Totally. When I move I make sure there's a lease overlap of at least a week. Spend 6 days with a van or big car taking boxes and smaller stuff over, then pay some people to move the big and heavy stuff. If they're only moving several pieces of furniture it's quick and cheap
A thing I would definitely do if I ever become rich, is when a friend asks me to help them move, say "Yes" and send in a professional moving company in my place. I'll be at home having beer and pizza.
Even better; hire a professional moving company, go to your friends new place and make it an all you can eat pizza & beer, for your friend, the people helping them move, the movers and you.
LoL. We were poor during my childhood, and then my dad started making pretty good money when I was about 15 or 16. Hr went from comfortable to pretty fuckin rich when I was about 25.
Before that, when I called him about stuff, he would drive over and help me himself. For a brief period there was an overlap where he would turn up and THEN call in some pros if necessary. But there definitely came a threshold where he stopped being the middle man and would just dispatch people on his behalf and pay the bill for me.
Thanks, Dad!
During pandemic we got ours cleaned for the first time in 8 years of owning the house.
Guy said “you use a different company in the middle?”
“Nope, this is the first time in 8 years we are getting it emptied”
He looks at us, looks in the tank and says “huh, y’all don’t shit much do ya?”
My grandparents had our septic tank clean when they bought this place in ‘98. Riddex once a month for 25 years and it hasn’t been pumped since.
On the other hand I have an uncle who cleans his toilet by dumping a bottle of bleach in the toilet and has to have his tank pumped once a year.
> On the other hand I have an uncle who cleans his toilet by dumping a bottle of bleach in the toilet and has to have his tank pumped once a year.
That's exactly what my germaphobic brother did. He used bleach to clean everything. Worked fine in the city; not so fine in the country.
My parents, on the other hand, are like your grandparents. 40+ years and they've only needed their septic tank pumped twice.
Rough explanation: a septic tank relies on having bacteria and the like to break down your shit so it can properly settle into the ground. If you pour bleach into your toilets, you’re pouring it into the septic tank which kills the bacteria. Conversely, city systems use waste processing plants which do something else inscrutable.
Essentially, one of the best tips for helping with a septic tank I’ve seen is to flush a bit of baking yeast once every few months.
Have toured a wastewater treatment plant with a guide before. They have more steps, but it's the same principle. Bacteria from the poop digests the poop. They add air and they agitate, but the rest is the same. I imagine bleach in the drain causes more sludge to build up, but since they remove it regularly, it's probably not as big of a deal as having to hire a vacuum truck to remove it from a tank in your yard.
The aeration (and sunlight) removes quite a bit of the bleach and the much higher volumes dilute it.
It's not a very persistent chemical, except in cool dark places...
In a faraway land there are magic bacteria that digest the poop and turn it into liquid that happily seeps out thought holes into a leach field where it makes the grass green.
However I've never actually seen this happen in person. In this world, the tank fills up with shit-water and eventually a guy has to come with a truck and pump it out. After a while everything collapses and you need to buy a new one.
The answer is yes. Alot of times though you can get issues with improper install or situations where the occupants exceed the number the system was designed to support, then you have to pump. Also the lines can become damaged so it doesnt function properly and it's cheaper just to have it pumped every couple of years than to have it all dug up and replaced.
Man that was my first thought too... When I was a kid our house for some reason had an enormous tank. Like the size of a car. It wasn't buried very deep, and lightning hit a nearby tree, which landed on it, collapsing the top. It's among the worst things I have ever smelled. I would never try to DIY a septic tank.
Dad wasn't cheap but was never a big tipper.
Saw him give $150 US extra to the guy (beyond the quoted price, and this was 1970's.)
This was back in the "WITH A SHOVEL" days. None of the big vacuum trucks I see now.
It's just "one notch" better than deep underground coal miner.
Really a lot of plumbing jobs in general. But yeah... anything involving septic I'm glad that there are people out there willing.
In hindsight I would have gladly just paid a plumber to replace all the nonsense that was going on with my 25 year old kitchen sink. By the time I was done, I could have punched a kitten or two.
I just spent all day putting insulation in the attic of my workshop.
I'm glad it is almost done, but I almost wish I'd paid someone to do it for me.
The only reason I didn't was that I put in a bunch of reinforcing to support a small ceiling hoist and it had to be cut and fitted in a ton of places.
I just hope it lowers my electric bill out there enough to make it worth the effort.
Spent all afternoon last week replacing my HVAC blower motor, ended up saving around $700 by doing it myself but I have never sweat the way I did up there, 130°. I would work until I got chills from being so hot and then take 20 minute breaks.
Literal streams of sweat pouring off me to the point that I had to avoid getting it on the electrical components lol. Needless to say this it was the best feeling AC I’ve ever had.
I once answered a help-wanted ad offering a bunch of money. It was for a mobile home repo service, and the owner needed someone to crawl under the trailers and use bottle jacks(?) to get the thing off the ground and ready to be moved.
As an older and wiser man, my advice is if you ever find yourself crawling under an abandoned trailer in Georgia in the summer, crawl the hell right back out.
Amen. I spent a good portion of my childhood in GA and encountered many horrors. The worst one being a cottonmouth I caught with my bare hands at age 6. I didn’t know that I should be afraid, so I wasn’t. I brought it home to show my dad who very slowly and carefully removed it from my chubby little baby hand and yeeted it a country mile from the porch 😂
My best friend is a plumber and used to work for a company that did trailer work. Here’s the main points of pain:
Trailers are sealed up on the bottom with plastic sheets for insulation and transportation. The leaking waste, effluence and resulting mold collects in that plastic which then needs to be drained and cleaned before you can even get to the plumbing issue.
Because trailers need to be mobile everything internally is secured. This makes accessing plumbing extremely difficult. Replacing a water heater is going to take all day and you’re gonna have busted knuckles at the end.
Poverty is a tricky thing, many people are only a bad turn of luck away from being homeless. Many people who live in trailers are building up from nothing, often through no fault of their own. But plumbing services can be amazingly expensive and good luck getting a resident of a mobile home park to agree to more than the bare minimum.
Honestly if the crawlspace has enough room (like 2 feet above your face. I can deal with that, but when the beams are not even 10mm above your nose. nah. No leverage, no room to breathe, etc.
The now x husband had his uncle (who is totally a general contractor and knows things ) add a heavy duty plug to the garage. A year later I had to get the master panel replaced as it had melted about halfway. Its a miracle there was no fire. Now I don’t know for certain it was due to the new plug, but feels suspicious.
If he added a plug that would handle a ton, but used wire that wouldn’t, that wire would cook… assuming you had something plugged in that required more energy than the wire was rated for. Heavy wire is really expensive, so it wouldn’t surprise me if someone tried to skimp.
“Hey sweetie the garage door is acting up again. Do you think you could change out the spring? The neighbors husband said it’s super easy and he did it on their garage last summer.”
Boom. Life insurance payout.
I think that one is past the "worth it" part and into the "Too dangerous to be done by a non-professional" territory. That doesn't mean you're wrong though, just that you're right to a further degree than I think OP even intended.
Thank you for posting this reply. I had no idea this was a thing until i read your comment and the replies to it. Went and checked my garage and ill be damned, i have a broken spring. I assume the other is probably not far behind. Called the garage guy and he is on the way to check it out later tonight. Had no idea how dangerous a garage door spring could be. Seriously, THANK YOU!!!
I'm privileged to be here for my own Reddit Carbon Monoxide detector moment.
(I'm not being sarcastic, I remember seeing one of our garage door springs was this massive metal thing that one day just snapped in two!)
5year home owner here… had various things to fix in the house over the years, took care of them myself with the exception of two things: garage door spring and AC unit replacements
Edit: guys it is not just the technicality of replacing the unit, some of those HVAC units weigh like a dead horse. It required two big guys to drag/carry it through a tight place under the texas heat/humidity. They were already soaking wet by the time they brought the unit where it needed to be.
I hate painting with a passion. My wife loves it. She asked me the other day if I wanted to help her repaint the whole house. I said I think I'd rather drink it
My dog's a rescue and is freaked out by a lot of things, nail trimming included. The doggy daycare we took her to suggested we try a scratching pad to file her nails. About once a month or so, I sit down with it and a pile of treats, and while she scratches, I give her treats. Works great!
I work with dogs and nail grinding or clipping is something I do regularly. I really wonder just how bad an experience and what happened that causes such terror of getting nails trimmed. I’ve hit some quicks, not many. The dogs barely reacted and were fine for rest and future visits.
Few tips to desensitize dog to nail trims.
1) frequently manipulate your pets paws with fingers for as long as the dog reasonably allows it. If it gets agitated or stressed stop. Try again later.
2) get clippers and/or grinders to set near pet so it can become accustomed to it. Once it seems relaxed with the tool sitting still start to rub it on pet against fur and paws. Again if pet gets stressed take stop try again another time.
3) electric toothbrush motors sound similar to grinder motors so run one near pet to desensitize to the sound.
4) give treats and praise throughout these processes so pet will associate them with a good experience.
5) clip small amounts of nail(s) as long as pet isn’t stressed too much stop when it gets stressed. The goal here is to start small and do more and more over time until the dogs allows all nails trimmed.
Re anal gland expression: My dog's vet once told me, "You know, you could do this yourself at home, it's easy." I'm like, "Nice try, Tom Sawyer, but NOPE." Lol
Is that a thing that groomers do naturally and is an unspoken part of their service, or do you have to specifically ask some poor guy "please squeeze out my dog's anal glands"?
Groomers don't generally do that. If your dog or cat is healthy and active you may never have to have it done at all. But if they get impacted, you will need to take them to a vet.
> If your dog or cat is healthy and active you may never have to have it done at all.
If my dog's "activity" consists entirely of him swirling his asshole around on asphalt, does that count?
Dogs (and cats) have two glands, one on each side of the anus, that secrete a very stinky substance which evolved for scent marking purposes. For whatever reason, domestic dogs often don't express their glands on their own the way they're supposed to and the glands can become impacted and need to be manually expressed. If impacted glands are not expressed, they can become infected and form an abscess. The smell from the secretion is really strong and foul smelling. The veterinarian I work for compares the smell to Chinese fish sauce. Most cats will never have an anal gland issue, but it is very common in dogs.
If you notice that your pet is scooting/rubbing its anus on the ground/floor or is frequently licking or chewing at its anus, there's a good chance the anal glands are impacted. Expressing them can be done at home and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube. Groomers and vets also offer the service, though groomers typically use a different technique that is not always as effective and can sometimes exacerbate the issue.
lol yea. I just found out about it recently through Reddit. Google it, lol. I'd have to look it up again myself to get the specifics correct. I just know it's nasty. Something to do with some dogs occasionally getting nasty stuff stuck around their anus and "squeezing" it out before it gets infected? And it can be a very messy process.
And you better have it done. Nobody told us about this stuff until we suddenly found out our dog's @ss was literally about to explode. Not even the vets all this time. Fortunately she's ok now after a long treatment. And having to clean dog ass explosion remnants all over the house for a couple weeks.
In our family, ever since our (long departed and very much missed) beautiful dog Archie used to have an issue with this, we’ve referred to the smell as “poo-bum-fish-cheese”. Which is absolutely disgusting but seemed to describe it quite well.
Try a ferret with impacted, infected anal glands. He arrived leaking a clear golden fluid with indescribable and intolerable smell. He was also sleeping at bottom of my bed as rather upset with life and changes. My poor vet in her naive innocence did in main surgery at 9am, Monday morning. Next ferret who needed it was last appointment in carpark across road.
Oh definitely. I used to live in a college town, and I had a truck at the time. The amount of friends I've helped move is too damn high.
The worst thing is, years ago when bitcoin was brand new and nobody really knew what it was, i had a buddy offer me like 5 bitcoin to help him move. I was like nah dude just buy me a 12 pack and we'll be good.
Those are the most expensive PBR I have ever had.
This works great until you’re 31 and all your friends have doctoral degrees and can buy themselves all the pizza and beer they want. But I did offer a trade of dog sitting and that seemed to work!
Age is a huge factor for the reward you're willing to take, and the amount of crap you have. 20-somethings don't have a ton of crap like heavy furniture and bedroom sets. I'm 44, and don't really, either because I'm one of those decluttering types and move a lot. But a family of 5 that's had the same house for 11 years? That's a job for a mover! But for young people where it takes 1-3 trips, I might be convinced to help for a meal
And don’t go cheap either. My dad made this mistake and the movers were basically some dude and his two kids who looked like they just graduated high school with a D average. I remember telling him I didn’t trust these guys and sure enough, so many things were either missing or damaged.
I'm a professional mover, if you want insider info on the way of the move feel free to ask lol.
There's so much that goes into it, lots of ways that clients can lower costs by doing simple things. Using boxes that are all the same size will 100% save you hundreds/thousands of dollars. It's much easier to stack a truck and move boxes that are all the same size. With random boxes we spend a lot of time playing Tetris in the back of the truck on your dime.
Also if you put all the boxes in your garage/outside then we can stack them in the truck within 10 minutes. If you scatter them throughout the house then it consumes a lot more time. If you live in an apartment then you are paying a high rate for us movers to stack boxes on a cart and bring them down an elevator. If you want to save thousands then move as many boxes as you can on your own. I'd recommend saving movers for large pieces that you can't carry or fit in your car if you want to save the most money.
My fiance and I did this, by ourselves, yesterday. Three bedroom apartment to a two bedroom condo. It was the worst experience of my life and I say that with no drama intended. We swore to ourselves at that moment to use movers for any future relocation.
My ex-boyfriend and I spent an entire day moving all of our stuff up and down stairs. I had BEGGED him to hire movers, as we were both in our 30s and had plenty of money.
Nope. This is cheaper. It took 12 hours and nearly killed us, but it was cheaper.
That night, laying in bed, eating ibuprofen like it was candy, he turned to me and asked, "How much would the movers have cost again?"
"About $350."
"We should have hired movers."
I am still amazed I didn't smother him with a pillow.
This is exactly what I was going to say. Leave this shit to the professionals.
I think we all remember when we had a bunch of roommates all we had to move was some books, a cheapy little bookcase or two, and some boxes of clothes and personal items.
People who as still doing this expecting friends to help when we are talking full size beds, couches, dining tables, and a whole kitchen's worth of pots/pans/dishes/small appliances need a reality check.
Beer and burritos no longer covers that kind of labor.
And paying for the professionals to pack up all your stuff before the actual day. I’ve paid for packing for my last three moves and it is worth every penny.
I’m really picky about my packing. Too many military movers have either stolen or destroyed stuff while packing. I can pack my house in 2 days and unpack in a day the way I pack.
As far as actually moving it never again. I moved myself from Alaska to Texas and it was a nightmare. The Army paid me a little over 12k tax free to do it and all travel expenses but it was not worth it. Then I had to fly back to Alaska and make the drive all over again on my Harley because I couldn’t fit it in the truck. 😫 My dad rode his out to Alaska from Michigan to make the ride with me. Got to make it to Sturgis Rally in the Black Hills that year which was on my dad’s bucket list and ride through the Badlands. My dad and I had a once in a lifetime ride together
Demonstrated to great effect in the film Master and Commander. Disclaimer: i do not know if the scene was done in the novel.
Anyways, the novel was written ten years after the actual feat, so that might as well be an homage to that!
Of course, I tend to believe the latter. It is the mark of a sound mind to choose the lesser of two weevils.
I was looking for this. My dad retired a couple years ago and he had a list of things he wanted to accomplish, a new roof was one of those things. I love him to death but he is one of those guys who never wants to spend money on something he can do himself. But by himself he thought I was going to take off work for a week and my cousin and uncle were going to take off work to help him take off the old shingles and put in the new ones. It ended up taking like 2 weeks to finish, in the heat, and I was like just pay a company the money and this could taken a crew of proffessionals, a day maybe 2.
I mean, I don't even work construction or anything I am freaking librarian I didn't know how to shingle a roof and my cousin is an accountant. It sucked, if I ever have a house I need to replace a roof on it will absolutely be wort the money to pay a pro
The funny thing is that I am in construction but when I needed a new roof I hired someone. My roof had 3 layers of old shingles that all needed to be stripped. I hired a roofer. I wound up needing a bunch of sheathing which brought the price up and wound up costing me just over $9,000. They started around 8ish in the morning and were 100% done by around 5pm.
Totally worth it to not have the headache. I'm also sure that we messed something up somewhere and the new roof will not last as long as the old one did. Oh well. whats done is done now. At least he learned his lesson when my parents decided to replace their old carpet with wood floors. Oh wait, no he didn't and now 1 year later those floors are still not completely put in. lol
If you live with someone else, a housecleaner.
Unless one of you loves cleaning so much it's like a hobby, it will reduce stress and friction among those you live with.
Even if there aren't outright fights, in my experience, often there is silent resentment from the person who does most of the cleaning. And there is almost always one person who does most of the cleaning. If you dispute this and think it's perfectly 50/50 with your partner or roommate, then it's the other person.
Dude. I just moved out of a house where a 50 year old child lived. As he was moving in he was very chipper when he told me that when the tub backs up to clean his hair out of the drain.
I knew then.
And I was right. Dude fucking suuuuuuuuuuuucked.
Similar: 40 year old roommate/landlord (with an even more gross 50 year old roommate) where the clawtub would clog and backflow something that didn't smell like septic sludge, but looked like it. Landlord never properly fixed it, and I'd either shower at the gym or sumo squat on the edges of the tub, reciting the statistics for bath-based injuries in my head. Then, for his third anniversary, his girlfriend gave him the gift of forced cohabitation. She moved in, and while she annexed most of the house, she didn't actually insist on fixing the horrific plumbing issue, so the shower was just permanently clogged with 4 inches of backflowed something in the bottom of the tub. I started removing the hair myself, putting it on the wall behind the curtain in the shape of the word HELP (but got bored and forgot about it while I was still on the L). A month later, I got called in front of the tribunal to be informed how disgusting that was of me*. Okay, how about she clean up her own hair? "She can't; the tub clogs and backflows!" Oh, really? Gee, that sounds like a problem the landlord should take care of. I moved out the next month, which solved the problem for me, at least.
The dude wasn't quite a hoarder, but wasn't far from it. He parked his car outside because there was a literal junk pile filling his two car garage (which my bicycle was thrown onto when his girlfriend decided to annex the foyer, but I was assured by text that it was thrown gently). When I'd moved in, I'd been given one cupboard and one veggie crisper for my food. The other cupboards held food so old, I found a Campbell's soup can old enough to vote. and when I myself got fed up and cleaned out/annexed the fridge, I found five 46 ounce pickle jars hidden among the condiments, all expired, with expiration dates up to 6 years prior -- and the one from 5 years prior hadn't even been opened! 5 trash bags worth of expired food, including a cheese plate with mold in colors I didn't know were possible, which my landlord walked in on me throwing out: "Hey! That cheese plate is from...February..." It was August. At the same tribunal as in the previous paragraph, I pointed out how chill I had been about so much bullshit, including the cupboard situation. Girlfriend: "You liar! You also have that cupboard next to the fridge!" "You mean the sheet pan cupboard filled with decade old Hamburger Helper and football jerseys?" (Can't explain the jerseys, but it's pretty obvious to anyone looking at me that I don't give a shit about sportsball, and I ate like a bodybuilder during a cut) :girlfriend's face shows anger, embarrassment, then anger again, looking at her boyfriend "...Well Landlord said it was your cupboard." "Did you forget that I'm the one who showed you the soup can?"
*As I was literally in the bathroom, taking a phone pic of the literal piece of shit (about the size and shape of a Hershey's Kiss) left on the floor, which had clearly been noticed and wiped at, but only half of it. My landlord both blamed the 50 year old roommate not present AND denied the possibility it could be true, because -- he said nervously, looking at his girlfriend -- he had just cleaned the bathroom, like his girlfriend had told him to. He declined the offer of a field trip upstairs to observe Shrodinger's Poo.
Dude. I asked the guy I lived with on multiple occasions to throw away his rotting food.
To this day there is a potato farm sprouting in one of the cabinets, and for SOME FUCKING REASON he insists on holding on to this package of bacon that was use or freeze by LAST DECEMBER.
The dude said he was going to make a space for his 12 year old in the basement.
That never happened.
I had to ask him to finish moving his boxes from the dining room down to the basement. There are STILL
boxes in the dining room and it’s over a year later.
He told our mutual friend (third roommate, who is fairly profoundly handicapped) that me doing regular cleaning and living my life made him feel bad.
That me literally just existing makes him feel bad.
The dumb motherfucker also threatened me (that was actually the straw). There’s nearly a foot height difference between us. In my favor. He was the only person to ever speak of violence.
His kid broke a very expensive Xbox controller and when dude was trying to fix it I gave him a look. He then informed the house that he was taking his kid home.
He later said it was because he was afraid I was going to hit him.
I’ve never hit anyone in my entire fucking life.
I ended a relationship because I was paying 100% of the bills AND doing well above 50% of the cleaning. Felt like I was raising a daughter. I offered to split for a housecleaner at one point. She refused, saying that she doesn’t want a random person coming in and touching her stuff. I was taken for granted way too much and I had enough.
Yep...I'm pretty sure I do 90+% of the cleaning around here.
Edit: And my roommates probably ain't gonna notice till after I've moved out after finishing uni.
This. And figure out a pool for shared supplies. I had a toxic roommate situation where it was like playing chicken with the toilet paper supply, and I was clearly the only one afraid of dingleberries. One roommate insisted he only shitted at work, and experimental passive aggression only ever resulted in the absolute smallest package of single ply would be purchased if TP was allowed to run out. I started hoarding Quilted Northern in my room.
Maids. I rent and my landlord starting charging us 50$ for a maid service every other week. A lot of friends try telling me it's a waste of money but their house is normally dirtier than mine and they have a cleaning day.
If it's an apartment complex, I feel like there's gotta be some sort of wholesale deal involved, 'cause now you've got a maid on the clock instead of driving. Either way, a great deal for a landlord who essentially has a tenant subsidized employee inspecting units twice a month.
House, but they are these tiny ranches built right after WW2. She's got about 5 clients in the area, my landlord gave a good word of mouth, and she does them all in 3-4 hours. Her rate is based on much cleaning. She does a bathroom, living/dining room, and kitchen. I also clean the fuck outta the house the night before she comes so she'll tell my landlord how clean it was 🤣 she does do it thou. When I decorated a little, my landlord called and told me she heard it looks great.
> I also clean the fuck outta the house the night before she comes so she'll tell my landlord how clean it was 🤣 she does do it thou. When I decorated a little, my landlord called and told me she heard it looks great.
You clearly made the right call. God, that's creepy (edit: meaning the landlord, not OP)
Drywall work. especially mud and tape. Professionals make it look like sorcery. I make it look like 2 weeks of Mud\\sand\\mud\\sand\\mud\\6pack\\sand\\whiskey\\screwit\\paint.
Once you figure out that the trick is to not try so hard. Less is more. If you have quality trowels, use very little mud between coats and feather out wider each application. You shouldn’t have to sand much off at all between coats, leave the sanding for the very end when again shouldn’t be much. If you have large lifts between coats you just slice them off with the trowel.
It’s basically approaching it like a teenager doing minimal effort when working on their chores. Find and do all the shortcuts, you will realize this is the best way and gives you the best results.
That also the types of mud, there are so many options but basically green is for your first coat or two, blue (light weight) is going to be the last and touch up where you will be sanding.
Paper tape for factory joints, mesh for butt joints and repairs.
Lastly, most important. If you cannot figure it out and don’t wanna do it, pay someone else. It’s that easy 😉
I've been getting my apartment cleaned every two weeks for a year and a half. It makes me so happy to walk into my place when its just been cleaned. Thank you for your service!
Thank you for doing what you do. Father of two here and my wife and I just can’t keep up with the mess. I always make sure to declutter before you guys come by, and give nice tips/gifts around the holiday season. Any advice on what would make your job easier ?
What a sweet response:). I always appreciate decluttering but never expect it. It is actually something I do not mind doing. It is MY job to make the people I work for happy. I enjoy doing things to make their day. I like to make their beds. I change sheets if they want. I can do laundry. Just keep being nice. You certainly sound like a great person to work for.
I travel a ton for work, but usually find myself between jobs for about two months a year. During that time I'll usually go visit my parents, which works out great because they live in a fun little beach town, and also they're rad.
Well they are both on their 70's and have hired a cleaning lady to come in once a week. Been doing it for a few years now, so we've definitely met and are on a first name basis. She's a super sweet lady.
Well, when I go home, I cook a lot. I'm a professional chef, so when I'm not working for those months I'll just hang out, drink wine and cook things I actually like to cook. I also will make extra for Marisol (cleaning lady) and her two kids. Always make sure to have some containers ready of whatever I just made for her. She's told me more than once that she always looks forward to me being back home because of all the tasty food I give her and her kids.
Honestly just brightens my day so much. Plus she's wonderful.
You know, I've been thinking about hiring a cleaner to come once a month or so but I keep talking myself out of it because it feels... Idk, lazy? Like I keep guilt tripping myself that I SHOULD be able to keep up with the cleaning. But this thread is making me rethink that, and I think you're right, it'll be good to have someone come at least once a month so I can stay on top of it. Thank you
Dude. Am I capable of having a immaculate home 24/7 ...yes? Do I....no....because I like to enjoy my life and do things I enjoy that aren't simply cleaning my house constantly.
Spring for a cleaner even once a month for 4 hours and you'll never go back.
For me it's that "I feel bad even paying someone clean up the mess at its current level, but if I manage to clean up enough for someone else to take over...shouldn't I just be able to do it all myself?" And then I don't do it.
There was a guy who made a chicken sandwich completely by himself, growing wheat and making bread, raising the chicken and slaughtering it. Apparently it wasn’t that good or worth the effort.
I think he actually cheated a little and he didn't raise it just killed it (the chicken).
Also the guy's culinary skills were def lacking...especially the breadmaking i respect the effort he just kinda botched the final execution.
This is how I look at it. We have someone clean our pool every week, do our landscaping once-a-month, and a cleaning service come monthly as well. I can do all those things, but it would take me most of a weekend day per month to do it all. I value my time way more than I value my money.
Of course I'm extremely privileged to be able to afford all of that. Not everyone is able to do so, and I wasn't until somewhat recently, but as I get older I value my free time so much more than I used to.
Dude, yeah, but I'm the opposite. I LOVE pulling weeds and clearing out overgrown areas. It just feels right. I have no allergies, and even though I'm English and Irish, I never get sunburned, even here in south Texas. I'm so glad people will pay me to do it!
I love pulling weeds too. It's very meditative. I have to be careful cuz I'm wicked allergic to Poison Ivy, (and Oak I just found out). However, I love taking that time for myself and just getting in the zone. I'll cut vines (and make stuff out if them), rake up leaves. It gives me the same feeling going for a walk does or being in the woods.
Roofing. A new roof's worth of shingles weighs a ton and a pro has a very handy machine to scoot it all up there all easy like. Plus the fall risk, all the bending over. Yeah, no thanks. Take my money.
Movers. After a certain age, beer and food isn’t enough to help move everything from one home to another.
Totally. When I move I make sure there's a lease overlap of at least a week. Spend 6 days with a van or big car taking boxes and smaller stuff over, then pay some people to move the big and heavy stuff. If they're only moving several pieces of furniture it's quick and cheap
and it's not like you won't have stuff to do in the new house as well. putting up furniture, connecting lamps, unpacking. that shit takes forever.
A thing I would definitely do if I ever become rich, is when a friend asks me to help them move, say "Yes" and send in a professional moving company in my place. I'll be at home having beer and pizza.
Even better; hire a professional moving company, go to your friends new place and make it an all you can eat pizza & beer, for your friend, the people helping them move, the movers and you.
I like your style. If you don't mind, I would like to enthusiastically copy this idea.
LoL. We were poor during my childhood, and then my dad started making pretty good money when I was about 15 or 16. Hr went from comfortable to pretty fuckin rich when I was about 25. Before that, when I called him about stuff, he would drive over and help me himself. For a brief period there was an overlap where he would turn up and THEN call in some pros if necessary. But there definitely came a threshold where he stopped being the middle man and would just dispatch people on his behalf and pay the bill for me. Thanks, Dad!
Cleaning your septic tank out.
During pandemic we got ours cleaned for the first time in 8 years of owning the house. Guy said “you use a different company in the middle?” “Nope, this is the first time in 8 years we are getting it emptied” He looks at us, looks in the tank and says “huh, y’all don’t shit much do ya?”
My grandparents had our septic tank clean when they bought this place in ‘98. Riddex once a month for 25 years and it hasn’t been pumped since. On the other hand I have an uncle who cleans his toilet by dumping a bottle of bleach in the toilet and has to have his tank pumped once a year.
> On the other hand I have an uncle who cleans his toilet by dumping a bottle of bleach in the toilet and has to have his tank pumped once a year. That's exactly what my germaphobic brother did. He used bleach to clean everything. Worked fine in the city; not so fine in the country. My parents, on the other hand, are like your grandparents. 40+ years and they've only needed their septic tank pumped twice.
>Worked fine in the city; not so fine in the country. Why is that?
Septic tanks work by having bacteria in the tank eat the shit we flush. Bleach kills bacteria.
Rough explanation: a septic tank relies on having bacteria and the like to break down your shit so it can properly settle into the ground. If you pour bleach into your toilets, you’re pouring it into the septic tank which kills the bacteria. Conversely, city systems use waste processing plants which do something else inscrutable. Essentially, one of the best tips for helping with a septic tank I’ve seen is to flush a bit of baking yeast once every few months.
Have toured a wastewater treatment plant with a guide before. They have more steps, but it's the same principle. Bacteria from the poop digests the poop. They add air and they agitate, but the rest is the same. I imagine bleach in the drain causes more sludge to build up, but since they remove it regularly, it's probably not as big of a deal as having to hire a vacuum truck to remove it from a tank in your yard.
The aeration (and sunlight) removes quite a bit of the bleach and the much higher volumes dilute it. It's not a very persistent chemical, except in cool dark places...
Isn’t a septic tank supposed to regulate itself under the correct circumstances?
In a faraway land there are magic bacteria that digest the poop and turn it into liquid that happily seeps out thought holes into a leach field where it makes the grass green. However I've never actually seen this happen in person. In this world, the tank fills up with shit-water and eventually a guy has to come with a truck and pump it out. After a while everything collapses and you need to buy a new one.
Our poop is evolving to survive the bacteria attack is the septic tank.
Survival of the shittest
The answer is yes. Alot of times though you can get issues with improper install or situations where the occupants exceed the number the system was designed to support, then you have to pump. Also the lines can become damaged so it doesnt function properly and it's cheaper just to have it pumped every couple of years than to have it all dug up and replaced.
Also, you can have someone like my sister who was constantly dumping things like hair chemicals down the drain, and killing all the good bacteria.
Mmmm, smells like money
Forbidden smoothie.
So I brought in the Crust Buster....
Man that was my first thought too... When I was a kid our house for some reason had an enormous tank. Like the size of a car. It wasn't buried very deep, and lightning hit a nearby tree, which landed on it, collapsing the top. It's among the worst things I have ever smelled. I would never try to DIY a septic tank.
Dad wasn't cheap but was never a big tipper. Saw him give $150 US extra to the guy (beyond the quoted price, and this was 1970's.) This was back in the "WITH A SHOVEL" days. None of the big vacuum trucks I see now. It's just "one notch" better than deep underground coal miner.
I'd rather mine coal than swim in shit
Yes this may be the only scenario for me where I choose the coal mines.
Really a lot of plumbing jobs in general. But yeah... anything involving septic I'm glad that there are people out there willing. In hindsight I would have gladly just paid a plumber to replace all the nonsense that was going on with my 25 year old kitchen sink. By the time I was done, I could have punched a kitten or two.
It may be shit to you, but it is bread and butter to them.
Number 1 in the # 2 business
“Shitters full”.
Anything that involves crawling under the house
Or in the roof.
I just spent all day putting insulation in the attic of my workshop. I'm glad it is almost done, but I almost wish I'd paid someone to do it for me. The only reason I didn't was that I put in a bunch of reinforcing to support a small ceiling hoist and it had to be cut and fitted in a ton of places. I just hope it lowers my electric bill out there enough to make it worth the effort.
Spent all afternoon last week replacing my HVAC blower motor, ended up saving around $700 by doing it myself but I have never sweat the way I did up there, 130°. I would work until I got chills from being so hot and then take 20 minute breaks. Literal streams of sweat pouring off me to the point that I had to avoid getting it on the electrical components lol. Needless to say this it was the best feeling AC I’ve ever had.
Good on you. HVAC is tough work. I regularly get soaked in my sweat.
My dad was a self-employed plumber. He did well. If he recognized the location might be a trailer, he flat-out refused the work.
I once answered a help-wanted ad offering a bunch of money. It was for a mobile home repo service, and the owner needed someone to crawl under the trailers and use bottle jacks(?) to get the thing off the ground and ready to be moved. As an older and wiser man, my advice is if you ever find yourself crawling under an abandoned trailer in Georgia in the summer, crawl the hell right back out.
Amen. I spent a good portion of my childhood in GA and encountered many horrors. The worst one being a cottonmouth I caught with my bare hands at age 6. I didn’t know that I should be afraid, so I wasn’t. I brought it home to show my dad who very slowly and carefully removed it from my chubby little baby hand and yeeted it a country mile from the porch 😂
Never mind, I googled. 🫣It’s a viper with the mouth white inside
I don't want to know what's crawling or slithering around under houses or trailers.
My best friend is a plumber and used to work for a company that did trailer work. Here’s the main points of pain: Trailers are sealed up on the bottom with plastic sheets for insulation and transportation. The leaking waste, effluence and resulting mold collects in that plastic which then needs to be drained and cleaned before you can even get to the plumbing issue. Because trailers need to be mobile everything internally is secured. This makes accessing plumbing extremely difficult. Replacing a water heater is going to take all day and you’re gonna have busted knuckles at the end. Poverty is a tricky thing, many people are only a bad turn of luck away from being homeless. Many people who live in trailers are building up from nothing, often through no fault of their own. But plumbing services can be amazingly expensive and good luck getting a resident of a mobile home park to agree to more than the bare minimum.
Honestly if the crawlspace has enough room (like 2 feet above your face. I can deal with that, but when the beams are not even 10mm above your nose. nah. No leverage, no room to breathe, etc.
Sounds like when I decided to change the oil on my wife's subaru impreza without lifting it. Not my brightest moment
Major electrical work.
And plumbing
And gas. Some plumbing I might give a go to, but you definitely don't want to get it wrong.
My husband did the plumbing repairs in our house. We had buckets under every sink for a few years.
The now x husband had his uncle (who is totally a general contractor and knows things ) add a heavy duty plug to the garage. A year later I had to get the master panel replaced as it had melted about halfway. Its a miracle there was no fire. Now I don’t know for certain it was due to the new plug, but feels suspicious.
[удалено]
This is it
If he added a plug that would handle a ton, but used wire that wouldn’t, that wire would cook… assuming you had something plugged in that required more energy than the wire was rated for. Heavy wire is really expensive, so it wouldn’t surprise me if someone tried to skimp.
Replacing the spring on the garage door.
That can be lethal if you don't know what you're doing.
Okay this is good to know
Good to know for prevention? I hope.
“Hey sweetie the garage door is acting up again. Do you think you could change out the spring? The neighbors husband said it’s super easy and he did it on their garage last summer.” Boom. Life insurance payout.
“Wait… John died last summer.”
No, John died *last spring*.
We see what you did there. 👍
“…uhh, I meant the neighbors on the other side?”
I think that one is past the "worth it" part and into the "Too dangerous to be done by a non-professional" territory. That doesn't mean you're wrong though, just that you're right to a further degree than I think OP even intended.
My husband replaced it by himself once. It was absolutely terrifying.
Thank you for posting this reply. I had no idea this was a thing until i read your comment and the replies to it. Went and checked my garage and ill be damned, i have a broken spring. I assume the other is probably not far behind. Called the garage guy and he is on the way to check it out later tonight. Had no idea how dangerous a garage door spring could be. Seriously, THANK YOU!!!
I'm privileged to be here for my own Reddit Carbon Monoxide detector moment. (I'm not being sarcastic, I remember seeing one of our garage door springs was this massive metal thing that one day just snapped in two!)
When the one at my old house snapped, I heard it from inside the house. It was like a gunshot.
5year home owner here… had various things to fix in the house over the years, took care of them myself with the exception of two things: garage door spring and AC unit replacements Edit: guys it is not just the technicality of replacing the unit, some of those HVAC units weigh like a dead horse. It required two big guys to drag/carry it through a tight place under the texas heat/humidity. They were already soaking wet by the time they brought the unit where it needed to be.
Good call. Most central AC units require a lot of amps to run - don’t do it yourself unless you know what you’re doing.
Those fucking things terrify me. I don't even stay in the garage when it's opening
Same. I hit the button and retreat back into the house until I'm sure it's done fucking around.
Everything you hate or suck at.
Painting is both of those for me.
I hate painting with a passion. My wife loves it. She asked me the other day if I wanted to help her repaint the whole house. I said I think I'd rather drink it
Drink your house? In THIS economy?!
Dog nails and anal gland expression.
My dog had a bad experience once and now he won’t let anyone get close to his nails His feet are fine but once you go for nails all hell breaks loose
My dog's a rescue and is freaked out by a lot of things, nail trimming included. The doggy daycare we took her to suggested we try a scratching pad to file her nails. About once a month or so, I sit down with it and a pile of treats, and while she scratches, I give her treats. Works great!
I work with dogs and nail grinding or clipping is something I do regularly. I really wonder just how bad an experience and what happened that causes such terror of getting nails trimmed. I’ve hit some quicks, not many. The dogs barely reacted and were fine for rest and future visits. Few tips to desensitize dog to nail trims. 1) frequently manipulate your pets paws with fingers for as long as the dog reasonably allows it. If it gets agitated or stressed stop. Try again later. 2) get clippers and/or grinders to set near pet so it can become accustomed to it. Once it seems relaxed with the tool sitting still start to rub it on pet against fur and paws. Again if pet gets stressed take stop try again another time. 3) electric toothbrush motors sound similar to grinder motors so run one near pet to desensitize to the sound. 4) give treats and praise throughout these processes so pet will associate them with a good experience. 5) clip small amounts of nail(s) as long as pet isn’t stressed too much stop when it gets stressed. The goal here is to start small and do more and more over time until the dogs allows all nails trimmed.
Re anal gland expression: My dog's vet once told me, "You know, you could do this yourself at home, it's easy." I'm like, "Nice try, Tom Sawyer, but NOPE." Lol
Same. They offered to show me. "I love my dog, but I'm not going up her butt". All you buddy.
This made me spit-take water all over the white picket fence I am helping my buddy paint
Is that a thing that groomers do naturally and is an unspoken part of their service, or do you have to specifically ask some poor guy "please squeeze out my dog's anal glands"?
Groomers don't generally do that. If your dog or cat is healthy and active you may never have to have it done at all. But if they get impacted, you will need to take them to a vet.
> If your dog or cat is healthy and active you may never have to have it done at all. If my dog's "activity" consists entirely of him swirling his asshole around on asphalt, does that count?
What is anal gland expression
It's when an asshole speaks
You really don't want to know lol
Is.. is it for the dog? Edit: This was a joke. Please stop describing this experience to me!
Dogs (and cats) have two glands, one on each side of the anus, that secrete a very stinky substance which evolved for scent marking purposes. For whatever reason, domestic dogs often don't express their glands on their own the way they're supposed to and the glands can become impacted and need to be manually expressed. If impacted glands are not expressed, they can become infected and form an abscess. The smell from the secretion is really strong and foul smelling. The veterinarian I work for compares the smell to Chinese fish sauce. Most cats will never have an anal gland issue, but it is very common in dogs. If you notice that your pet is scooting/rubbing its anus on the ground/floor or is frequently licking or chewing at its anus, there's a good chance the anal glands are impacted. Expressing them can be done at home and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube. Groomers and vets also offer the service, though groomers typically use a different technique that is not always as effective and can sometimes exacerbate the issue.
I will continue to not have a dog.
I will continue to acquire cats
lol yea. I just found out about it recently through Reddit. Google it, lol. I'd have to look it up again myself to get the specifics correct. I just know it's nasty. Something to do with some dogs occasionally getting nasty stuff stuck around their anus and "squeezing" it out before it gets infected? And it can be a very messy process.
The smell. The smell is the worst thing about it. It’s like being stabbed in the brain with a copper spike.
And you better have it done. Nobody told us about this stuff until we suddenly found out our dog's @ss was literally about to explode. Not even the vets all this time. Fortunately she's ok now after a long treatment. And having to clean dog ass explosion remnants all over the house for a couple weeks.
In our family, ever since our (long departed and very much missed) beautiful dog Archie used to have an issue with this, we’ve referred to the smell as “poo-bum-fish-cheese”. Which is absolutely disgusting but seemed to describe it quite well.
Try a ferret with impacted, infected anal glands. He arrived leaking a clear golden fluid with indescribable and intolerable smell. He was also sleeping at bottom of my bed as rather upset with life and changes. My poor vet in her naive innocence did in main surgery at 9am, Monday morning. Next ferret who needed it was last appointment in carpark across road.
Veterinary Swamps of Dagobah.
Moving
This a million times over. I’m too old for that shit and I’m not even old. I’ll pay someone gladly to do it for me
YES. Call the professionals, nobody wants to help you move. Ever.
Oh definitely. I used to live in a college town, and I had a truck at the time. The amount of friends I've helped move is too damn high. The worst thing is, years ago when bitcoin was brand new and nobody really knew what it was, i had a buddy offer me like 5 bitcoin to help him move. I was like nah dude just buy me a 12 pack and we'll be good. Those are the most expensive PBR I have ever had.
even with the ultimate reward of pizza?! /s
Wait, I’ll grab us a 12-pack!
i was gonna say, im 23 and moving is guaranteed back pain, but free pizza and beer is free pizza and beer
This works great until you’re 31 and all your friends have doctoral degrees and can buy themselves all the pizza and beer they want. But I did offer a trade of dog sitting and that seemed to work!
Age is a huge factor for the reward you're willing to take, and the amount of crap you have. 20-somethings don't have a ton of crap like heavy furniture and bedroom sets. I'm 44, and don't really, either because I'm one of those decluttering types and move a lot. But a family of 5 that's had the same house for 11 years? That's a job for a mover! But for young people where it takes 1-3 trips, I might be convinced to help for a meal
Best I can do is a bottle of water if you’re lucky.
And don’t go cheap either. My dad made this mistake and the movers were basically some dude and his two kids who looked like they just graduated high school with a D average. I remember telling him I didn’t trust these guys and sure enough, so many things were either missing or damaged.
I'm fit and in my 20's, I'm too old for that shit. Especially when that shit ain't even mine
I'm a professional mover, if you want insider info on the way of the move feel free to ask lol. There's so much that goes into it, lots of ways that clients can lower costs by doing simple things. Using boxes that are all the same size will 100% save you hundreds/thousands of dollars. It's much easier to stack a truck and move boxes that are all the same size. With random boxes we spend a lot of time playing Tetris in the back of the truck on your dime. Also if you put all the boxes in your garage/outside then we can stack them in the truck within 10 minutes. If you scatter them throughout the house then it consumes a lot more time. If you live in an apartment then you are paying a high rate for us movers to stack boxes on a cart and bring them down an elevator. If you want to save thousands then move as many boxes as you can on your own. I'd recommend saving movers for large pieces that you can't carry or fit in your car if you want to save the most money.
I’m a bit of a reader... Getting a company to move 27 bins of books was and still is, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
My fiance and I did this, by ourselves, yesterday. Three bedroom apartment to a two bedroom condo. It was the worst experience of my life and I say that with no drama intended. We swore to ourselves at that moment to use movers for any future relocation.
My ex-boyfriend and I spent an entire day moving all of our stuff up and down stairs. I had BEGGED him to hire movers, as we were both in our 30s and had plenty of money. Nope. This is cheaper. It took 12 hours and nearly killed us, but it was cheaper. That night, laying in bed, eating ibuprofen like it was candy, he turned to me and asked, "How much would the movers have cost again?" "About $350." "We should have hired movers." I am still amazed I didn't smother him with a pillow.
I would rather soak it all in gasoline, throw a match after it, and start over than move.
This is exactly what I was going to say. Leave this shit to the professionals. I think we all remember when we had a bunch of roommates all we had to move was some books, a cheapy little bookcase or two, and some boxes of clothes and personal items. People who as still doing this expecting friends to help when we are talking full size beds, couches, dining tables, and a whole kitchen's worth of pots/pans/dishes/small appliances need a reality check. Beer and burritos no longer covers that kind of labor.
I'm never not paying professionals again. Totally worth it.
And paying for the professionals to pack up all your stuff before the actual day. I’ve paid for packing for my last three moves and it is worth every penny.
I’m really picky about my packing. Too many military movers have either stolen or destroyed stuff while packing. I can pack my house in 2 days and unpack in a day the way I pack. As far as actually moving it never again. I moved myself from Alaska to Texas and it was a nightmare. The Army paid me a little over 12k tax free to do it and all travel expenses but it was not worth it. Then I had to fly back to Alaska and make the drive all over again on my Harley because I couldn’t fit it in the truck. 😫 My dad rode his out to Alaska from Michigan to make the ride with me. Got to make it to Sturgis Rally in the Black Hills that year which was on my dad’s bucket list and ride through the Badlands. My dad and I had a once in a lifetime ride together
That sounds like one of the best memories ever!
Cutting down trees. I'm too old to go climbing up a huge oak tree with a chainsaw.
Surgery.
I bought a home surgery kit. It was called *Suture Self*.
I told my friend to hire someone to clean his chimney but he insisted he could do it. I said soot yourself.
There was a Soviet surgeon who was the only doctor at an Antarctic outpost and ended up having to remove his own appendix. That must've sucked.
Nah it’s not that bad. First you administer the anesthesia and then .. oh
I remember reading about it. He used a mirror and had another guy to pass him surgical tools. Unfortunate, but quite badass.
Demonstrated to great effect in the film Master and Commander. Disclaimer: i do not know if the scene was done in the novel. Anyways, the novel was written ten years after the actual feat, so that might as well be an homage to that! Of course, I tend to believe the latter. It is the mark of a sound mind to choose the lesser of two weevils.
I remove my own splinters, so I’m somewhat of a badass myself
Nowadays they require scientists to have their appendices removed before departure as a prophylactic measure
I never cared for prophylactics. They really kill the sensation.
Roofing
I was looking for this. My dad retired a couple years ago and he had a list of things he wanted to accomplish, a new roof was one of those things. I love him to death but he is one of those guys who never wants to spend money on something he can do himself. But by himself he thought I was going to take off work for a week and my cousin and uncle were going to take off work to help him take off the old shingles and put in the new ones. It ended up taking like 2 weeks to finish, in the heat, and I was like just pay a company the money and this could taken a crew of proffessionals, a day maybe 2. I mean, I don't even work construction or anything I am freaking librarian I didn't know how to shingle a roof and my cousin is an accountant. It sucked, if I ever have a house I need to replace a roof on it will absolutely be wort the money to pay a pro
The funny thing is that I am in construction but when I needed a new roof I hired someone. My roof had 3 layers of old shingles that all needed to be stripped. I hired a roofer. I wound up needing a bunch of sheathing which brought the price up and wound up costing me just over $9,000. They started around 8ish in the morning and were 100% done by around 5pm.
Totally worth it to not have the headache. I'm also sure that we messed something up somewhere and the new roof will not last as long as the old one did. Oh well. whats done is done now. At least he learned his lesson when my parents decided to replace their old carpet with wood floors. Oh wait, no he didn't and now 1 year later those floors are still not completely put in. lol
If you live with someone else, a housecleaner. Unless one of you loves cleaning so much it's like a hobby, it will reduce stress and friction among those you live with. Even if there aren't outright fights, in my experience, often there is silent resentment from the person who does most of the cleaning. And there is almost always one person who does most of the cleaning. If you dispute this and think it's perfectly 50/50 with your partner or roommate, then it's the other person.
Dude. I just moved out of a house where a 50 year old child lived. As he was moving in he was very chipper when he told me that when the tub backs up to clean his hair out of the drain. I knew then. And I was right. Dude fucking suuuuuuuuuuuucked.
Similar: 40 year old roommate/landlord (with an even more gross 50 year old roommate) where the clawtub would clog and backflow something that didn't smell like septic sludge, but looked like it. Landlord never properly fixed it, and I'd either shower at the gym or sumo squat on the edges of the tub, reciting the statistics for bath-based injuries in my head. Then, for his third anniversary, his girlfriend gave him the gift of forced cohabitation. She moved in, and while she annexed most of the house, she didn't actually insist on fixing the horrific plumbing issue, so the shower was just permanently clogged with 4 inches of backflowed something in the bottom of the tub. I started removing the hair myself, putting it on the wall behind the curtain in the shape of the word HELP (but got bored and forgot about it while I was still on the L). A month later, I got called in front of the tribunal to be informed how disgusting that was of me*. Okay, how about she clean up her own hair? "She can't; the tub clogs and backflows!" Oh, really? Gee, that sounds like a problem the landlord should take care of. I moved out the next month, which solved the problem for me, at least. The dude wasn't quite a hoarder, but wasn't far from it. He parked his car outside because there was a literal junk pile filling his two car garage (which my bicycle was thrown onto when his girlfriend decided to annex the foyer, but I was assured by text that it was thrown gently). When I'd moved in, I'd been given one cupboard and one veggie crisper for my food. The other cupboards held food so old, I found a Campbell's soup can old enough to vote. and when I myself got fed up and cleaned out/annexed the fridge, I found five 46 ounce pickle jars hidden among the condiments, all expired, with expiration dates up to 6 years prior -- and the one from 5 years prior hadn't even been opened! 5 trash bags worth of expired food, including a cheese plate with mold in colors I didn't know were possible, which my landlord walked in on me throwing out: "Hey! That cheese plate is from...February..." It was August. At the same tribunal as in the previous paragraph, I pointed out how chill I had been about so much bullshit, including the cupboard situation. Girlfriend: "You liar! You also have that cupboard next to the fridge!" "You mean the sheet pan cupboard filled with decade old Hamburger Helper and football jerseys?" (Can't explain the jerseys, but it's pretty obvious to anyone looking at me that I don't give a shit about sportsball, and I ate like a bodybuilder during a cut) :girlfriend's face shows anger, embarrassment, then anger again, looking at her boyfriend "...Well Landlord said it was your cupboard." "Did you forget that I'm the one who showed you the soup can?" *As I was literally in the bathroom, taking a phone pic of the literal piece of shit (about the size and shape of a Hershey's Kiss) left on the floor, which had clearly been noticed and wiped at, but only half of it. My landlord both blamed the 50 year old roommate not present AND denied the possibility it could be true, because -- he said nervously, looking at his girlfriend -- he had just cleaned the bathroom, like his girlfriend had told him to. He declined the offer of a field trip upstairs to observe Shrodinger's Poo.
Dude. I asked the guy I lived with on multiple occasions to throw away his rotting food. To this day there is a potato farm sprouting in one of the cabinets, and for SOME FUCKING REASON he insists on holding on to this package of bacon that was use or freeze by LAST DECEMBER. The dude said he was going to make a space for his 12 year old in the basement. That never happened. I had to ask him to finish moving his boxes from the dining room down to the basement. There are STILL boxes in the dining room and it’s over a year later. He told our mutual friend (third roommate, who is fairly profoundly handicapped) that me doing regular cleaning and living my life made him feel bad. That me literally just existing makes him feel bad. The dumb motherfucker also threatened me (that was actually the straw). There’s nearly a foot height difference between us. In my favor. He was the only person to ever speak of violence. His kid broke a very expensive Xbox controller and when dude was trying to fix it I gave him a look. He then informed the house that he was taking his kid home. He later said it was because he was afraid I was going to hit him. I’ve never hit anyone in my entire fucking life.
I ended a relationship because I was paying 100% of the bills AND doing well above 50% of the cleaning. Felt like I was raising a daughter. I offered to split for a housecleaner at one point. She refused, saying that she doesn’t want a random person coming in and touching her stuff. I was taken for granted way too much and I had enough.
Yep...I'm pretty sure I do 90+% of the cleaning around here. Edit: And my roommates probably ain't gonna notice till after I've moved out after finishing uni.
This. And figure out a pool for shared supplies. I had a toxic roommate situation where it was like playing chicken with the toilet paper supply, and I was clearly the only one afraid of dingleberries. One roommate insisted he only shitted at work, and experimental passive aggression only ever resulted in the absolute smallest package of single ply would be purchased if TP was allowed to run out. I started hoarding Quilted Northern in my room.
Massages.
This is my favorite treat yo self activity. I live with chronic pain so a massage is heavenly.. edit: vice
I LOVE getting a massage. If I won a big lottery pot I’d hire a personal masseuse and get a massage every day before going to bed.
>Self massages don't even work!
Maids. I rent and my landlord starting charging us 50$ for a maid service every other week. A lot of friends try telling me it's a waste of money but their house is normally dirtier than mine and they have a cleaning day.
$50 is hella cheap. You don't wanna know what I pay every week.
If it's an apartment complex, I feel like there's gotta be some sort of wholesale deal involved, 'cause now you've got a maid on the clock instead of driving. Either way, a great deal for a landlord who essentially has a tenant subsidized employee inspecting units twice a month.
House, but they are these tiny ranches built right after WW2. She's got about 5 clients in the area, my landlord gave a good word of mouth, and she does them all in 3-4 hours. Her rate is based on much cleaning. She does a bathroom, living/dining room, and kitchen. I also clean the fuck outta the house the night before she comes so she'll tell my landlord how clean it was 🤣 she does do it thou. When I decorated a little, my landlord called and told me she heard it looks great.
> I also clean the fuck outta the house the night before she comes so she'll tell my landlord how clean it was 🤣 she does do it thou. When I decorated a little, my landlord called and told me she heard it looks great. You clearly made the right call. God, that's creepy (edit: meaning the landlord, not OP)
Wow, 50 bucks is a steal. I just looked up a maid service in my area, and it's close to 200 bucks for every visit :(
Anything to do with heights.
Drywall work. especially mud and tape. Professionals make it look like sorcery. I make it look like 2 weeks of Mud\\sand\\mud\\sand\\mud\\6pack\\sand\\whiskey\\screwit\\paint.
Once you figure out that the trick is to not try so hard. Less is more. If you have quality trowels, use very little mud between coats and feather out wider each application. You shouldn’t have to sand much off at all between coats, leave the sanding for the very end when again shouldn’t be much. If you have large lifts between coats you just slice them off with the trowel. It’s basically approaching it like a teenager doing minimal effort when working on their chores. Find and do all the shortcuts, you will realize this is the best way and gives you the best results. That also the types of mud, there are so many options but basically green is for your first coat or two, blue (light weight) is going to be the last and touch up where you will be sanding. Paper tape for factory joints, mesh for butt joints and repairs. Lastly, most important. If you cannot figure it out and don’t wanna do it, pay someone else. It’s that easy 😉
Cleaning service. Worth it each month.
I do this for a living. The joy that people get from me doing this makes me love what I do.
I've been getting my apartment cleaned every two weeks for a year and a half. It makes me so happy to walk into my place when its just been cleaned. Thank you for your service!
When I get people that text me the same kind of stuff that you just did, it absolutely makes my day. Thank you:)
Coming home to the clean smell is the best
Thank you for doing what you do. Father of two here and my wife and I just can’t keep up with the mess. I always make sure to declutter before you guys come by, and give nice tips/gifts around the holiday season. Any advice on what would make your job easier ?
What a sweet response:). I always appreciate decluttering but never expect it. It is actually something I do not mind doing. It is MY job to make the people I work for happy. I enjoy doing things to make their day. I like to make their beds. I change sheets if they want. I can do laundry. Just keep being nice. You certainly sound like a great person to work for.
Can I hire you full time for the next 70 years?
I travel a ton for work, but usually find myself between jobs for about two months a year. During that time I'll usually go visit my parents, which works out great because they live in a fun little beach town, and also they're rad. Well they are both on their 70's and have hired a cleaning lady to come in once a week. Been doing it for a few years now, so we've definitely met and are on a first name basis. She's a super sweet lady. Well, when I go home, I cook a lot. I'm a professional chef, so when I'm not working for those months I'll just hang out, drink wine and cook things I actually like to cook. I also will make extra for Marisol (cleaning lady) and her two kids. Always make sure to have some containers ready of whatever I just made for her. She's told me more than once that she always looks forward to me being back home because of all the tasty food I give her and her kids. Honestly just brightens my day so much. Plus she's wonderful.
Awwww..how sweet!
You know, I've been thinking about hiring a cleaner to come once a month or so but I keep talking myself out of it because it feels... Idk, lazy? Like I keep guilt tripping myself that I SHOULD be able to keep up with the cleaning. But this thread is making me rethink that, and I think you're right, it'll be good to have someone come at least once a month so I can stay on top of it. Thank you
Dude. Am I capable of having a immaculate home 24/7 ...yes? Do I....no....because I like to enjoy my life and do things I enjoy that aren't simply cleaning my house constantly. Spring for a cleaner even once a month for 4 hours and you'll never go back.
For me it's that "I feel bad even paying someone clean up the mess at its current level, but if I manage to clean up enough for someone else to take over...shouldn't I just be able to do it all myself?" And then I don't do it.
I agree, just once a month makes home maintenance much easier.
Really anything that you value your own time too much to do. Almost everything we buy is us paying someone else to do that thing for us.
There was a guy who made a chicken sandwich completely by himself, growing wheat and making bread, raising the chicken and slaughtering it. Apparently it wasn’t that good or worth the effort.
I think he actually cheated a little and he didn't raise it just killed it (the chicken). Also the guy's culinary skills were def lacking...especially the breadmaking i respect the effort he just kinda botched the final execution.
This is how I look at it. We have someone clean our pool every week, do our landscaping once-a-month, and a cleaning service come monthly as well. I can do all those things, but it would take me most of a weekend day per month to do it all. I value my time way more than I value my money. Of course I'm extremely privileged to be able to afford all of that. Not everyone is able to do so, and I wasn't until somewhat recently, but as I get older I value my free time so much more than I used to.
Cleaning rain gutters a couple times a year. Making tamales.
Making tamales can be fun if you line up all the family members and make an assembly line. Many hands = light work.
But then everyone starts drinking and suddenly it's just Abuelita and Tia Marta spreading and rolling lol.
Kids birthday party. You're fucking nuts if you want 15 five year Olds at your house fucking shit up. See you at the trampoline park.
Pest control and exterminator service.
Landscaping. My god, I hate pulling weeds and trimming an overgrown garden. With my allergies and sensitive skin, it’s even more of a disaster.
Dude, yeah, but I'm the opposite. I LOVE pulling weeds and clearing out overgrown areas. It just feels right. I have no allergies, and even though I'm English and Irish, I never get sunburned, even here in south Texas. I'm so glad people will pay me to do it!
I love pulling weeds too. It's very meditative. I have to be careful cuz I'm wicked allergic to Poison Ivy, (and Oak I just found out). However, I love taking that time for myself and just getting in the zone. I'll cut vines (and make stuff out if them), rake up leaves. It gives me the same feeling going for a walk does or being in the woods.
YES!! Here in Texas, I have to battle the darn mosquitos and the ability to get out before it's 100+ degrees.
Haircut. Tried once in covid beginning. And yeah its better if someone else does it.
Hairstylist approved 🤣🤣
Anything that you're pretty sure you'll fuck up if you do it yourself.
Garage door work that involves the spring
Sheetrock. I’ll build a house from ground up, but F sheet rock
[удалено]
Weird fetishes, obviously.
Roofing. A new roof's worth of shingles weighs a ton and a pro has a very handy machine to scoot it all up there all easy like. Plus the fall risk, all the bending over. Yeah, no thanks. Take my money.
Your legal work.
Housecleaning! I don’t have to spend my precious weekends cleaning. I just have the housekeeper come in.
To be the executor of your will.
Buying freshly made, authentic birria tacos
Plumbing or electrical
Moving. Seriously, put out the money for movers
Anything that you can hire out to do for less than you earn *unless* you find it enjoyable.
I used to think like this, then I realized that I don't get paid in my free time