What would you do with a house elf (early in the morning)?

What would you do with a house elf (early in the morning)? (3/28/09-4/13/09)

This topic serves as an archive of a thread from the Harry Potter Lexicon Forum as hosted on World Crossing which ceased operation on April 15, 2011. Elanor

freshwater - Mar 29, 2009 12:07 am
Edited by Potteraholic Mar 26, 2010 12:29 pm

If you had an elf of your own (yes, Hermione, of course he gets a salary, health benefits, two nights off a week and a week off every six months...) what would you have him/her do?

Please choose your 2 favorite answers.

1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

2) yard work and gardening

3) grocery shopping and cooking

4) child care: babysitting, diaper changing, sibling squabbles, etc.

5) paying the bills and car maintenance

6) something else _______________________________

Edited to add the beginnining and ending dates for this poll in the title, for uniformity's sake.

legolas returns - Mar 29, 2009 2:12 am (#1 of 30)
I enjoy grocery shopping and cooking so it wouldn't be that. So I will say

1)Housework in particular the dishes . 6)Something else-Something enjoyable and fun.

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Solitaire - Mar 29, 2009 4:31 am (#2 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning ...
5) paying the bills and car maintenance ...

Another option (6) would be grading papers for me ... although I'd have to see how well he handled that particular job. If he did a great job, that would replace #5.

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Steve Newton - Mar 29, 2009 4:50 am (#3 of 30)
6-Coffee

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Verity Weasley - Mar 29, 2009 4:58 am (#4 of 30)
Well, I don't mind grocery shopping and cooking, but washing up afterwards is a bit of a chore. I would gladly hand over cooking duties some of the time as it does get a bit tedious day in day out, but maybe not all the time. Car maintenance would come in very handy though. Paying bills not so much, unless he could somehow generate some wizard gold to pay them with (or perhaps the phone company wouldn't notice the difference and would accept leprechaun gold.) So, I'd have to go with:

1) Housework: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

2) Paying bills and car maintenance

But if I could split 3 and 5 and recombine them I'd probably choose cooking and car maintenance!

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Elanor - Mar 29, 2009 5:04 am (#5 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

6) something else: grading!

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Orion - Mar 29, 2009 6:49 am (#6 of 30)
1 Something else - go to work for me

2 pay the bills and do the paperwork

The rest is great fun. I love doing the chores.

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Dryleaves - Mar 29, 2009 7:44 am (#7 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

4) child care: babysitting, diaper changing, sibling squabbles, etc. (Now I feel like a really awful, lousy mother... But I assume I can give and take the hugs myself )

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freshwater - Mar 29, 2009 8:03 am (#8 of 30)
Don't feel like a lousy mom, Dryleaves! Just because your house-elf would help with child card duties doesn't mean that he/she would have to do all of them all of the time....you could do that whenever you want --with the house-elf bouncing impatiently behind you giving directions, no doubt!

For me, I'd choose routine tasks that seems to take up too much of my life:

1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

3) grocery shopping and cooking

BTW...did anyone get the allusion to the folk song "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor, Early in the Morning", in the title of the poll?

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azi - Mar 29, 2009 10:08 am (#9 of 30)
Admittedly, Freshwater, I didn't read the title until you mentioned it. Because I press 'Read New' to switch threads I tend to work out what thread it is by looking at the content.

My choice would be 1 - Housework. Particularly washing the dishes and ironing (I don't actually do any ironing myself). I love vaccuming, so that would be kept with me.

Hmm, second choice...I guess 6 because a lot of the options don't apply to me! We have a gardener, so no yard work; I don't have any children; my bills are paid in my rent and I don't have a car! I love food shopping and usually don't mind cooking. I think I'd have my elf do litter-picking for me at work. I hate touching rubbish (fortunately my job is just to pick odd bits if it gets bad - the gardeners have to do it daily).

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Potteraholic - Mar 29, 2009 11:46 am (#10 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning and 6) something else: grading (I'm with you, Elanor and Solitaire! )

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Choices - Mar 29, 2009 12:59 pm (#11 of 30)
Definitely house work and yard work.

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Solitaire - Mar 29, 2009 2:51 pm (#12 of 30)
I notice Audrey chose grading, too. Did any other teachers think of paper-grading?

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journeymom - Mar 29, 2009 2:56 pm (#13 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning (includes sweeping and mopping our huge expanse of tile and wood flooring).

3) grocery shopping and cooking menu planning. I have no idea what to cook day after day. Just decide for me, bring the groceries home and I'll cook it.

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Thom Matheson - Mar 29, 2009 5:35 pm (#14 of 30)
It wasn't an option, but my write in is for Side-along Apparition. How cool would that be?

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freshwater - Mar 29, 2009 8:30 pm (#15 of 30)
Oh, good point, Thom M! I meant to leave a 'fill in the blank' as the last choice.

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me and my shadow 813 - Mar 29, 2009 10:28 pm (#16 of 30)
Side-along Apparition, all the way. The rest of the time, I'd love to hear elf stories (i.e., about mama and papa elf, elf love, elf magic, elf winemaking process)

So I guess that's two #6/something else.

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Mrs Brisbee - Mar 30, 2009 5:31 am (#17 of 30)
1) house work: particularly the dishes. I hate doing the dishes.

6-Coffee-- Steve Newton

ROFL!

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Solitaire - Mar 30, 2009 6:55 am (#18 of 30)
I hate doing the dishes.

I agree, Mrs. Brisbee ... Dishes, like beds, always have to be done. At least I can wash a couple of loads of laundry and not have to do it again for a week. I might not mind housework and stuff if I didn't work 11-12 hours every day at my job. Maybe when I retire, it won't be as annoying!

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Mrs Brisbee - Mar 30, 2009 10:38 am (#19 of 30)
Yes, that's my issue with dishes. They never end, so I never achieve the satisfaction that I get from actually completing a job.

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Dryleaves - Mar 30, 2009 10:40 am (#20 of 30)
A Swedish actress once said:"God's love is like the dishes - it never ends."

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freshwater - Mar 30, 2009 12:51 pm (#21 of 30)
Interesting to see that certain likes/dislikes are similar across continents and around the world....

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Chemyst - Apr 1, 2009 8:01 am (#22 of 30)
I think I would have him hang up and put away clothes because that way I could just throw my stuff on a chair at night and not feel stressed, as if the day's chores never ever end.

After that I'd send him to the neighbor's houses to clean up their yard. Hopefully they will interpret that as my being generous and not as judgmental.

I'd like to employ him as a mechanic to keep vehicles in great shape, but I am not sure that I could trust the magic on muggle devices.

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Ludicrous Patents Office - Apr 3, 2009 9:06 pm (#23 of 30)
1. Housework. I would love for someone to do that. 6. Shelving books/keeping the library in order.

Though shopping wouldn't be bad. I hate shopping. LPO

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Julia H. - Apr 5, 2009 2:51 am (#24 of 30)
1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

Supposing the poor elf had some time left after that:

6) Side-Along Apparition and transportation of luggage, especially in the rush hour or instead of flying.

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freshwater - Apr 5, 2009 7:34 am (#25 of 30)
As in the past, this poll will run for two weeks, ending Sunday, April 12. But one (or two) new polls will start this week --and run for 2 weeks-- so hopefully we will have a new poll each week. At least, that's the plan!

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freshwater - Apr 5, 2009 10:37 am (#26 of 30)
While cruising the archives of the Votes thread I came across a poll that had been closed but not tallied. Kip gave me permission to tally it up, so....check out the "Rank the Seven Books" thread to see the results.

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freshwater - Apr 13, 2009 12:37 pm (#27 of 30)
Here are the results of this poll:

If you had an elf of your own (yes, Hermione, of course he gets a salary, health benefits, two nights off a week and a week off every six months...) what would you have him/her do? Please choose your 2 favorite answers.

38%1) house work: laundry, vacuuming, cleaning

5.9%2) yard work and gardening

5.9%3) grocery shopping and cooking

3%4) child care: babysitting, diaper changing, sibling squabbles, etc.

5.9%5) paying the bills and car maintenance

41%6) something else....such as 3 votes for side-along apparition, 2 votes each for grading papers and for making coffee, 1 vote each for something fun, going to work for me, litter picking, telling me elf stories, hang up and put away my clothes, assist my neighbor in cleaning up his yard, shelving books and keeping the library in order.

To sum up:

41% of us thought of something better for our house-elf to do, with the most votes going to side-along apparition, grading papers and making coffee.

38% of us would like for our elf to do the housework

There was a 3-way tie of 5.9% of us choosing either grocery shopping and cooking, yard work or paying bill and car maintanence.

3% of us want help with childcare.

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Potteraholic - Apr 14, 2009 7:11 am (#28 of 30)
Thanks for the poll results, freshwater. With a few loads of laundry to do today, a house elf would be perfect right about now.

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Solitaire - Apr 16, 2009 6:47 am (#29 of 30)
I thought of something else. He could remove all of my identification material from junk mail, magazines, and catalogues and shred it, so that I do not have to bother with it when I want to toss things into the recycling bin. Everything always has to be cleaned ... just in case.

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Choices - Dec 29, 2009 8:25 pm (#30 of 30)
I didn't get my vote in early enough, but I'd go with #6 - "Be very quiet and let me sleep." LOL