What’s your least-favorite job around the home?

RevRico said:

Finding all the cleverly disguised berkeleyups from the previous owner

Came here to say this.

dxman92 said:

I can't stand mulching. Mowing doesn't bother me. The joy of having a small yard is being able to weed wack it. 

I'm waiting for the push from people, hoa, govt, whatever for people to turn their big yards into small yards.  Seems like win win win all the way around 

All of it.  I'm not ashamed to say I'm the farthest thing from a home improvement guy as you can get.  House chores I'm totally cool with...dishes, laundry, vacuum, etc...but home repairs and the like are a no-go for me.  Sure, I'll do a little painting if needed or hang a light.  Other than that, I'm calling someone.  

Plumbing.  I hate doing anything related to plumbing.  I always wind up getting wet and it's usually also disgusting.

Everything is my least favorite, but I'm cheap. So, everything is my favorite too.

But I'd say mowing is the first to go for subcontracting.  Nobody cuts the way I want it cut ever, but I don't have to waste a day doing it, plus I don't have to buy/store a mower or a weedeater. Not to mention the upkeep on either.

wae said:

Plumbing.  I hate doing anything related to plumbing.  I always wind up getting wet and it's usually also disgusting.

Ditto.

But at the moment, for me it's dealing with weeds.  Last year I put in a lot of effort to pull weeds, and had the back pain to prove it.  Stayed clear over most of the winter.  Suddenly, we've got whole new species of weeds popping up.  WTH?

Love doing all things outside the house on the property(landscaping, hardscaping, stone and boulder work, lawns, mulch, plantings, etc...). Hate inside the house stuff like painting, caulking, tile work, finish trim carpentry and the like.

ProDarwin said:

Mowing, for sure.  Lawns are berkeleying dumb.

This x 100. 

I owned a house with cast iron sewer plumbing and antique copper water lines for 25 years. Every plumbing job in that house was a royal PITA. 

Put plumbing at the top of that list for me but any type of maintenance that takes me away from things I'd rather be doing is on the list. 

In 7 years of owning a home built in 1927 with mice that I can't keep up with and having about 8 projects that I'm in the middle of and 22 more lined up after that... All of it. I can't wait until I can call someone to fix everything instead of doing it myself, if not completely renovate everything in this house, bulldoze it and start over, or move to a different home. 

Yeah, it is easy to mow the lawn. Still 30 minutes out of my day for a stupid thing (lawn). I spent 3 weeks diagnosing a leaking washing machine. Tech would have done it in 5 minutes. We've got a bunch of laminate flooring sitting in a closet.  Would take a pro about 4 hours. Been in that closet for 10 months with us because we just can't get it going. 

I don't mind any of it, for the most part. But all of it? On top of the family and the full time job and the side gig? I took a vacation day last year to get all of the things I needed done, done. What a waste.

Plumbing.  And I need to pretty much replace all of the plumbing in my house.  Not looking forward to it.  Especially when another thought is to condemn the house, knock it down and rebuild it into a better layout. 

About once every year, the bathrooms sink drains slow down a bit and I have to clean out the traps. It's not hard, but it's a disgusting mess.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

About once every year, the bathrooms sink drains slow down a bit and I have to clean out the traps. It's not hard, but it's a disgusting mess.

 

A shop vac does wonders on those. 

Edit: Does a pretty good job on the shower drain as well.

Paying bills. Hate that E36 M3. 

Hanging stuff on the walls. 
makes no sense but I'd rather do just about any other domestic task

Mine used to be trimming the evergreen “shrubs” that were more than likely as old as the house (60 like me).  Always ended up being a hot day in June and for whatever reason I really hated it.  Fixed that two years ago by “base pruning” them with a chainsaw and replanting with more manageable box woods and azaleas.   The bases of some of the original ones were close to 6 inches across. 

11GTCS said:

Mine used to be trimming the evergreen “shrubs” that were more than likely as old as the house (60 like me).  Always ended up being a hot day in June and for whatever reason I really hated it. The bases of some of the original ones were close to 6 inches across. 

That's exactly what I came here to post. I have one that's about 100' long, 15'+ high, and 6'-8' thick. I love it but I hate it.

Years ago PW said, if you buy me a John Deere, you'll never have to cut the grass. It was a worthwhile investment for a few reasons. She's real hard on equipment, and it's held up remarkably well, and, well... I don't have to cut grass.

Drywall.

I hate drywall with a passion.

I also worked in a tool store long enough to have met several drywallers so I always do my own drywall.

Roofers and painters fall into that category too.

Also, most plumbers should be banned from owning a Sawzall.

Hard on equipment:

Laundry.

It's a job you can't easily find someone to do. 

We've found cleaners who practically beat down the door to get our business, but as soon as we ask "do you fold laundry?" they have no interest. 

I don't mind cleaning. I don't mind house projects. I hate collecting, washing, drying, folding, and putting away laundry. 

J.A. Ackley said:

Love washing dishes - hate putting them away.

Love doing laundry - hate folding it.

Love painting anything and everything in the house - hate the carpentry work before it.

I definitely have a yin and yang relationship with household chores.

that sounds about right.  

Anything in my attic, especially during the summer months.

I've got 3.5" of wood shavings, then 3.5" of the pink fiberglass batts, then about 14-16" of blown in insulation. So doing anything up there basically means swimming in insulation and dust, and if it's somewhat warm outside it's like an oven up there. I just can't deal with it. Luckily I'm done running new wire to all the ceiling lights. Next job that will see me up there is when I gut the bathroom and put new drywall on the ceiling. Ugh.

In reply to pheller :

I don't hate laundry, but it's definitely a PITA with my current situation (have a dryer, but no washer). When I was working in NH back in 2016, I soon found the wonders of "wash and fold" laundromats.  I drop off bags in the morning then pick them up after work in the evening.  Folded and bagged with collared shirts on hangers. Minimum of $50 (price by weight) and worth every penny. So when I'm working in NH, I just save up laundry and take it with me.

Unfortunately, I haven't found a similar service near me in PA, so when I'm not in NH I have to take loads to a local self-serve laundromat and then I take the wet clothes home to dry.  Not the end of the world as I'll sit in my car for 30ish minutes while two washers run and I'll read. 

The do a special on Weds and I'm literally heading there in a few minutes. 

Bills... oddly enough, I like paying bills and it annoys me when some services are late getting bills to me.  I had all of my March bills paid or scheduled by this past Monday. 

Cat litter. No elaboration needed.

Interesting to see the laundry hate.  Its such at easy task. 5 mins to load the washer, 5 to put away when its done?  5 mins more if you hang instead of using a dryer?

I mean I dont love it, just it can be done at any time, its so easy to deal with.  A lot of the other bullE36 M3 mentioned has a much more rigid schedule.  Mowing generally needs to be done when its light out and pretty dry - basically 100% overlap with time I would rather be doing other things outside.  Other repairs need to be done immediately upon discovery.  Laundry can almost always wait a day.

In almost 40 years of marriage, I've never done laundry. PW won't let me touch her washer and dryer.

If I want something washed in between the wash cycle/day, she tells me rather sternly, put it in the hamper, you can wait like everybody else.

So instead of asking I pretend that I'm going to throw it in the washer. She hears it open, runs over and pushes me out of the way. I'll do this, you're just going to break my machines. Get out of here, I'll let you know when it's ready.

Works every time.