Let's Learn English! Topic: Saturday Chores! 🧹🚽🛒 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome

to this English lesson

about Saturday chores.

The things that most of us do

on the weekend, usually

on a Saturday, maybe some of these

chores you do on a Sunday,

but the things you do once a week.

For me, there is a little bit

of a list of things that

I don't do every day,

but we usually do on a Saturday.

So Saturday chores include

things like cleaning the bathroom,

wiping down all

of the surfaces in the house.

Maybe on a Saturday

you do the laundry.

I'll get into all the details

in this lesson in a moment.

So this lesson will be

about Saturday chores.

Hopefully it helps you learn some

new English words and phrases

that you can use in your next

conversation when you talk about

the chores you do on a Saturday.

Get groceries.

So depending on where you live,

depending on what your

normal habits are, you might

get groceries on a Saturday.

You might go to the grocery

store to buy food.

You might buy cookies, you might

buy bananas, you might buy butter,

flour, you might buy beans.

Whatever you usually eat,

you might regularly go on a Saturday

to get groceries.

In some cultures, people do go get

groceries or buy groceries every

day or every other day will simply

tell you what Jen and I do.

We have two, sometimes three

grocery trips every week.

I do have kids living at home still.

We have what we call our

big grocery trip, and that's

usually on a Saturday.

One of us or both of us will go

to the grocery store on a Saturday.

But then usually on a Tuesday

and maybe a Thursday, we have like

little grocery trips where we

just go to buy a few things.

We buy milk on a Saturday, doesn't

last until Monday or Tuesday.

We usually need to go

and buy more milk.

So on Saturday, we do what we

call our big grocery trip.

We go and buy all

of our major food items.

And then throughout the week,

we will also buy a little bit

to top up what we have.

You might tidy up.

So we try in our house to be

tidy people to keep the rooms

that we use and live in clean.

But throughout the week, sometimes

stuff gets left in those rooms.

Maybe I'm reading a book and I

leave it on a coffee table.

Maybe there are.

Maybe Jen and I have a snack in

front of the TV and we have a

couple plates, or maybe there's

a bag of chips that gets left on

a coffee table in the back room

because we watched a baseball

game.

So on Saturday, we'll often tidy up.

So throughout the week, you try

to keep things tidy and clean.

But sometimes you have little things

that you leave here and there

and you need to just tidy up a bit.

So when you tidy up, it means

to put things back

where they're supposed to be.

The chip bag goes back in the snack

cupboard, the plates go

into the sink so we can clean them

later when we do the dishes.

But you might tidy up

and you might sweep the floors.

So I'm not sure how you clean

your house or apartment,

but we sweep our kitchen floor

day after we eat our evening meal.

We call supper.

We call it supper.

You might call it dinner.

We sweep the kitchen floor,

but on Saturdays, we

usually sweep all the floors.

So we sweep all the floors that can

be swept the front entrance way,

the hallway leading to the kitchen.

But because we eat in the kitchen

and sometimes crumbs fall

on the floor and those kinds

of things, we usually sweep

the kitchen floor every day.

But on Saturday, we will sweep all

the floors that need to be swept.

And then we will vacuum all

of the rooms that have carpet.

Again, a vacuum or a vacuum cleaner

is something that sucks things up.

It's called a vacuum

because it sucks.

That's the best way to describe it.

So we will vacuum this room,

the room I'm in right now.

We will vacuum the back room

because it has carpet, by the way.

We have a room in our house

that we call the back room.

You could also call it

a family room or living room.

There's different names for it.

We just call it the back room because

it's at the back of our house.

But yes, we will vacuum all

of the rooms on a Saturday

morning that have carpet.

And yes, in the UK you would

probably call this hoover.

You're going to hoover in Canada.

In my part of Canada, we say,

I'm going to vacuum or I'm

going to use the vacuum cleaner

to vacuum vacuum rooms.

And then you might mop.

So we don't mop

our kitchen floor every day.

When you mop, you use what's

called a mop and you make it wet

with water and soap or

water and some sort of cleaner.

And then you actually wipe the floor

with the mop, which is wet.

It does a me much better

job than a broom.

A broom is great for using every day,

but generally once a week,

sometimes every two

weeks, we will mop the floors.

So any floor that needs to be cleaned

thoroughly, we will mop that floor.

And then this is an interesting one,

we will wipe surfaces now

on a daily basis, we wipe

our kitchen table and we wipe

the counter in the kitchen.

That's the area where

we prepare food day.

We will wipe those Surfaces

multiple times to keep them clean.

But there are other areas

in the house where we don't do that.

The coffee table in the back

room, we don't wipe that every

day, we wipe that once a week.

The counter in the bathroom,

we wipe once or twice a week.

So we don't clean every surface.

But when you wipe, you will get

a cloth and you will put the cloth

in water and probably soap.

Then you will wipe the surfaces

so that they are clean.

So that, again, is something we do

daily in the kitchen, but we do

weekly in other places in our house.

You don't have to wipe off

the coffee table in your living

room every day, in my opinion,

but you should probably wipe

it off once every week.

Now, there's a couple general

things that need to be done.

You need to clean the bathroom.

So there are things, of course, in

the bathroom that you need to clean.

But the general term that I would

use is I would say on Saturday,

someone needs to clean the bathroom.

We have two bathrooms.

It's my job to clean the toilet.

I think I've mentioned this before.

But we try to clean

the bathroom thoroughly.

So we will clean the toilet,

clean the bathtub,

mop the floor, clean the sink

and all those kinds of things.

Sometimes if we're really busy,

we will just clean the toilet

and clean the sink, the two

things we use the most.

And we'll just leave

the tub or shower a week.

But yes, it's nice to keep

the bathroom nice and clean.

It's nice to mop the floor,

clean the toilet, etc.

And then of course, I

just mentioned this.

It's important to clean the toilet.

It is the worst job in my opinion.

I hate cleaning the toilet, but it

is really nice to have clean things

in your house, including the

toilet, which you use when you need

to go to the bathroom or go to the

washroom.

So if your toilet isn't clean, I'm

sure a job that you will be doing

later today, you will probably take

some time to clean the toilet.

Run errands.

So this is something I don't

actually do on a Saturday.

Most of the errands I need to do

are in the same town where I work.

But there are sometimes little

errands I do have to do.

On a Saturday.

An errand is when you have

to go somewhere to do something.

Groceries can be considered

running an errand, but also

maybe going to the bank.

Or maybe you drop your clothes off

to be cleaned at a dry cleaner.

Maybe you have to return

something To a friend.

That's an errand I would do

on a Saturday.

If I borrowed something from

a friend, I might drive to my

friend's house to return that item.

But errands would be all the little

things you have to go and do.

Either you need to walk or drive

your car there or take the bus

in order you to have a nice life.

Groceries are probably

getting groceries is probably

a really good example.

So again, most of the time I run

errands during the week because all

of the places I would need to go are

close to the school where I work.

So that is what I do.

Mow the lawn.

So if you live in an apartment,

you don't have to do this.

If you live out in the city

somewhere in a house, you

probably have to mow the lawn.

You rent your house, the landlord

might mow the lawn for you,

or someone might come who

the landlord pays to mow the lawn.

My mum had that when

she lived in a house.

It just got mowed.

But if you own your house, you

will have to mow the lawn.

You will need to get a lawnmower.

We call this a push mower

because you have to push it.

If you're.

If your lawn is big enough, you

might own a riding mower or what

we call a lawn tractor or garden

tractor where you can sit on it

and drive while you mow your

lawn.

But a common thing that people do in

North America at least, is they will

mow the lawn on a Saturday morning.

Very, very common.

I've never done this.

Okay, I shouldn't say never.

I'm not someone who will go out

and wash the car on a Saturday.

I don't have a really nice Ford

Mustang like this, though.

Jen and I usually just wait

for it to rain and, and that

the rain can wash the car.

But some people love their cars.

They will get a pail with soapy

water and a sponge and they

will go out and they will wash

their car with soapy water and

then they will rinse it off

with a hose with a, a nozzle at

the end.

So they will wash the car

in the driveway on a Saturday.

This is a classic kind

of American type of thing.

So when you watch older American

TV shows, sometimes the dad

will be washing the car on

a Saturday morning in the driveway,

and maybe the kids are helping.

I don't know if people wash cars as

much now as they used to, but this

used to be a pretty common thing

to do on a Saturday morning.

Fill up with gas.

This is something I do.

So we now have three vehicles

on the road because we have five

people, our house, who drive.

So we have three vehicles

and five people who drive.

And so that means I go

to the gas station a lot.

Thankfully, gas is 25 cents

a litre cheaper now in Canada

than it was a week and a half ago

because the government

removed one of the taxes.

So that's really, really nice.

But yes, I will go fill up with gas.

I will take each vehicle and drive

to town, live only 3km

from the gas station.

And you will often see me

on a Saturday going and filling all

three vehicles up so that they

are ready to go for the week.

We don't use a full tank of gas

in every vehicle every week, so

it's not like I'm not always

putting a full tank of gas in.

But, yes, I do fill up with gas.

I think if you're in Britain

you would say petrol,

but in Canada we will say gas.

I fill up with gas

at the gas station.

So this.

You can remove the word soccer

and insert almost any word you want.

When our kids were little, they

were often involved in something.

In English, when you say someone is

involved in something, it means that

they are on a team, maybe they're in

a club, maybe they are in some sort

of dance club or something like

that.

So you need to take the kids

to dance, you need to take the kids

to soccer, you need

to take the kids to football.

You might say you need to take

the kids to baseball practice.

Notice I can add or leave off

the word practice when I say that.

If I said to a friend, I can't help

you Saturday morning because I have

to take the kids to soccer, it

means they're either going to

soccer practice or they have a

soccer game.

But yes, this is what a lot

of parents do on Saturday mornings.

Take the kids to dance class, take

the kids to soccer practice, take

the kids to baseball practice,

take the kids to swimming practice,

if they're on a swim team, etc.

Etc.

Lots of fun.

Actually, as a parent, I

did enjoy this because I had this.

So when I had to bring the kids

somewhere, and if I couldn't

watch, sometimes you bring the kids

to something and they have,

like, practice and you're.

As a parent, you just sit

in the hall and wait.

That's how dance worked.

I would just have my phone.

It was really nice.

Do the laundry.

So this is another

pretty common thing for us.

Although when all of us are home,

when all of us are in the house.

Sometimes there's laundry done

on other days as well.

But for Jen and I, it's pretty

common to do the laundry.

So that means we wash our clothes

in the washing machine

on a Saturday morning.

It's a pretty common thing

to hear the washing machine going.

By the way, in my part

of the world, when you say washing

machine, it means

the machine that washes clothes.

So this person has a laundry basket.

They're at a laundromat,

so they don't have their

own washing machine.

And it looks like they are.

I think they're going

to wash those clothes.

Hard to tell, isn't it?

But you will do the laundry.

That's the phrase we use when we

talk about washing our clothes.

And then, of course, you fold

the laundry when you're done.

We hang our laundry up

to dry on drying racks or outside

on drying racks.

We don't have a dryer.

And then when you are all

done, when the clothes are dry,

you then fold the clothes.

You might say you sort

the clothes as well.

Like, I'll put my clothes folded

in a pile for my dresser

and closet, and Jen will

put hers in her own pile.

So she will sort the clothes.

But yes, you will fold the laundry

after the laundry is dry.

Clean your room.

So when I was little,

this was my job.

This was my chore.

On a Saturday, my mom would

tell us, go clean your room.

So this is a phrase we often use

to talk about children.

As an adult, I wouldn't often

say, I need to clean my room

because when we say room here,

it generally means bedroom.

So if you are visiting someone

and they say to their kid, go clean

your room, they're telling

the child, go clean your bedroom.

Make your bed.

Put your toys away.

Maybe there's clean laundry

in a laundry basket.

Put that into your dresser.

You can see this kid has

a dresser right here.

So generally when we use this phrase,

we're talking about children.

And it's a chore that children often

will do on a Saturday morning.

And this is a good time

to teach the word begrudgingly.

When, when you do something

begrudgingly, it means you

don't actually want to do it,

but you do it anyway.

So my children would often

begrudgingly clean their room

on a Saturday morning.

You might change your

sheets on your bed.

So when you change the sheets

on a bed, it means that you

change all the blankets

and the pillowcases that you.

Now people all have different

schedules for how often

they change the sheets.

But the sheets.

Let me explain again.

The Sheets are the really

thin blankets.

So we have a thin sheet on our

mattress, and then we have a

sheet as well that when you get

in bed, you lay on the one

sheet and the other one's on

top of you.

And our pillowcases are all

the same material.

They all match.

And then on top of the sheets,

we have blankets and other

things to keep us warm.

So it's very comm.

To take the sheets off your

bed and to put clean sheets

on your bed and to wash

the other sheets on a Saturday.

But it depends.

Some people, maybe

it's every two weeks.

For some people,

maybe it's every day.

I don't know anyone who changes

their sheets every day.

Maybe it's every three days.

But, yes, at some point, you

need to change the sheets.

We do it once a week.

And then you need to dust

for some reason.

Yeah, see, there's dust.

There's dust here.

Let me see if I can

get this in focus.

You can see there's a little

bit of dust there.

Oh.

Now there's a little bit

of dust in the air.

So I need to dust my monitor.

I don't have my dust brush.

I have one, but I don't

have it here right now.

But you need to dust things, because

in life, there's

even, like, a little bit

of dust on my microphone.

I have to clean the dust

off every once in a while.

So dust is something that settles.

So dust is in the air, and it settles

on things through the week.

And then you need to dust

to get rid of it.

So you go around with something

like this or a wet cloth

in order to remove the dust.

Our house has a lot more dust

in the summer because we go

in and out a lot more in the summer.

And so when we come in, there's,

little bit of dirt on our shoes,

and we have the windows open,

and there's just.

There's just more dust in the summer.

In the winter, it's cold

outside, and there's snow.

There's no dust.

In fact, I read somewhere that people

who live in Antarctica, like at

a research station, one of the first

things they say is there's no mud.

Or there's not a lot of dirt in their

entrance way because there's no mud.

So in Antarctica.

I was gonna say South Africa,

Antarctica, you might need

to water the plants.

So if you have houseplants,

plants that are in pots

on a Saturday morning, you will most

likely water the plants.

You might do this a little more

often or a Little less often.

But I know for us, this is the time

where we check if the plants

need a little bit of water.

And we will water the plants so that

they can grow and keep us happy.

Houseplants keep me happy.

I wish my room was brighter.

The plant that I used to have

over there is in the kitchen now

because there wasn't

enough light in this room.

But yes, you might water

the plants, clean up the toys.

If you have small children,

they are messy and you need

to clean up the toys when they

are done playing with them.

Or more importantly, they need

to clean up the toys, in my opinion.

Some parents do a lot for their kids.

I would say.

Jen and I usually helped our kids

clean up the toys and try to teach

them to clean up their toys.

But we did not make our kids clean

up their toys every day.

We just let them play

with their toys.

We had an area where there was a lot

of toys, but on Saturday, we usually

said, okay, let's clean up the toys.

Especially if someone was coming

over, like if my mum was going

to visit or something, we would

clean up the toys with the kids.

Meal prep.

So someone asked if cooking was

a chore, and I think it is.

What some people have been

doing is they will prepare

meals on a Saturday,

and we call this meal prep.

Not everyone does this.

Jen and I, in the summer, we will

do some meal prep on a Saturday.

And for us, it looks like this.

We will cook a lot of meat on

a Saturday and then we will freeze

it to use for the rest of the week.

Because sometimes when you

prepare a meal, cooking meat is

the most difficult thing to do.

So we will, sometimes we will prep.

We will cook all of our chicken

and hamburger on a Saturday,

and then we will freeze it

for the each meal that we will have

on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Some people actually

do more than that.

They will make all of their lunches

on a Saturday and then

take one out of the freezer

every day to go to work.

But generally, if you meal

prep, you're usually freezing

whatever you are preparing.

Like, I feel like this

person is making supper for

every night of the week.

And I'm assure, I'm sure

they will freeze it.

Clean the oven.

We don't actually do

this every Saturday.

Our oven doesn't really

get that dirty.

It's a modern oven.

But we will clean the oven

regularly if it needs to be clean.

Some people, some people will

clean the oven more often

or less often than that.

Wash the windows

once again, will admit we do not

do this every Saturday.

But when I put together the list

of phrases to teach, I, I put all

of the things that I do on the list.

That's how I make a lesson.

And then I usually

after I have 15 or 20 items, then

I search the Internet.

Well, what do other people do

on a Saturday?

And it said wash the windows.

We wash our windows usually

twice a year, usually

in the spring and in the fall we

wash our windows apparently.

Maybe you're, you're like this.

Some people wash their

windows every Saturday.

Maybe when I'm older and have more

time on my hands, I will do that.

Some people do banking on a Saturday.

Now this is an interesting

one because you used to have

to do banking during the week

when the bank was open.

But now because of online banking,

you can do your

banking any day of the week.

I often will do some

banking on a Saturday.

And what I mean by it is this.

I have to pay the person who

teaches one of my kids piano.

So I will go to online

banking and send her money.

I might have to just check,

oh, I have a Visa card.

Do I owe money on the Visa card?

And I will transfer money

from my checking account

to Visa on a Saturday.

Might just look at Jen's farm

account and decide, okay, do

we have enough money

to buy the thing Jen wants to buy?

So banking, when you say you're going

to do some banking, it means

you're going to check your balance,

you're going to maybe pay some

bills and those kinds of things.

A lot of it is just automatic now,

but I would say this is something I

do regularly do on a Saturday just

to make sure, log in, make sure

everything that went through my

checking account that week was

supposed to check the Visa, see

what Jen and I bought that week,

etcetera, etcetera.

Clean out the fridge.

So I hate it when food goes bad.

So I kind of do this throughout

the week a little bit as well.

I'm always putting food that's,

that needs to be eaten close

to the front where people

can see it in the fridge.

But sometimes I think this

happens to all of us.

Something will go bad.

So maybe you buy celery and you eat

most of it, but then you don't.

It's Saturday and the last couple

of pieces are starting

to turn brown and not look good.

So you would then compost them.

Sometimes you might find

yogurt and the expiry date is

two months ago.

So you might have to throw that

out so clean out the fridge.

That is something that I think a lot

of people do on a Saturday.

They might not.

You can see this person is

throwing out a lot of food.

I In my experience, most people,

when they clean out the fridge,

they will often cook something

with the food that instead of

throwing it out, like if cheese

has mold on it, you just cut the

mold off.

If vegetables aren't totally bad,

you can make soup out of them.

But you might want to open your

fridge, have a look inside

and decide what is worth keeping

and what you need to throw out.

So you might clean out the fridge

on a Saturday.