Poll for retired men- housecleaning

Do you help with housecleaning?

  • A little

    Votes: 30 40.5%

  • I do half

    Votes: 34 45.9%

  • Nope, I have other duties.

    Votes: 10 13.5%
  • Total voters
    74
Tailgate

Tailgate

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
1,065
Location
Texas
Do you help your DW or SO with the housework? We used to have some help come in each week when we were both working, but since we've retired we got tired of having to find somewhere to go to 'hide from the maid' every week and we thought we should do it ourselves anyway.

My DW is very picky and although I want to help more, she will only let me dust, which I probably shouldn't complain about We clean every week because of the 4-legged friends in the house.. takes about half a day.
 
We have someone come in. I do most of the laundry and cook. DW, who still works, does some vacuuming between maid visits and does the dishes after dinner. It works for us.
 
I am a male, and I do the housecleaning. But I am also single, so that is why...GF who will continue working will move in within a few years, and I will continue it since I am retired. She is worried, as I keep my place so clean, that this may cause problems. I don't think it will, though. Your post reminded me of a tv show the other night which is house hunting in Hawaii. A 50 ish couple were the feature on the program. Wife stated she is a nurse and her husband is a househusband (did not say retired) with two kids ages 12 and 19. When looking in a kitchen while house hunting she remarked how lovely the view will be there while SHE is washing the dishes... My immediate thought was. You have a full time job, two older kids, and a husband who stays at home and his lazy ass can't muster the energy up to wash the dishes?
 
I shared the housecleaning duties with DW the first five years of retirement, then we agreed to hire someone to come in every other week. That's about the only recurring payment I can truthfully say I don't mind paying at all.
 
DW still works. I do most of the housework, including fixing meals five nights a week. I also do nearly all the yard work, bill paying, shopping and taxes / investments. It is really no big deal, I have low standards. :LOL:
 
DH is the retired one. When he retired I asked him if he'd like to take over some of the household tasks and he......declined.

A while later he did start doing the bathroom cleaning, which is greatly appreciated. I've always been the meal planner, shopper and cook and he would do clean-up. Since he retired he cooks an occasional dinner but not on a regular basis. Last year he started doing the weekly grocery shopping and it's been wonderful!

He tried doing laundry last year and it just wasn't his thing and I like doing laundry so we are keeping that one as mine.

We've had a brutal winter and he loves to shovel. He's also the lawn mower and gardener.

I take care of anything having to do with money - bill paying, banking, taxes, cash management. He's in charge of the cash in his pocket.
 
Last edited:
We do it although admittedly DW does more than I do simply because she is more picky than I am. When we were dating she said one of the things she liked was that I kept the house cleaner/neater than most guys she'd seen. Apparently that wasn't good enough.

For some reason a line pops into mind from when I was doing heating/refrigeration work. At a class with guys from different Eastern cities we were discussing kitchen cleanliness when we moved appliances. A guy from NYC topped us all when he said "You know you're in a rough neighborhood when you pull the refrigerator away from the wall... and the roaches pull it back."
 
I grew up in a family of neat-freaks. Although I am not quite as obsessed with cleanliness as my folks, my standards are high enough for DW. Since she still works and I don't, I do most of the cleaning myself and get no complaints.
 
My husband is newly retired. Even before he retired he typically had dinner started, during the work week, before I got home. (He worked from home). Now that he's retired he's developed a new addiction - the food network. (I call it the food porn channel, lol.) This has resulted in some fabulous meals as he decides to expand his skill set. I'm encouraging this.

I do the cleaning. from the day to day (cleaning up after dinner, etc.) Kids do some stuff (their bathroom, clearing the table, emptying the dishwasher.) But I'm the one that runs the vacuum, dusts, etc.

Hubby is finishing up one remodel project and about to start another renovation project, so I'm fine with him focusing his time and talents on carpentry, plumbing, and electrical. I don't have that skill set.

When I retire in 2 years, I hope the big home projects will be done, and we'll split the workload.
 
mpeirce said:
There's a reason we still pay for a house cleaner every week...
Click to expand...

+1 ... When we were first living together, we tried doing it ourselves ... and if we had kept that up we would never have gotten married -- let alone stayed that way for 25 and counting yrs.

I do a lot of laundry, and will often do dinner clean-up or dishes (kids do most of this)

DW does day-to-day cooking, most shopping and bills/cash management
I do the taxes, books for her business and investing.

Not perfect, but it has worked OK so far ... she's already asked me whether I would like to RE from my megacorp job to her SAHM job ... not really. Hers is WAY more difficult :)
 
We have always been pretty traditional with the division of labor, but DH's sabbatical has meant he's taking on more shopping and cooking, and slowly getting better at it.
As for housework, we both have very low standards, mine probably even lower than his. He sweeps and cleans the bathrooms, and does dishes. I do laundry because I line dry everything and he'd roast my clothes in the dryer if given the job.
I wish I'd have let him do more shopping and food prep over the years, as it has been a hard thing for him to learn after 21 years of not doing it.
 
I take care of everything that requires fuel and is outdoors, she has the heated and cooled indoor stuff. ;)
 
Since my wife and I always both worked, we have always split the housework.

It ebbs and flows. I do most of the cooking, dishes, kitchen cleaning, carpet sweeping, and toilet cleaning. My wife does most of the laundry, folding, dusting, moping and tub/shower cleaning. She usually does the day to day finances and I usually do the investment stuff. She does most of the Dr. Appt scheduling and I do the car and house maintenance or call somebody if the task is beyond me. We grocery shop together, I'm the cart pusher, coupon holder, high shelf item grabber and math person and she does every thing else including paying. I think this is the only thing we do where she is normally the payer.

With the exception of the car maintenance, there is nothing in the list that has not been traded off to the other at one time or another.
 
DW is still w*rking and so I do all that I can…most of the laundry and general cleaning including dishes….but then
my load is minimalized by the cleaning crew that my DW pays to come in once every three weeks :blush:

I guess that my skills may be lacking :angel:

Additionally, DW has put me in charge of ALL lawn care and auto maintenance!
 
Sarah in SC said:
I do laundry because I line dry everything and he'd roast my clothes in the dryer if given the job.
Click to expand...
Since retiring, I've botched a few attempts, so have been verboten from those tasks.

:)

It is still about the same as pre retirement... I don't do too much inside daily work except I'm the organizer of the two, so I'll usually do the deep clean and organize tasks. And I do a good bit of the cleanup after dinner.
 
sengsational said:
Since retiring, I've botched a few attempts, so have been verboten from those tasks.
Click to expand...

We have a quote from a Dave Barry book in a magnetic frame hanging on our dryer. It Says:

Many men are afraid to do laundry, especially laundry belonging to people of other genders, because they (the males) might get into Big Trouble. I know I would. In our household we have a lot of sensitive garments with laundering-instruction tags full of strict instructions like:

DO NOT MACHINE-WASH. DO NOT USE BLEACH. DO NOT USE HOT WATER. DO NOT USE WARM WATER. DO NOT USE ANY WATER. DO NOT TOUCH THIS GARMENT WITHOUT SURGICAL GLOVES. PUT THIS GARMENT DOWN IMMEDIATELY, YOU CLUMSY OAF.
Click to expand...
 
DW still works so I do the cooking, which I like and much of the cleaning. Thanks God for Swifters, they are awesome!

DW likes doing laundry so I let her :)
 
REWahoo said:
I shared the housecleaning duties with DW the first five years of retirement, then we agreed to hire someone to come in every other week. That's about the only recurring payment I can truthfully say I don't mind paying at all.
Click to expand...

Same here. Except in our case it wasn't an agreement but a Christmas gift, and a good one at that.

DW cooks, I clean the kitchen twice a day, and it's a real bargain for me. I try to wash my clothes, but that usually leads to unexplainable shrinkage and fading.
 
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