Stay on Schedule: How to Manage Household Chores

Living with other people isn’t always easy, especially when organizing household responsibilities like chores. Despite the necessity to keep your living space safe and clean, chores aren’t the most ‘fun’ activity, and when the burden of household tasks isn’t evenly split, it can cause tension among roommates. To help avoid this, we’ve collected some useful tips to make assigning and completing chores simpler than ever. Find out how to manage chores and keep your household running smoothly with these 10 tips!

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Managing Chores with Adult Family Members, Partners, and Roommates

Anyone who has ever lived with others will know that dividing housework is one of the most difficult aspects of cohabitation. Inevitably, it always seems like some roommates end up with more work than others, which can quickly lead to resentment and bitterness in an otherwise harmonious relationship—but this doesn’t have to be the case. Follow the steps below to ensure you and your roommates are on the same page about household chores! 

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• Define Standards and Tasks

Everyone has a different definition of clean—for some, clean might mean doing the dishes right after a meal, while others find leaving dishes in the sink for a few hours is perfectly acceptable. Nitty-gritty details like this are what you have to discuss to avoid misunderstandings when defining cleanliness. Making your feelings clear will help reduce conflict created by differing expectations. You can also discuss hiring a cleaning service if it’s within everyone’s budget. 

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• Document Your Standards in a Roommate Agreement 

When you define your standards of cleanliness, it’s a good idea to keep your decisions in writing so everyone can refer back to them if conflicts ever arise. Thus, you should be as specific as possible when outlining what, when, and how chores should be done, and who is responsible for completing them. This way, if someone ever violates the roommate agreement, you can remind them of the agreed-upon terms and that everyone is equally responsible for upholding them.

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• Divide Chores Into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Seasonal Tasks

Once you’ve determined what chores should be done through your roommate agreement, you can decide how often each task should be completed. Some tasks need to be completed daily (meal preparation, washing dishes, and cleaning the countertops), some need to be completed weekly (cleaning out the refrigerator, taking out the trash, and vacuuming), some need to be completed monthly (cleaning the mirrors and windows, dusting, and restocking cleaning supplies), and some only need to be done every few months (cleaning out the kitchen pantry and washing the inside of the refrigerator). Decide how frequently each chore needs to be done so everyone is clear on the timeline. 

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• Assign Specific Chores

Now that you have a list of your daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal responsibilities, you can divide the chores among yourselves. This part can be tricky, as some chores require more time and effort than others, but a good place to start is finding out if there are any chores your roommates don’t mind doing. Maybe someone prefers washing the dishes to taking out the trash and someone else would rather be on trash duty than wash the dishes. Assigning preferred tasks first is an excellent way to create a cleaning routine everyone is satisfied with.

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• Create a Schedule 

After figuring out how often each chore needs to be completed and who is responsible, you can create a chore schedule or chart to organize these responsibilities. This way, everyone knows what tasks need to be completed every week and you can hold each other accountable if someone falls behind. Chore schedules will also ensure tasks are distributed equally and fairly among all roommates. 

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• Set Deadlines 

When creating your chore chart, don’t forget to assign deadlines for each task. Without setting clear deadlines, it becomes more difficult to hold each other accountable if someone doesn’t do their chores on time. Thus, deadlines are crucial. For daily chores, this could mean dinner should be prepared by 7:00 p.m. or the dishes must be washed before everyone goes to bed at night. If someone is unable to complete their chores on time for any reason, this should be communicated to the other roommates so deadlines can be adjusted. 

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• Determine Ways to Keep Each Other Accountable 

There may come a time when people become too lax with completing their chores, which is why it’s essential to find a way to hold each other accountable for individual responsibilities. Try hanging a chart on the wall to see who has checked off their tasks, or have a quick weekly meeting to discuss what everyone did or didn’t complete. This will help keep everyone on track.

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• Address Problems as They Arise

Communication is key when living with other people, whether they’re family members, friends, or strangers. Sometimes someone will forget to take out the trash or get too busy to clean the shower, and that’s okay. As long as everyone can respectfully discuss these things, you can confront issues without damaging your relationship and creating a tense living situation.

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Additional Tips for Managing Chores with Children 

While many of the tips above can also apply to managing household tasks with children—creating a schedule, setting deadlines, and finding ways to instill accountability—kids may need extra motivation to help them get their chores done. If your little ones dread doing chores, give these tips a try!

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• Incentivize Chore Completion by Creating a Reward System 

One way to encourage kids to do chores they otherwise might not want to do is by rewarding them for a job well done. This could be anything from providing an allowance to buying them a new toy or video game to ordering takeout of their choice for dinner. Children may require different tasks and incentives based on age, so remember to update your chore assignments and reward system as your kids grow. 

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• Make Chores Fun

In general, people don’t like doing chores, and that goes for both kids and adults. Household tasks can be boring, not to mention physically and emotionally draining—but there is always a way to make chores more enjoyable. When it comes to larger tasks like deep-cleaning the bathroom, you can make this a team effort: get out your cleaning supplies, turn on some music, and enjoy some quality time together, even if it involves scrubbing the toilet bowl! Turning chores into an opportunity to spend precious time with your loved ones helps the tasks fly by much faster. 

Though we’d like to avoid them, chores are a necessary part of life. Try out these tips and tricks to make the process of organizing and completing household tasks less painful! 

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A Better Living Experience

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Resources:

5 tips for helping your child stay on top of chores

10 tips to manage the family household chores list

Equal Cleaning For All: Tips For Splitting Chores With Roommates

Roommate Chore Chart & Tips For Splitting Chores

The Ultimate Chores Chart For You and Your Roommates

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