What rhymes with Chores? MORE Chores?

What makes something you once enjoyed into one?

Interference. I used to enjoy cleaning my apartment when I was single and childless. Now there's other people and their crap all in my way. It interferes with my cleaning mojo.

I love them; I hate their messes.

ditto everything mamawho just said.

I never had cleaning mojo. I just had a certain level of dirty I couldn't stand. Endless repetition? It used to be fun to read to smudge or sing to him until he started demanding the same boring songs or books over and over and over. Now it's become something of a chore.

Adding a deadline. I like to do crafty stuff but when I have to get it done by a certain date it makes it feel like a chore.

Exhaustion. Tired + anything = chore. (Except tired + sleep, which = awesome.)

Painting when I don't want to = chore. But you gotta keep at it. I'm sure accountants get bored of numbers sometimes but they have to go into work.

Kiwi- sometimes I take on projects that have a deadline. It's mostly baby stuff that I want done before a friends due date.

there is simply no joy in cleaning because as soon as I wash the floor it is covered in muddy footprints!

Yeah, I'm with emmak. It's a chore if I feel it will come to no real consequence. I felt like that A LOT in my last job.

The impossibility of advancement or learning seems to be one factor. You all helped me find others. Lately, it seems that everything has been a chore lately.

Sometimes just having to do something every day...maybe it's fear of loss combined with little hope of gain. If I don't water my plants, they'll die. If I do, things stay pretty much as they are (there's an obvious fallacy here, but I'm leaving it in).

The purpose of this is to see if I can make my chores a *little* less chorelike.

The feeling of being thankless also makes something a chore, although I would not necessarily need people to thank me every time I cleaned up. That would be way overdoing it.

I even got a Haiku on the subject

Clean becomes messy
No result is permanent
Did Buddha clean house?

Yeah, I hear you on that. Listen to some good music or a podcast while you do it? Make into some kind of timed race (can I fold the laundry in under five minutes)? Give yourself rewards?

I'm seriously interested in what suggestions other people can come up with.

Also, my spouse and I make a point of thanking each other for doing routine stuff. The person getting the thanks usually brushes it off, but at the same time, the fact that it's noticed and appreciated is important, even while we're saying we don't need to be thanked.

Hah, the haiku is awesome too.

I do the podcast thing - sometimes even Amanda's! this way I don't feel that I'm wasting my mind. OTOH, the Buddhist approach is to give every task your full attention, and you will find the task can be meditative. I don't always buy this but it does work sometimes.

When my SIL came by when my wife was sick, I was amazed by her ability to walk 'into the fog' without needing much in the way of distractions. She just worked very quickly.

I think it's time to re-read 'The Wisdom of No Escape'. Keep in mind, I'm trying to more than just kvetch.

mcg - I agree about "noticing". I try to remember to thank PF for doing things around the house and he is great about doing the same (although I probably coud do without the tone of shocked amazement when I do dishes...).

When I lived by myself I enjoyed cooking and ironing on Sundays - but back then I could actually do all of my laundry and ironing on Sunday and then feel "set" for the week. I could cook two or three big entrees and freeze eight meals - and have a good mix of homemade food at my disposal for lunches and dinner. Now the clothes on our backs make up a load of laundry so I am NEVER completely caught up and my kids don't eat anything with flavor so my single life recipes have become "company" food. Poof like magic - chores.

And then there are other times when that same chore becomes a labor of love and I don't mind it at all. Nu, Go figure.

Working out. Man I hate it. I hate it so much.

I *have* to break the tasks up. Part of that is because of physical pain/exhaustion, but part of it also is boredom. So I just try to weave it into the day.

I pick things up as I walk through the house to get the mail; I do dishes as my lunch is warming; I wash the bathroom mirror as I'm brushing my teeth; I recruit the Dragon to hold clothespins while I hang laundry. It can't *all* be done like that, but enough can that the rest doesn't feel like such a burden.

I also feel there's absolutely no excuse for folding laundry without the TV on.

And yeah, I like the Buddhist perspective that each task deserves our full attention and even love. I rarely conduct myself that way, but when I've made a point of it, it really has made a difference in my day.

I'm with DGB on this one. I'd pretty much do anything to avoid my running shoes. Nothing helps. I loathe working out. I haven't ever managed to find a way to make it enjoyable, even when I was doing it several times a day back when I was 20-something and insane.

Cleaning I could do 'til the cows come home, however. I've been blessed/cursed with a compulsive cleaning streak. I actually do dishes to relax.

You know, it's true, working out has become a chore instead of a pleasure. I think that some of this is because of my relative lack of time now, working out is taking away from doing something else I would enjoy more and my personal time is far more limited. And some of it is exactly what Michael describes with the plants. I work out and I maintain the same stupid weight. If I didn't work out, I'd get fatter. But working out is certainly not helping me fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes right now. No measurable improvement? Chore.

Which is why I find these responses so interesting. For me, working out is one of the best parts of my day. I just love the feeling of searing pain as I try to get one more rep in. What I detest is waiting for the machines, or driving there.

So, if I like working out and it's not a chore, and somebody else just detests it, then what's the difference? I guess there is (for me) a reward for working out, which is appearing more masculine, and unlike a clean house - this reward doesn't go away quite so easily unless I deliberately kill it with ice cream sandwiches.

Conversely, what am I doing to make these other tasks seem chore-ish?

I guess having a long lasting reward, as well as the tools to make the job move smoothly are two factors. For laundry, for instance, having matching socks done quickly and having space in the drawers makes me dread it less.

atomicforliving is hereby cordially invited for dinner!

im going to go with "no net gain" is the biggest... so cleaning, cooking, etc. are top.

having others constantly undo what i've done, also makes me feel less accomplished.

Change the 'e' to a 'd' and you have something that is potentially more fun.