This reminded me of another sort of work-around. I usually like to hang my laundry outside to dry. When that's not going to work out for some reason I use the clothes dryer. My trick here is to not quite let the clothes get bone dry in the dryer. For shirts especially, if you hang them when they're still a little damp they can kind of straighten them selves out on the hanger as they finish drying. Leave the closet door open when you do this so they can get plenty of air. I'm not a fashion plate dresser and I will not iron anything.
I have a pretty sparse collection of dishes except for a stack of small bowls for feeding my two outside and one inside cat. I go through these in a hurry.
Separating whites from colors is something I've never done. I did learn not to wash big bath towels with other clothes. The last time I did this I got lint from the towel all over the other clothes.
It's all the same stuff. I've used laundry detergent to do the dishes when I run out of dishwashing liquid. It works fine.
Ha! I've been doing that for years. I thought I was the only one in the world to do that. It was always in the back of my mind that laundry detergent was way over-priced, and most of it leaves an objectionable odor (to me) on the washed clothes. So I got some ideas off the internet years ago and made my own. It was okay, but it was a lot of work and I tend to be lazy. I've used "Ajax" dish soap forever, kind of an off-brand that I get in Dollar General. Aside from dishes it works great on dirty, greasy hands so why not for washing clothes? It does work great, is completely odorless (which I like) is cheap, and concentrated so you only need a fraction of what you would use of regular laundry detergent. Win win.
No annoyance here, I do the same thing for pans that will be heated again. While it is true that dish soap kills germs, if you don't dry dishes in a rack or use a fresh towel that was dried on high heat to wipe them off, then you stand a chance of contamination. I rinse all my dishes and put them in my dishwasher for sterilizing and drying.
This thread gives the reason why single men have diarrhea at a higher rate than single women. A study was done by a male that tried to blame estrogen for a female's use of less toilet paper, but this thread tells it all.
Guys: Since we’re basically referring to what is normally called “women’s work”, it would be best to defer to them and slip quietly into the garage. Thank you.
Dwight was changing "women's work" into a more manly task with his revolutionary procedures. I hope he discards your advice to confess failure for his foolishness to go to the garage.
I have no garage. All I can do to express my guilt is to go outside and stand in the rain. My next man-tips involve the vacuum cleaner.
Okay, then ... the dreaded vacuum cleaner. When it works well it's almost a pleasure to clean the carpet. When it stops drawing like it should it's a total hassle. Do this. Check the bag frequently. If you just wait until the vacuum stops picking up well you've waited too long. What we're after here is not waiting for the bag to get completely full. When that happens debris is likely to lodge in places in the hoses and elsewhere that are difficult to clean out. Change the bag when it's about 3/4 full. The few pennies you save by changing it less often just aren't worth the extra work of having to disassemble the vacuum to get it factory clean and working right.