91PORNY

I would love to tell you that I love cleaning. I don't. It is — and has always been — pure drudgery. Some chores, however, are more tolerable than others. Some, I even find pleasant from time to time. For all these chores, I try to make them more tolerable by putting on a podcast or listening to music, and it gets me by.

What I've found, however, is that which chores we dislike the least and the most depend largely on the person. My husband loves to take out the trash. For me, it's near the bottom of my list, so that works out.

But as someone who has been a grown-up for a long time now, I think I'm qualified to create my own chore ranking. I can't, of course, list every chore ever, or we'd be here for months. So I've found 19, ranked from those I tolerate (or maybe even secretly enjoy a little), to those I absolutely can't stand. What's your ranking?

Not only do I find decluttering and organizing tolerable, but I actually even like it a little. Or at least I like the results. I've never been a sentimental person, so I can't stand keeping a bunch of stuff around that I no longer use. But since I'm married to a pack rat, I have to regularly go through stuff, make sure there's a place for everything, and get rid of those things I don't use. 

Doing it is so satisfying! Seeing my drawers, closets, and cupboards get just a little tidier feels like work well done. And recently, I've been organizing a lot because after years without adequate storage, I turned a bedroom into a clothes closet and turned a clothes closet into a linen closet. I find it immensely satisfying to organize now that I have enough storage.

Pain scale  score (0-10): 0

Related: Simplify Your Home: A Comprehensive Decluttering Checklist

My grandmother used to get so excited about grocery shopping. She loved it, and I think she passed a little of that on to me, since I have fond memories of wandering the grocery aisles with her. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Grocery shopping, while not my favorite kind of shopping, is a chore I somewhat enjoy. I like to cook, and I consider it a part of meal planning. Plus, it got a whole lot easier once my nest emptied, and there are only two of us (plus a few cats) to shop for now. 

Pain scale score: 1

I've always liked cooking — even when I was a kid. It's great when you have time to do it and get to be super creative. But when my kids were small and involved in every activity known to man, preparing meal after meal became a little bit of drudgery because I was prepping breakfast, school lunches, and dinners every single day of the week. My kids are grown and flown, and I continue to cook every meal because I have some food allergies and celiac disease, so it's safer to cook everything than to trust someone else's ingredients list.

On days I'm not super busy, I still love puttering around in the kitchen and creating something new. But to take the day-to-day drudgery out of it, my philosophy has always been cook once and eat at least twice. In other words, make a meal that's large enough for at least one day of leftovers. I do this with everything from tasty soups to taco night. I did it when my kids were small, and it was a real lifesaver, and I still do it now.

Pain scale score: 1.5

Back in the day, paying bills was THE WORST. I'd have to force myself to sit down with the checkbook every few weeks, look at my tiny budget, and make everything work. Technology, autopayments, and better cash flow (along with no longer having kids at home or in college) have made this chore almost a non-event now. I've set up everything I can on autopay, and all I have to do is reconcile my finances once a month. Easy peasy — takes me almost no time at all.

There is one exception to this... doing taxes. If managing the finances only involved doing the taxes, it would be at the bottom of the list. I put that onerous task off until April 14, then gather everything that night and sit down for a marathon session with Turbo Tax. And even that is easier than it used to be.

Pain scale score (without the taxes): 2

Pain scale score (taxes only): 8

As housework goes, dusting doesn't seem so bad. Until you realize you need to move all the stuff on your shelves and dust under it. I don't mind dusting — but it always seems kind of futile to me. Like I'm just pushing the dust around. Plus it makes me sneeze.

Pain scale score: 3

I know, I know. What kind of monster doesn't enjoy feeding their pets? Well, me. I don't love it if I'm being honest. It could be because we have four cats, and they have decided that their breakfast time is 3 AM (my fault, really, since that's the time I typically get up on weekdays so I can work out, but still on the weekends, that one is tough). Also, we give them a little wet food every day, and the smell is gag-inducing. Plus, they throw their dry food all over the place, so I constantly have to clean it up, their dishes need washing every day, and their water fountains take some extra maintenance. Oh — and one of them eats fast and is a puker, so there's that.

So, all in all, while having pets makes me happy (and I even feed a few of the neighborhood feral kitties — and probably a raccoon or two, to boot), feeding them is a bit of a chore.

Pain scale score: 4.5 (because of the puke)

I used to not mind making the bed, but then something happened. What, you ask? Cats. They get in the way. They lay on the sheets and blankets as I try to smooth them. They bat at my hands with their claws. They tumble around on the bed in a full-on wrestling match. And they unmake it almost as soon as I get it made.

Pain scale score: 5

I know some people actually like washing their car. I am not one of them. I have short arms and am not super tall, so reaching the top of any car to give it a good scrub is a challenge. Plus, I can't stand wrinkled, pruny fingers and cold water for washing. It's car wash all the way for me, baby.

Pain scale score: 5

I don't hate vacuuming and washing the floors, per se. It's more that, with four cats, I also don't love how often I have to do it (daily. I have to do it daily.) The task isn't the worst, but it certainly isn't much fun, either. 

Pain scale score: 5.5

Not all yard work is the same. Some, like riding our mowing tractor and using the leaf blower, is kinda fun. But we also have a ton of prickly blackberry bushes that we have to tame every year, and those things fight back. I know I could wipe them out with some type of herbicide, but we live in a wooded area with lots of critters that come around (including hummingbirds), and I don't want to harm or kill them. So we trim and trim and trim. I have the scratches to prove it. 

Pain scale score: 7

When I was a kid, cleaning baseboards was on my task list. I didn't mind it much then because it was pretty easy to scoot along the floor as I washed them. But now that I'm in my late 50s? Yeah... my knees and back aren't exactly fans, and I don't scoot along the floor like I did all those decades ago. 

Pain scale score: 7.5

Deep cleaning appliances is a mixed bag. A little water and vinegar in the microwave for five minutes makes it super easy to wipe out baked-on stuff (yay for TikTok cleaning hacks!) My oven is mostly self-cleaning, so it's not super challenging, but it makes my kitchen god-awful hot. But cleaning the fridge and freezer? I find that task awful (short arms struggle to reach to the back of the top shelf, and vacuuming the coils means having to move the fridge). 

Pain scale score: 8

It's not that any tasks related to cleaning the kitchen are odious. It's just that they're constant. As the only one in my house who has ever cared that our kitchen was kept clean and the dishes done, it's the day-in, day-out drudgery of cleaning up every couple of hours after a human tornado blows through.

Pain scale score: 8.5

When we bought our house 20+ years ago, I told my husband, "It's a big house. What task(s) will you take on so we can keep it up?" It was decided he'd do the laundry. All the laundry. And then laundry mountain became a thing, and I couldn't stand it. Guess who does all the laundry now? Yep. Not him.

Pain scale score: 8.5

Our house is a "view property." It has a lot of very tall windows.

Pain scale score: 9

Our house also has high ceilings and several chandeliers. Did I mention I'm not very tall?

Pain scale score: 9

People throw stuff out for a reason, and it's often gross. Plus, our trash pickup is down a quarter-mile-long hill. Fortunately, it's not my job... it's my husband's.

Pain scale score: 9.5

I raised boys. Toilets are awful. The end.

Pain scale score: 10

So I'll admit... it used to be worse. When we first adopted the cats, I scooped five cat boxes every morning, which... ew. Not a great start to the day, but a necessary one. Then we got litter robots, which are absolutely amazing. But they still need to be deep cleaned, and that is incredibly gross.

Pain scale score: 10+++++

Is cleaning drudgery, awful, and often gross? Yes. 100%. But is it worth it? I think so, or I wouldn't do it. I find order less stressful than chaos, and I like to have clean clothes, nothing stinky lying around, and clean dishes to eat off. So I do chores. I've found ways to make cleaning, if not more fun, then at least less horrible. And I deploy as many time-saving hacks as I possibly can. But it's a necessary evil, so I do it in order to live a healthy, happy life.