Friday, August 26, 2016

Appliance Envy




I am a horrible housekeeper. I hate housework and do as little as possible required to keep the home to an acceptable standard, and my family in clean and appropriate clothes for the season or occasion. Three jobs I really hate are ironing clothes, vacuuming, and doing dishes. I've spent a lot of money on vacuums and very little and both have done the same relatively "sucky" job with mediocre results. Part of it is pup, and his hair that is really fine, but everywhere and it doesn't pick up well, and when it does, the filter is clogged immediately. Part of it is the bag, band, filter replacement that seems never ending. I thought I solved the bag issue with a bagless, but the filter seems to clog faster on the bagless than the old bg varieties. I also hate moving furniture and moving it back.  I do not vacuum often enough becasue of these annoyances.


He'd like the job of pre-washing the dishes.
Doing dishes is just a necessary evil. I'm not so lazy that I will resort to disposable plates, and not doing dishes  after a meal is the fastest path to having the whole house look slovenly. A decent dishwasher requires a decent garbage disposal.  Ours needs replacement right now, so I am finding bits of food in the dishwasher, causing me to feel like I am almost pre-washing the dishes before putting in the dishwasher. Then there are pots and pans that I don't like to run through the dishwasher.  Besides taking up so much room, I worry my nice pots will get warped in the high heat. We're on our fourth dishwasher in the house since we bought the place new, with new appliances in 1991. I don't know if that is too often, or about average.  The first lasted 12 years, the second only eight years, and then the replacement for that just a couple. We've had the current one for three years I think, and it just doesn't seem to be doing a good job. We need to get that disposal replaced and maybe that will make a difference.


Ironing just seems pointless to me, most of the time. I intentionally buy clothes that are wash and wear, and if I get them out of the dryer while still slightly damp, I can hang up those that do wrinkle and ward off the creases. I had a really pricey iron that was a wedding fit and I used it diligently when DH wore a suit and tie every day-and I hated every bit of it. Over time, I let the water build up, and overheated, and eventually that iron ran it's course and I replaced with a cheaper model that I still have, and use sparingly. On the cruise however both DH and DS had dress shirts and suit coats that needed touching up.  The staff provided this incredible iron that not only heated up instantaneously, the steamer actually worked as a steamer should.  Dare I might say, I might have enjoyed ironing a bit?  Even MIL commented about how nice the guys shirts traveled!  I didn't even notice the make and model, but what a wonder a good appliance is. 


My question to all of you, what do you use for each of these dreaded chores?  Do you have recommendations to me and others the next time a replacement is needed?  I'm looking forward to your thoughts, with appliance envy. 

4 comments:

  1. I've never owned a dishwasher; we don't even use the one that is in the holiday accommodation at the place we love! My iron is one that I bought from Woolworths when it was closing down a number of years ago, but it is rarely used as we either wear clothes that don't require ironing or I do a lot of ' smoothing' when I do the laundry to get the wrinkles out. My current vacuum cleaner is a second hand Panasonic with a dust bag. I paid £20 for it at the local hospice charity shop and it has a 12 month guarantee - it works well at picking up bits from a black carpet. It replaces a secondhand Dyson that I bought from ebay 5.5 years ago which still works but was too heavy for me to use with my joint pain.It wasn't as good as the Panasonic at getting the bits off the black carpet!

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    1. People swear by Demons and then they conk out too. We ha s Kirby I got sucked into buying pregnant with child one and completely afraid of germs-total money waste.

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  2. I have a Dyson and I have a love hate relationship with it. It works well but you have to wash the filters all the time.
    I am looking for a wonderful dishwasher. (mine is held together with duck tape and zip ties) Recommendations anyone?

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    1. We have all Kenmore and my dishwasher luck hasn't been good. The Bosch seem great but really expensive.

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