Chore Chart Template
Who does what, when — a week on one printable page.
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| For | [names] |
| Week beginning | [date] |
| Chore | When | Who | M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [add one chore per line] |
What is a Chore Chart?
A chore chart puts a week of household jobs on one page with a name against each one. Its value is not organisational, it is argumentative: it moves the discussion from who does more to what is actually on the list. Without one, work lands on whoever notices it first, and the invisible jobs — refills, bins, forms, birthday cards — never get counted by anyone but the person doing them.
Families use it to make expectations legible to children who genuinely cannot hold five instructions at once. Shared houses and student flats use it because the alternative is a passive-aggressive note on the kitchen cupboard. Couples use it after having the same argument for the third time. It also works in classrooms, scout groups, community halls and small offices with a shared kitchen — anywhere several people use a space and none of them owns the cleaning of it.
A chart between household members has no legal weight anywhere. Two adjacent things do. In a shared tenancy the agreement usually allocates duties such as garden upkeep and end-of-tenancy cleaning, and the standard you will be held to comes from that agreement and from local tenancy or deposit rules — deposit schemes in England and Wales, state and territory law in Australia, provincial legislation in Canada. And if you pay someone from outside the household to clean, employment and tax obligations may follow; check with your tax authority.
The chart does not settle anything it does not describe. It is not a tenancy clause, so it cannot bind a housemate who simply stops cooperating, and it is not evidence in a deposit dispute — the inventory and the check-out report do that job. It is not a rota for paid staff either: a paid cleaner or care worker needs recorded hours, breaks and pay under local employment law, none of which a wall chart provides.
What to put in a Chore Chart
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Whose chart | For example: Micah and Nora |
| Week beginning | Free text |
| Chores | One per line: Chore | When | Who |
| Reward or note optional | For example: Everything ticked by Sunday means a trip to the pool. |
How to write a Chore Chart
List every job, including the invisible ones
Spend twenty minutes writing down everything that gets done in a week, including the jobs nobody sees: refilling the soap, booking the dentist, replacing bin bags, checking the car oil, remembering that the school trip form is due Friday. The invisible list is usually longer than the visible one, and getting it on paper is most of the value before a single name is assigned.
Put a frequency against each job
Daily, twice a week, weekly, monthly, seasonal. Most charts fail because everything gets placed on the daily row, which is unsustainable by the second week. Bins go out on a fixed day. Bathrooms are weekly. The oven and the windows are monthly at most. A realistic frequency turns a wish list into something a household can actually run for more than a fortnight.
Assign by name, not by everyone
A job assigned to everyone is assigned to nobody. Put one name against each line, and rotate weekly or monthly rather than daily so people build a rhythm. Match jobs to who can reach, lift or be trusted with them, then swap deliberately so nobody is permanently the one who cleans the bathroom. Write the names in ink and the rota in pencil.
Define what finished actually looks like
Tidy the kitchen means two different things to two people, and that gap is where most of the resentment lives. Write the standard down: worktops wiped, dishwasher emptied, floor swept, bin out if full. Three or four checkable items per job is enough. It also lets a child or a new housemate do the job right the first time without being followed around.
Review it out loud once a week
Pick a fixed time — Sunday evening, the start of a house meeting — and go through the chart together for five minutes. What did not get done, and was that the person or the plan? Move jobs that keep failing rather than repeating them. A chart nobody reviews becomes wallpaper within a fortnight, and the household quietly returns to whoever notices first.
Common mistakes
- Putting almost everything on the daily row, so the chart collapses in week two and takes the household's belief in charts with it.
- Leaving finished undefined, so one person's clean kitchen is another person's starting point and the argument simply continues under a new name.
- Listing only the visible jobs, which leaves the mental load — appointments, forms, restocking — with whoever was already carrying it.
- Rotating jobs every day so nobody learns them properly and every task is done badly by a beginner.
- Promising pocket money or a reward without saying when it is paid and what forfeits it, which turns the chart into a weekly negotiation.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a chore chart that actually works?
Write down every job first, including the invisible ones, then give each a realistic frequency — most charts fail from having too many daily tasks. Put one name against each line rather than everyone, define what finished means in three or four checkable items, and review the chart for five minutes once a week. Move what keeps failing instead of repeating it.
What chores can children do at what age?
Match the job to what the child can already do unsupervised rather than to a birthday. Very young children can put toys away, carry laundry and lay a table; older ones can load a dishwasher, sort washing, make simple meals and take the bins out; teenagers can run a whole area of the house. Keep anything involving heat, chemicals or heights supervised until you are confident.
How do housemates split chores fairly?
Split by job rather than by area, agree the standard in writing, and rotate the jobs nobody wants. Fairness is easier to hold when the list is complete — include bin day, buying cleaning products, the recycling run and whoever chases the bills. Decide in advance what happens when someone does not do theirs, because that rule is impossible to invent calmly at the moment it is needed.
Should chores be linked to pocket money?
Households do it both ways and both work. A common middle position is that a baseline of jobs is simply part of living in the house and unpaid, while extra tasks — washing the car, a deep clean of the garage — carry a rate. If you do pay, put the amount and the payday on the chart, because unclear terms produce weekly renegotiation.
How often should you rotate chores?
Weekly or monthly is usually right. Rotating daily means nobody gets good at anything and standards drop; never rotating means one person owns the worst job forever and resents it. A common approach is to fix the jobs people are best at or actively prefer, and rotate only the disliked ones — bathrooms, bins, the fridge clear-out — on a set cycle.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.