Fun Monday # 152 Chores I love to hate

I had every intention of joining in the last three Fun Mondays, and if you could see my drafts I have half finished post languishing there but somehow I didn't get around to completing them. Now that Embee is home, having retired at Christmas, I haven't quite been able to get into a new routine but I guess that's another story!!
Anyway back to the task in hand which has been set by Jill aka Lil Mouse and this is what she wants us to do:

This week’s Fun Monday post will be about chores. What is your least favorite chore? Vacuum get you down? Dust bunnies saying, “oh yeah, you and what army?” Is there a chore that you neglect doing it until the absolute last minute when guests arrive? Do you just pray they won’t look ‘there’? Are you going green with your cleaning? Top tips? If you have any ideas for anyone on Monday, post them in their comment box, because we all know that we LOVE comments!

Where do I begin I'm not keen on any sort of house work. When I was younger I used to take a real pride in maintaining a very high standard. I used to practically Spring clean every room each month-I must have been mad! I foolishly thought I could keep this up even when I had children but I quickly learned it was not possible.

Working full time meant I had to cram housework into the weekends and evenings. Once I retired I imagined that I would soon have the house neat as a new pin; however, after an initial onslaught, somehow in the three years I've been home I've come to resent spending my life clearing up after other people so all my chores are hated.

Now don't get me wrong that doesn't mean I don't do them but it is often with a bad grace. Although having said that I love it when everything is clean and tidy, sadly by the time I've put the cleaning materials away and look around there are muddles everywhere. So beware it's not only children that make a mess, elderly people are equally messy ...well they are in this house!!!!

If I had to name one thing I really dislike that would be ironing. My mother likes a lot of things ironed that I wouldn't bother to iron if it was for me. However, all the cotton things, including cotton bedding do get ironed and I usually wait until I have a full basket before I get the ironing board out.

One exception... I refuse to iron Embee's white shirts.... he complained once so I said never again. For a while he did wash his own but for many years he's taken them to the laundry. I haven't actually asked him what he intends to do now he's retired. He certainly can't say he doesn't have time or he's too tired to do them himself can he!!!!!
I'm not really going to give any cleaning tips but I will say vinegar is a good natural cleaner. I did run a series of blogs on the uses of vinegar taken from a very useful little book I have!
The photo below is my laundry basket (actually I believe it was my mother's basket and it's positively ancient) as it looks today; only one item waiting to be ironed it would be better if it were empty but I can live with this as it will be several weeks before I fill the basket and need to get the iron out!!

I'm rather hoping to pick up some good tips from everyone else and then housework might not be such a chore!!

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2009: Unusual Playmates
2008: Surprize
2007: Gale Force Winds