryer will last longer and you could avoid a dangerous dryer fire.

Even though we don't use dryer sheets here, I still test my filter occasionally.

 

[Claire]

Corrinne, you cracked me up. I noticed in recent years my mother doesn't wear her glasses as much as she used to. I inherited her vision, and trust me, we are legally blind w/o them. Now I know why! I own a very old house, and they sprout dust bunnies and cobwebs like crazy. Selective vision is the only answer! I believe in every shortcut known to mankind. I have friends who smoke, and though they do not in my house ... or even their own ... on Friday nights I find myself reeking of smoke after our usual happy hour get-togethers. I spray the clothes with febreeze then run them through the dryer (with no heat if they are wool). This will sound stupid, but to make us get up and clean house, I make sure we have some sort of company very regularly -- be it a brunch, supper, cocktails, whatever. It makes us get up and clean the house. I put up a lace curtain over half of the bathroom/mudroom/laundry room, and often just dump everything in sight into the bathtub and draw the curtain when entertaining last-minute. Luckily virtually everyone in town also live in 100+ year old houses and have similar problems with the dust bunnies and cobwebs. We all mutually agree to look the other way.

 

[abjcooking]

I use bounce. My trick is that I put them in all my shoes.