I spent a substantial portion of yesterday afternoon watching a combination of HGTV and Food Network, and for reasons completely unknown to me, looking at all those different houses and kitchens made me think about the way I do certain things in my house. You know, things like how I slice an onion or how I stack my dishes or how I fold my fitted sheets or how I don’t wash my windows, well, EVER.
Never underestimate the power of home- and/or cooking-related television programming to inspire a serious bout of housekeeping inferiority, my friends. Beats anything I’ve ever seen.
And honestly, I don’t really feel that inferior. But I do think that I may do a few household-related things in a way that’s more complicated than necessary OR that’s just flat-out different from the norm.
So, as part of a deeply informal and completely unscientific surveying process, I have a few random questions for you, the people of the interweb.
1) How many days a week are you completely caught up on laundry?
2) When you load your dishwasher, do you load the silverware basket with handles down or handles up?
3) FINALLY – can you make up recipes off the top of your head? Or do you have to follow a recipe somebody else has written?
Clearly THE FATE OF THE FREE WORLD hinges on your answers.
So, you know, NO PRESSURE.
My crazy and I will be anxiously awaiting your responses.
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-My laundry is caught up every day but that is just because I hate having it piled up. I never mop my floors so that balances things out nicely.
-handles down because safety means little to me (as evidenced by the scars and burn marks all over my hands) but I secretly think the important end of my silverware is not clean if it is down in the basket rather than up
-I cook from recipes because I am a writer and not a chef but let the record show that I do amend said recipes to suit me so that is, technically, kinda creative. Maybe.
1. I do laundry everyday so mostly it stays caught up.
2. Knives down, forks and spoons up; no good reason, just habit.
3. Oh goodness, I can mess up a recipe with it sitting right in front of me. The only thing I make up myself is maybe how much butter to put on the popcorn.
Laundry caught up? Maybe once a month, maybe… Two babies, both in cloth diapers – need I say more?
Utensils – handles up always, except for large serving spoons/spatulas/etc. Seems more sanitary to only have to touch the handles when I put them away.
Recipes – I only use them for baking, and even then I’m lazy sometimes. I never measure for regular cooking, and very rarely look at recipes. They say that is the sign of a good cook, right? That we don’t need recipes? That’s what I tell myself anyway!
I have the same problem when watching the food network or some other decorator show.
1. There are 2 days a week that I am totally caught up on laundry. Score!
2. Handles up. How else are you going to put the silverware away as fast as you can?
3. Yes, I can make up recipes all over the place, but I must prefer a recipe…and so do my family.
1- I do laundry usually once a week (I have no kids, so that’s possible), and I always feel like the hampers are full.
2- I put the spoons and forks up, and the knives down.
3- I usually make up my own recipes. Whenever I try to follow a recipe, it usually ends up being a pizza night. I’m still trying to figure out why it’s so hard for me to follow directions!!
1) there isn’t one day a decade I’m caught up on laundry
3) i handwash, it relaxes me
3)I can make maybe, 2 things without looking at the recipe..and i need to look at the recipes, when i use them, way too many times to be considered normal
1. Never caught up on laundry.
2. Most things go down, so they get clean and don’t poke me.
3. Follow a recipe. I’ve recently started to get daring and actually CHANGE a recipe like the comments on http://www.allrecipe.com, but usually I just change it like other commenters have.
1. I am caught up with laundry only on the day I do it!!! Next day hamper seems to be full….
2.Mostly down, but sometimes up…..doesn’t seem to matter to me
3. Oh Lord I follow recipes……love for fellow bloggers to post a good one….I will “Follow” it/ha
1. Maybe once a month, but typically caught up right before we leave for a trip.
2. Knives have handles up. My kids do the unloading always, and I’d hate for them to get stabbed.
3. I have to follow a recipe unless it’s something simple. Cooking has always intimidated me.
1. I’m only caught up if company’s coming or we’re about to leave town. So maybe… two days a month? (my 8 yr old asked me LAST NIGHT going to sleep, “Mama? Is that basket in the laundry room EVER empty?!”)
2. Knife handles up, everything else handles down, and arranged so nothing’s touching (so it can get clean on first time).
3. Make things up. I’ll follow a recipe too, but it doesn’t have to be exact.
I just love your crazy, BooMama. We’re a lot alike.
1. pretty much always – it’s just me and laundry really isn’t much of a challange
2. handles up – here is a never before confessed desire – I have always wanted to sort the silverware in the basket prior to washing (hmm now that I am alone, I may just give that a go)
3. if I am baking, I follow the recipe – otherwise, I usually start out with a recipe and ‘tweek’ it
I don’t listen to home show tips anymore ever since Martha Stewart told me she sterilizes her dirt in the oven. It’s dirt. Nothing sterile about it.
1. Caught up on laundry? What is this phrase? I am unfamiliar with this statement. Do you mean, “caught in the laundry”?
2. Down, so I won’t stab myself. Serving spoons up though.
3. I can’t think of a recipe off the top of my head, but I’m notorious for looking at a recipe and changing it.
1 – I am never caught up on laundry. My husband and I both leave clothing lying all over the place (well not ALL over the place, but in many places), and I can’t catch up. Also, I try not to do more than one load per day due to our septic system, so that isn’t enough to catch up.
2 – Handles up.
3 – I can improvise a little bit, but I am certainly not Top Chef or Next Food Network Star material. I do make my own marinade for steaks…but it’s EVOO, Worcestershire sauce, and some salt and pepper, not rocket science.
1. laundry gets done almost every day. it does not, however get put away every day. that is a different issue entirely.
2. handles down.
3. i can usually remember the recipe, but i prefer to look at it.
(i spent my time on bedrest watching hgtv and food network. talk about feeling like a slug!)
my house is on the market, therefore i have to stay on top of the laundry. normally, i’m caught up about 1 day a month. since the sign went into the yard, i have forced myself to get into the habit of putting the clothes away as they come out of the dryer. it has changed my world.
i do handles down…the tines on my forks get bent if i don’t.
i follow recipes. i wish i didn’t have to. but i have to.
1.Zero. 5 kids, one construction working husband, and a pool= NEVER caught up on laundry.
2. handles up
3. I like to use the written recipe as a loose guideline. Unless it’s something that has to rise. Then I always follow the recipe. Not that it helps me, I’m a bread failure.
1. Never. By the time the clean laundry is sorted and folded and put away the baskets are full again. We have too many clothes.
2. Handles down except for sharp knives, since I don’t want to take chances with little ones running around. For some reason I think the part we off of does not get as clean if it is in the basket.
3. I am a recipe follower for the most part. I have made up one or two things with success, but I can’t afford taking too many chances.
1. Maybe once a week for a couple hours before the kids get ready for bed. Is it humanly possible to be caught up for more than half a day? I mean, with the socks and undies and all…
2. Handles always up – just have to check the spoons to make sure they are not spooning. And each kind in its own compartment. From back to front I do lg. spoons, sm. spoons, forks, knives, misc – in that order – always. It wasn’t too hard to “train” the rest of the family and when it’s time to put them away, it’s a snap. Some might say I have OCD. I say I’m just extremely efficient!
3. My man is the cook. But IF I do make something I have to follow a recipe.
About once a week I’m caught up on laundry, but then the next day – bam! – the baskets are getting full again.
Handles down on spoons and forks, handles up on knives. Cut my finger on a knife with the handle down, so up from now on.
I follow some recipes, like meringue, cheesecake. But some I just make up or I’ve made it so often I don’t really measure, like chocolate chip cookies, or enchiladas.
1. As my Grammy always said, you Must leave two pieces of laundry in the basket as seed for tomorrow. So even if I get that far, as soon as I undress for bed, I have at least those – for seed :)
2. Handles down. I read once that if handles are up tiny bits of waste may stick to the part that is in the basket; however, I have stabbed myself on a knife, so now they go in the farthest back basket section.
3. Yes, there are times almost every week when I make up or experiment. I think I have about 70% success rate. I always say that tonight is “let’s pretend night,” meaning if it isn’t something you like, pretend it is something else!
1. Two days a week. I do laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays, so at some point on either of those days, I am caught up. I don’t have children yet, so I know that is short lived.
2. Handles down, on everything. I just always assumed it would get cleaner that way.
3. If I am baking, I follow the recipe exactly, otherwise, I usually start out with a recipe as a guideline and wind up doing whatever. :)
I am right there with you with the HGTV & Food Network marathons. I usually do it on laundry Sunday!
1. Once a week. I do laundry once a week – in my mind, it’s an event, not a life style. I refuse to do laundry all the time.
2. All handles are down. The sad thing is I had to go look at the dishwasher to tell you that.
3. Do salads and sandwiches count? Anything more than that, I need a recipe. I will change a recipe some after I’ve made it the first time if I think I can make it better suited to my family.
1) really never … I do laundry every 2 weeks (which calculates to about 8 loads over the weekend) so that I don’t feel like I am always doing laundry. BTW, we have lots of underwear and towels at our house so we can make it 2 weeks at a time!
2) both. whatever makes it all fit. Knives and any other sharp objects always go down.
3) I am definitely a recipe follower. And I measure everything.
1) I am never caught up on laundry! :) It’s not that we have a whole lot, I just don’t do it enough.
2) I always put handles down except for knives. When I worked for a tea room they said handles up so you don’t touch the part of silverware that goes in people’s mouths. I don’t do that at home though. :)
3) I have never tried to make up a recipe. Usually just follow directions :)
1. I am NEVER caught up on laundry!
2. I do not use the dishwasher. I insist on washing all my dishes by hand and I use the dishwasher for stoage.
3. Yes- I love to cool and make up stuff all the time. I rarely have all the ingredients needed to follow a recipe so I am a great improviser!
1. Handles up, except for spoons. They stick together if I put the handle up.
2. Not a whole day, just a whole hour.
3. Yes. And most of the time, I make a new recipe for the first time by the recipe, and after that I wing it and add my own thing.
Laundry – none – as soon as I think I’m done I see I am NOT – will pray I am not assigned to the heavenly laundry room as my useful work in eternity!
dishwasher – combination of the two – if I put them all one way they seem to glom together and not get clean.
Recipes – I absolutely can create something – now not usually in baking things – that is chemistry and I follow the rules in chemistry. In cooking, frying broiling etc. – I’m all for experimenting – I mean someone had to be brave to be the first to put bacon with lettuce and tomato to create the perfect sandwich!
1- Almost never, unless there’s a vacation in the offing. I do a load a day Monday through Thursday and take Friday through Sunday off, so there’s always something waiting for me. I’m okay with that.
2 – It’s a hodge-podge, really. My dishwasher manual says to vary how you put utensils in the basket because that will let everything get cleaner. I don’t ask questions. And they’re all clean.
3 – Yes, ma’am, I can come up with recipes of my own, albeit admittedly with varying degrees of success.
1) usually once a week (except for the clothes we’re wearing!) But I do all of it one day because I can’t face folding laundry every day or getting it put away more than once a week!
2.) Handles down – unless it is a very sharp object
3.) Use a recipe – but often improvise from the recipe I’m using (more onion, more garlic. . .)
I’m married 31 yrs. and have been caught up on laundry once, for about 5 seconds.
All silverware go in headfirst, handles up.
Spaghetti, tacos, hamburgers I can do on my own. Everything else requires a recipe.
Love your blog! May God bless your week.
1. Do laundry Monday mornings…every Monday morning. So, guess the answer is 7?
2. Handles up
3. Yes…I can make up a recipe at any time. I’m a foodie!! That’s why I am constantly on a diet!!
1) Zero. As soon as one load is done, another has magically appeared!
2) Handles down. Our dishwasher has a telescoping element that comes up in the middle and sprays, so it would be counter-intuitive to put the heads of the silverware down in the basket where the water can’t reach them.
3) Both. If I have worked with certain ingredients often enough, I begin to know what they go well with and will just throw together “recipes” out of things in my cupboard (sometimes they turn out well enough that I post them!). I usually follow recipes, but almost always tweak them a little (add some spices, up the cheese content, etc.).
I like to think I’m completely caught up with laundry one day a week (on Sunday). But, I’m pretty sure I’m in denial – I don’t think little fairies are filling it back up on Monday mornings.
Handles up.
I must have a recipe!
Well, since it’s just me and hubby here & we don’t work outside the home, so I only do the clothes laundry one day a week. Usually on Sat., I take all the clothes & get them washed. Luckily I have about 900 pairs of underwear, so I could go months, but not so much for hubby.
Other days I do sheets and towels, but it’s not an every day occurance. So, really I go days without doing laundry.
Knives are pointed down in the dishwasher & everything else is UP.
I do make slight adjustments to recipes ALL the time, so am not hung up on what is written on that paper.
1) never, there’s always hand washables waiting for me to make the great effort that it is to use the hand wash cycle & then find a place to lay it out & block it & keep turning it til it dries.
2) forks & spoons – handles down, knives – always handles up (“how many times do i have to say it!” – that’s me telling my husband after he’s loaded it & i’m unloading it)
3) i forget the question – oh yeh – on the rare occasions that i do everyday cooking anymore – i usually wing it. cookbooks & recipes involve ingredients that i end up not having, so i don’t bother even looking. if it’s for a special occasion, i might use a recipe, though. and, of course, it would be one i’ve never tried. because i love having a nervous breakdown right before dinner.
I am NEVER caught up on all of my laundry because that would mean someone would be wandering around naked and while that is tempting in S. Texas, it’s still not legal.
I always put handles down, except on knives.
I can come up with my own recipes, but I also love to use other people’s recipes, too. But, am I weird that I tweek other’s recipes? I don’t think I’ve EVER followed a recipe verbatim.
1) I do all the laundry on Monday because I hate, hate, hate looking at piles of it all week and only want to have to carry it all down and back up the stairs once! I don’t even think about cleaning anything else on Monday and I fold it all on my bed putting it in rows sorted: underwear, pjs, shirts, pants by each family member so I don’t have to think about sorting it later. Boom! Boom! Boom! And it’s done and out of sight!
2) Knives and forks – handles up. Spoons – handles down. I don’t want to get poked or cut and spoons don’t fit well or get clean handles up.
3) I have to have a recipe but I tweak it according to my preferences; a little less or a little more of this or that.
Can you ever really be caught up with laundry?!?
Handles down.
I like recipes, but I like to adjust them a little for my families preferences.
Love your blog!!
1. I am pretty much never caught up on laundry. Ever.
2. Silverware… handles up. you don’t want to cut yourself!
3. I pretty much have to follow a recipe unless it has anything to do with marinades or sauces… with that stuff I just kinda figure it out as I go along.
1 – My husband does the laundry.
2- I put handles down just because it’s easier to get them. The exception is a knife, which I put point down so I won’t stab myself. Of course, I still feel guilty when I do that since my mother taught me to always wash knives by hand. But…I don’t.
3-I strictly follow recipes. I was terrible at chemistry and it’s basically the same. That what recipes are for – for us!
4-I’ll throw in an extra as a freebie. I put toilet paper on the roll with the loose part down the back, not the front. I used to have a cat that would roll the entire roll onto the floor if she found it loose on the front.
1. Never, and when it’s all washed, it is probably sitting in a pile on the loveseat waiting to be folded.
2. Handles up…you can’t touch the ends of the fork that someone else is going to eat off of! They might as well still be dirty!
3. I have to follow a recipe. wor for word, unless it involves onions and those are always omitted!
1) We usually are caught up for about 15 minutes a month.
2) Knife and fork handles up to protect the injury-prone (um…me) and spoon handles down to prevent nesting. Both for the dishwasher when we had one and now for the draining basket post hand-wash.
3) Recipes are good but I think of them more as suggestions than instructions. I do a lot of improvisational cooking and baking, sometimes with fair results. This drives my sweet husband to distraction, as he is a rules guy all the way.
1. Never
2. Handles up
3. Sometimes I have these revelations, and I can just go whip things together…usually, though I follow the recipe book.
: )
1. Define ‘completely caught up’? Are we talking washed and folded? Or washed, folded, and put away? Because if it’s the latter, I will never be completely caught up.
2. Stick yourself with a fork tine underneath the fingernail and you’ll NEVER put those babies in sticking up again! So…spoon and butter knife handles go down, fork and sharp knife handles go up.
3. Well, I’ve never once made a recipe exactly as it was written, but I usually need them as a reference point, so…both?
1) Zero.
2) Handles up.
3) Follow someone else’s recipe. I just recently purchased How to Cook Everything for my husband and I’ve used it more than he has. And that NEVER happens!
1. I don’t think I’m ever caught up on laundry since we wear clothes while I am washing them making them dirty making me never caught up on laundry. BUT! I will tell myself that if I do the laundry, fold it and put it away before the kids are in bed, I’m caught up on laundry. That happens about once every six months or so.
2. Handles down. My mama told me that was better because the dirt and water run down.
3. Recipe. If I don’t have it, you won’t eat it.
1. Never
2. If it’s me loading then handles up ~ if it’s the kids, I take what I can get.
3. I totally do both. I would make them up on the fly more if I didn’t have so much laundry to do and so many dishes to load in the dishwasher. And, you know, the general mayhem of children running amok.
1. I generally do a load of darks and a load of whites every day and stay somewhat on top of the laundry this way.
2. Handles up.
3. For day to day cooking, I just kind of throw stuff together (my lucky, lucky family!)mostly because I am lazy and recipes seem like actual work. I do cook from them the first or second time I make something, though.
1. For exactly 90 minutes on a Sunday evening! The time after dinner and doing your final fold of laundry. Then you get ready for bed and create laundry. That happens maybe once every two months.
2) Knives have the handles up. All others I put the handles down. I think it cleans them better.
3) I do both to recipes. Some I follow to the letter. Others I tweek. Maybe make them creamier or spicier. Just depends.
1.ha ha ha ha….I am never completely caught up on laundry and I have decided to be ok with that.
2. Both. Since my kids have started helping, it’s willy-nilly and I have decided to be ok with that, too.
3. I’m a recipe following girl. I can add some spices here and there but have never made something completely out of my head. And yes, I am totally ok with that. :)
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