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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think these domestic things make sense and I’m not being lazy?

414 replies

dellay · 13/08/2024 19:04

There are various things that I do at home that just make sense to me and I can’t understand on a domestic level why anyone would put themselves out further? This has come up in a conversation with friends who found it hilarious and ridiculous that I do this. I can see the funny side (sort of!) but surely others do this too?

Carrots… I just snap the ends off by hand and put them in the pan rather than chopping with a knife. Why use a knife when you can snap it off?! Same for other veg where it works.

The dishwasher… why empty and put in cupboards? With the exception of mugs, I never ever empty the dishwasher as I just take what is needed then when it’s dirty put it back ready for the next wash?

Clothes… hang them on the two clothes airers and never put them away. I don’t have loads of clothes so that probably helps but literally why put them away?! They are in the spare room perfectly accessible once dry.

There’s other things but this is the general idea. I just don’t get why you would make more work for yourself? Surely others do the same?!

OP posts:
Packetofcrispsplease · 14/08/2024 18:17

Clothes airer is ok I guess as long as you have the space to leave it up almost permanently .
Carrots I peel them anyway .
Dishwasher just ugh no !
I empty mine , leave the things sat out on the side I need at that point in the day and put all the other stuff away .
Then I have an empty dishwasher to load dirty items in .
I will leave extra dirty items on the side or in the sink if I’m waiting for the dishwasher to finish .

Anonym00se · 14/08/2024 18:10

dellay · 13/08/2024 19:17

I don’t get why people are confused about the dishwasher… it’s ran every evening after dinner so dirty is only next to clean for a matter of hours? So what?

So what if you put in a plate that had chicken defrosting on it, then put it in the dishwasher and it dripped all over a cup that you then drank out of? If you were running a café, Environmental Health would shut you down. The contamination risk is high!

And the carrots - are you the world’s strongest man? It sounds like tearing the Yellow Pages in half.

LaughingCat · 14/08/2024 18:09

Nope, I’m out on this one. I’m all for making efficiencies around the house - I never peel veg for example because why - but I couldn’t not put away the washing up or clean laundry. Clothes go away as soon as they’re dry!

3luckystars · 14/08/2024 18:09

The dishwasher thing is wasteful and makes no sense.

Travelsfar · 14/08/2024 18:04

Weird just weird - all of it, sorry!

Heyhoitsme · 14/08/2024 17:57

I break mushrooms rather than chop them. The dishwasher thing is gross. You must be washing clean things over and over if they aren't used during the day.

Stifledlife · 14/08/2024 17:56

So as I understand this, you wash a dishwasher full of dishes, some clean and some dirty, every night. Why? If you emptied the dishwasher you would discover that with 1 adult and 1 toddler in the house you would only have to run it every 2 or 3 days.
The clothes airer thing is the same as hanging things in the wardrobe except you airer has become your wardrobe, so that's neither here nor there. It wouldn't work if there were more of you, but go for it if it makes you happy.

The vegetable things is ridiculous. You cook the veg whole, taking twice as long and getting inconsistent results, and THEN you chop them up?

There is a reason that most people do these things one way. Think about it.

Sleepytiredyawn · 14/08/2024 17:47

I once saw, possibly on Facebook a video of a huge kitchen with 2 dishwashers. Whilst watching I was like, why do you need 2 of them. But once they explained that they rotate each one and leave the door open to the one that has the dirty dishes in, I thought it was quite clever.

I think your system will work fine in all ways if you live alone but it would be difficult with a house full of people.

Bodeganights · 14/08/2024 13:50

ILoveToCleanSaidNooneEver · 14/08/2024 00:14

Why do people have 2 dishwashers? Do they have no cupboards? Or is it just due to having a big family?

I don't get why you'd have one for clean and dirty either, the dishwashers must be alternated and have both clean and dirty dishes in them at some point.

Please will someone explain it to me like it is 'Why we have 2 dishwashers for dummies'.

Thanks in advance

Two empty dishwashers, you fill one with dirty stuff, when full you turn it on. Now you use clean dishes straight from that dishwasher, fill up the other one with dirty, once full turn it on. There cant be much left in the other dishwasher, which is now the place for dirty.

I'd love this, saves a whole row of cupboards. When I've seen it, it was a tiny flat/studio. So very little room for cupboards. Sadly despite a huge kitchen, the layout wont work.

Trinance · 14/08/2024 13:05

I love clothes and fashion. Does this mean you wear exactly the same things every few days on rotation. I would find that incredibly dull. No thanks!

Grammarnut · 14/08/2024 12:57

I@ think I took @fliptopbin too seriously. 😂

Maria1979 · 14/08/2024 12:11

Emptying dishwasher takes 3 minutes. And then you don't have to rewash clean dishes, what a waste. What you are doing is not timesaving (3min🙄) nor good for the planet. It's just lazy. Same for the carrots; easier to chop them unless you have tiny ones. And do you only have two sets of clothes ? Surely there are more effective ways to save time..

Greenbananasoup · 14/08/2024 12:01

Fiorentina9 · 13/08/2024 20:02

It does all make sense. Sounds like you've just optimised your life in a way that works for you. I wouldn't do this, but I think it's more tolerable than people who just like to make extra work for themselves because they have nothing more interesting to do with their free time, so they just spend their whole life cleaning. The kind of people who iron baby clothes.

Some people enjoy cleaning, no need to put others
down because they’re not exactly the same as you

notatinydancer · 14/08/2024 11:39

fliptopbin · 13/08/2024 20:55

How in hell do you snap the top off a carrot? Either you use really old bendy ones or you have the hand strength of an olympian (in carrot snapping).

I think it would be impossible?

Superhansrantowindsor · 14/08/2024 10:21

Run dishwasher every evening. Empty in the morning - takes 2 mins. Load up with dirty throughout the rest of the day and switch on again in the eve.

Grammarnut · 14/08/2024 10:18

fliptopbin · 13/08/2024 21:04

I have to say, any time I even touch an egg, I have to bleach the whole kitchen, and every door handle, light switch and the bannisters, so I sympathise

That's a bit OTT. As long as you do not keep eggs in the fridge it is perfectly ok to crack them, for example, to put into a cake. Temperature reached even to soft boil eggs is enough to kill any salmonella on the shell.
If you keep eggs in the fridge that's different - moisture accumulating on the egg when it come out of the fridge means salmonella could be passed on. (For US readers, in the UK it is illegal for eggs to be washed before sale and they must not be kept in chill cabinets in shops - this is to prevent salmonella infection - and eggs should not be kept in domestic fridges for the same reason).

Butwhybecause · 14/08/2024 09:49

jen337 · 13/08/2024 23:36

You are weird. For the carrot thing it’s much easier to bite the ends off that’s what I do. Dishwasher your way is going to be a lottery when you pull out an item if it’s clean or dirty. I’ve solved this by having one of those catering dishwashers which basically kept running all the time so I can be sure the dishes in it are likely to be clean. Electric and water bills are a bit high though, I guess that’s just the price I pay for being a genius. Clothes I just chuck the dirty ones out, the space I save by not having a washing machine or dryer I use to keep up a good stockpile of new items.

🤣🤣🤣

Grammarnut · 14/08/2024 09:46

I am not great on hoovering etc (too hot yesterday, sat in garden instead and dead-headed a few roses and pulled up stinging nettles which get everywhere!). I put clothes away - ironed if necessary - because leaving them on the airer is a) untidy and b) where am I putting the next lot of washing?

I am alone from just recently, so tend not to immediately empty the dishwasher but do so throughout the day, cups and bowls first. I would never put dirty dishes in with clean ones, health hazard, smell hazard and the clean dishes will need washing again; altogether a really weird thing to do.
Breaking vegetables up is not so weird, I guess, depending on the veg in question. I tend to break fresh cauliflower florettes (but not brocolli, too difficult) and fresh mushrooms if I want chunks rather than slices or quarters, but a knife is much, much easier for anything else. How do you break up potatoes or onions? To break carrots they must be a bit floppy? And breaking them 'where they break' is deeply wasteful. So they are only a £1 a bag, but someone grew those carrots and one owes respect to that effort by wasting as little as possible. Also, they may be cheap to me, but a pound is a lot of money when on a small budget - as some people are in these times of escalating costs (mainly driven by profiteering by energy companies IMHO).

Somepeoplearesnippy · 14/08/2024 09:45

YABU for eating carrots which are the devils vegetable.

Also, YAB wasteful running the dishwasher every day when some of the things in it are already clean. Just run it when it is full of dirty staff and put the things away.

Clothes airer as a wardrobe sounds like a plan but a bit of a waste of a room. Effectively your spare room has become a walk in wardrobe but not in a Desperate Housewives/millionaire sort of way.

CocoPlum · 14/08/2024 09:37

If I put my morning coffee/tea cups in the dishwasher, the dinner plates on the bottom rack would get drips on them.
Or I might pull out a spoon for a cup of tea and there is yoghurt on it from my breakfast.
I don't always use the same pans, so the clean ones need moving to make space for dirty ones.

Great that you have a whole extra room for drying clothes/walk in wardrobe. Most of us won't have that and need the space the airer takes up!

Starlingexpress · 14/08/2024 09:30

HaworthHiker · 14/08/2024 01:38

This thread has cheered me up enormously. I love the idea of dinner in the OP’s house: 3 giant half carrots & one whole turnip served with sausages still strung together on a beautifully clean white plate (wait, is that an egg-stain on my plate?). No matter, after a glorious evening discussing the OP’s other charming eccentricities, I would depart to the hum of the dishwasher, knowing that the Christmas eggcups were being washed for the 300th time

In theory it could be the 364th time if you visited on Christmas Eve…..

The barbecue skewers would be on about their 100th cycle by then.

And another question for OP ( still waiting for an answer about how you clean the toilet BTW)

But at what point do you clean the dishwasher filter crud? I can only do that when my dishwasher is empty. Am I missing a trick?

Bubblesallaround · 14/08/2024 08:31

I’m still trying to work out the dishwasher thing 😆 don’t your dirty things on the top drop on your clean stuff underneath? You say you put the dishwasher on every night but what if you don’t use all of the clean stuff in that time - do you wash the clean stuff again!?

Bodeganights · 14/08/2024 08:21

dellay · 13/08/2024 22:38

The carrots are just snapped where they will snap, as close to the end as possible. It’s about a pound for a huge pack so hardly wasteful!

I am surprised so many people think these things are grim. I’m now wondering if my friends laughing about this means they actually think I’m grim behind closed doors. Kind of wish I hadn’t shared it now!!!

The carrots thing, which end are you snapping off.

And why not just cook the whole carrot, even less wasteful. You say you chop them on the plate so no bother to chop either end off when it's on your plate.

Octopies · 14/08/2024 08:18

Is it not more effort to wipe the sides around piles of dirty dishes? I suppose if you have loads of counter space with lots of space to prepare food or a separate utility room that would be different. I put the dishwasher on each night, then unload the dishes each morning whilst waiting for the kettle to boil. Dirty dishes just get put into the empty dishwasher throughout the day. Same with the clothes airers. Everything gets put away when it's dry and the clothes airers taken down to make it easier for the robot vac to go around the room.

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