Housework!!

Housework!!

Housework!! didnt know where to put this but here goes.
I wonder whether any of you have had probs being the least bit interested in housework since diagnosis.

Ok I have never had a show house but used to be organised and tidy but i can’t get round to it these days much.

i had 1st chemo few weeks ago second due next week and i gather i shall get more tired, will the house survive?

Ruth

Housework Don’t worry about it!

My mother had a very laidback attitude to housework - I remember her telling me when my children were small that if it was a choice between playng with them and doing housework, I should play, as the children wouldn’t stay small forever, but the housework would be around forever! You’ll catch up when you’re feeling stronger, and if any friends/relatives offer to cook or wash and iron, take them up on it.

What housework?? Im a lot further down the chemo route than you (10 out of 12), and on my chemos days & afterwards im too knackered to think about housework. And so I intend to do it on my good days ( and there are good days). But then, on my good days, the last thing on my mind is staying in to do the housework, so it gets delayed again !! After 16 weeksof chemo, you can imagine the state of the place :slight_smile:
(actually Im exaggerating loads…my 74 year old Mum comes round on my chemo days & does it for me …and makes a much better job of it than I do, I have to say! )
Dont worry about housework …concentrate on looking after yourself & feeling well.

— Housework!!! — What’s that?

I’m two years since diagnosis, and one thing cancer has taught me is that life is too short to waste cleaning up when you are feeling strong. Pottering in the garden, yes, reading, enjoying kids if you have any, friends on the phone, yes, yes, yes, housework no.

If ‘friends’ call round and I notice that look in their eyes at the untidiness that now abounds, so what … not particularly good friends are they. There do actually come days when I enjoy cleaning up and it gets done much mor quickly than you can imagine.

Joy xxxx

Housework I’ve always had a laid back attitude to housework, and these days I do as little as possible. I can’t be bothered on my bad days, and on my good days I have far more interesting things to be doing.

I’ve told visitors that if they are bothered I will show them where the dusters, vac etc is!

I’m just pleased to say, even with housework being such a low priority in my life there is still no way it is bad enough for a visit from Kim and Aggie :slight_smile:

Jo xx

oh no -hoover’s packed up! …last night it just stopped. Now this house degenerates very quickly into a hovel. We already live alongside the spider’s webs and we always however carefully manage to bring in on our clothes hay or straw - oh yes - yokel plus! So I think I may have to book a JCB for my next housework stint.

Celeste - not off to dust - but to sit on her bottom and watch something mindless on the box.

A bit dusty I have a little plaque (sp?) next to my front door bell which says:

‘Your approval is not necessary’

Mind you I was a little embarrassed the other day when showing a friend a picture of my kids I had to dust it first!

A little bit of dust never hurt anyone I try to avoid housework whenever possible. When I do have a blitz on the house, I find that I’ve turned into this neurotic shrew who has a go at the family for leaving things around when normally I’d just sail serenely on.

I also find that lack of housework is a security measure. Any burglar breaking into our house would think that it had already been ransacked and go somewhere else, That is if they didn’t fall down the stairs and break their necks after tripping over the rubbish that accumulates there.

My late mother-in-law was an absolute fiend when it came to housework. She Domestossed everything - did you know that you can Domestos a tv? The dog used to go and hide whenever she appeared. There was the same old ritual: she’d arrive, whip out the D and start moving through the house like the Mongol hordes, I’d take my husband to one side, threaten him with no sex EVER again if he didn’t tell her to stop and he used to go and speak to her about it. She’d then get all huffy and flounce around for a couple of days muttering under her breath about ‘shambles.’ Ah happy days.

The depressing thing is I think my elder daughter has inherited the gene or predisposition to housework. The younger one is a slut (like her mother!). But I’'m good fun and I do have a dishwasher so we do eat off clean plates and a washing machine so we do have clean clothes!!!

Shall I go and do some housework now, or shall I sit and read a book? What do you think?

Love
Anne
xx

Sorry to sound flippant I thought this was on the chit chat section.

Didn’t mean to sound rude.

Anne
xx

— Hi Anne — You are never rude my friend. As for the choices you give - well, as I said to Ruth - go and do NOTHING other than relax and enjoy the moment.

Love Joy xxx

Housework - a hot topic Like the rest of you who’ve posted on this thread, housework comes a long way down the list of my priorities, even more so after my recurrence.On our fridge is a battered magnet which reads “Housework is something you do that nobody notices, unless you don’t do it” and for me that just about sums it up.

Being perfectly serious for a moment, cancer is one of those things that shakes up a lot of our certainties and preconceptions. There’s nothing like being face-to-face with your own mortality to put a lot of things into a different perspective. Suddenly, time, which we all thought was unlimited, has become much more precious and we have to weigh up what we most want to do with this valuable commodity

So the house is a bit dusty, the kitchen floor really, REALLY needs mopping and a weird part of me prefers cloudy days so that the sunlight doesn’t show up how much the windows need cleaning! But so what! I refuse to be made to feel guilty because my house wouldn’t pass muster for an Ideal Homes exhibition (or anything else for that matter). I’m alive and feeling better than I could have hoped last September and I have family, friends, work and hobbies competing for my time and energy. Housework will just have to be content with what’s left!

Love
Kathy xxx

me too I have a fridge magnet which declares that

“Dull women have immaculate houses”!

therefore it is very important to me not to do housework.

Actually I am in the very fortunate position to have a carer who looks after the house for me, and does it far better and faster than I ever did.

Since my secondary diagnosis I too have priorities and housework is definitely not one of them

Ruth xx (another one from Merseyside!)

Security measure I like it! Would-be burglars would definitely think someone had beaten them to it if they came to my house. It’s not dirty, but very untidy - we don’t have enough storage space and some things just live on the top of other things. My other half is a teacher, which means there is an unbelievable amount of paper EVERYWHERE! We have tried putting it in plastic crates, but we haven’t got space for any more of those.

I totally agree that there is so much more to life than housework. I’d hate to get to the Pearly Gates and be asked if I enjoyed my life, only to have to say ‘Well, not a lot, but my house was always immaculate.’

forget about housework —Babies Don’t Keep
Cleaning and scrubbing
can wait till tomorrow…
for babies grow up
we’ve learned to our sorrow…
So quiet down cobwebs-
dust go to sleep…
I’m rocking my baby
and babies don’t keep!!

I kept this on the wall when my kids were little and have just remembered it after reading this post how can I do housework when my 2 year old grandson wants to watch tweenies for the 50th time!!!

Cathy

Housework? Whats that?

Whats the point of tidying up when 2 boys and a manboy are going to mess it up again? I do a good line in blackmail cleaning ‘If you tidy your rooms I’ll get you…’.

I have actually hoovered the stairs today and cleaned bathrooms,
but wont admit when the stairs were last hoovered…

I know a relative who was completely batty about housework. I felt intimidated until I realised it was all she had. Coffee with friends or anything better on offer is worth taking up. Housework is there for when you have nothing better to do. I certainly dont plan my life around it.

Going back to work is a good ploy to getting help with housework, I’m currently working on getting someone in to do floors, beds and bathrooms once a week, manboy not keen so far, maybe I’ll let him do it for a while till he changes his mind and suggests it himself!!

Steph x

housework I have a cleaner and he enjoys cleaning, ironing and all the irksome jobs I hate. He also cooks me delicious west indian food once a week. It costs £18 a week but what a joy

Mole

Mole That sounds like money well spent!