Necessary Chores I'd Love to Quit Performing

On Wednesday I blogged about daily habits I wish I could give up. Don't worry. I won't stop washing my hair, bathing regularly, or brushing/flossing my teeth. They're necessary, important daily tasks. I might skip shaving my legs on occasion, but that's usually during the winter when I wear pants.

I promised I'd share the chores I'd love to designate to another person, eliminate altogether, so I could have more time to do my favorite thing: write.

Here they are (and this list is never complete):

1. Cleaning bathrooms. I don't mind dumping bleach in the toilets and swishing them out. But I loathe the shower stall. It's the bane of my existence. We have hard water here, really really really hard water. It makes my skin crawl, my hair dry, and my shower super hard to clean. I have to use so many chemicals to get the stall and door shiny new-looking that I fear for my lungs when I'm in there. I even have a crazy electric bathroom brush that is supposed to get the grime off with less effort. This maybe knocks 5 minutes off my time in the stall. It takes me over an hour to get it to federal standards of cleanliness.

2. Grocery shopping. I don't mind cooking or coming up with recipes for our new diet. I love that part of the household duties that I perform. But it takes forever for me to get the grocery shopping done. And I don't even bring five hundred coupons with me! First I have to make a list. Fine, that's on the fridge and ongoing. Then I check the sales. I gather my reusable bags (actually they're in the car), then off to the store I go. I have no problem finding the basics, but what takes forever is finding great produce. I am picky. And for some reason there isn't great produce in this part of Alabama. I can't tell you how many strawberries, apples, bags of salad etc., I've thrown away a day or two after purchase! It's frustrating. Any rate, I also read the labels. Make sure that the product doesn't have too much sodium, falls into proper point range for the Weight Watchers' diet we're on. If I go on a long, replenish the pantry/fridge shopping expedition, my total round trip to the store and home to unload the multiple bags is over an hour. If I gripe about the prices going up, Darling Hubby sticks his foot in it when he suggests going to another store that's much further away. Nope. Ain't going to do it. That increases my time away from my favorite task: writing.

3. Laundry. It's like stringing beads on a necklace with no knot at the end of the rope. I finish 3 loads of laundry and there's already a new pile building. I do laundry 1x per week. If the article of clothing that my family members want to get washed is not in the hamper, forget it. That person will have to wait another week for that article of clothing to be cleaned. And here's a good one. Darling Husband asked me to separate his NYLON black undies from his COTTON black undies/like sort them when I'm putting them away because he's decided to use up even more precious closet shelf space for a second basket of black underwear. Uh, no. Not going to do that sir. Really. Feel the material, make a choice.

4. Calling insurance companies and tracking all medical documents. Hurry up and wait in line and listen to a voice tell you, one that sounds eerily like ALL the call speeches I hear, please listen to the menu carefully because it's changed but really, the choices offered are never the one I need. I often scream that I want to talk to a person. The voice says, "I"m sorry I don't recognize that option. Please try again." Multiple pushes of the "0" button will lead me to an actual, live human. Once I was so frustrated, I had two calls going. One on my cell phone, one on my home phone. I kept both parties (the insurer and the lab wanting my money when the insurer should pay) on the line and made them HOLD for information. That one turned out very well. I won my case. And I saved my family $236 that we were charged because someone in the lab made a "2" look like a "V." I kid you not. This is a true story.

5. Waiting for service people to come to my house to fix something, spray something, or deliver something. Seriously, what is this 4 hour window of time all about? I have to choose a time between 8-12 or between 1-5PM. I usually choose the afternoons because I want to go to Zumba in the morning and I want get writing done, too. I know the service people don't know how long it will take to fix, deliver, or spray stuff on another call so that's fair. I just don't like being forced to hang around the house for 4 hour stretches waiting for service to arrive. It's hard to concentrate. I usually get lost in Twitterville. If it weren't for the #1k1hr hashtag, I'd never accomplish anything on "waiting for service people days."

So that's my list. What's your list?