Chores for couples and adults
A chore chart for adults that keeps the count out of your head
Who cleaned the shower last? Who always remembers the bins? FairTurns puts the household jobs on a roster you can both see, hands out the turns and keeps the tally, so neither of you has to.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
The housework argument is usually about the counting
Most couples don’t fight about cleaning the bathroom. They fight about who has been keeping track. One person notices the bin is full, that the sheets haven’t been changed in three weeks and that it’s probably their turn again, and all that noticing is a job in itself. Saying “I feel like I do more” lands badly when neither of you can point to anything.
A roster moves that conversation out of your heads and onto a page. You agree the jobs and the days once: bins on Tuesday night, groceries on Thursday, bathroom and floors on Sunday morning. FairTurns hands each one to whoever has had the fewest turns at it, and the turns chart shows how many dates each of you has. Fair here means you can both see it and talk about it, rather than a promise that it comes out identical every week.
It works the same for adult siblings still living at home, or a parent and a grown-up son sharing a place. For the conversation itself, the guide to splitting chores fairly has a few ways in that don’t start with a list of grievances.
How two adults (or five) share the jobs
Agree the list once
Give each job on its own day a team: bins, groceries, sheets. Jobs done at the same time, like bathroom and floors on Sunday, are positions in one team. Then nobody has to carry the list around in their head.
Each job on its day
Bins every Tuesday, sheets every second Saturday, the oven on the last Sunday of the month. The dates repeat months ahead.
Turns that take turns
Fill gives each date to whoever has had the fewest turns at that job, so with two of you the jobs go back and forth rather than piling up on one side.
Keep your strengths
If one of you always cooks and the other never does, put only the cook on Cooking and share the rest. Nobody gets a job they aren’t set up for.
Away for work
Away for a conference or a week with family? Mark the days and Fill gives those jobs to whoever is home.
The count, in plain sight
The turns chart beside Fill shows how many dates each person has. It’s easier to look at together than to argue about.
Set it up
- 01
Make a household
Create an organisation for your home.
- 02
Write the jobs down
Add a team for each job that has its own day, with a position for each part done at the same time.
- 03
Add each other
Invite your partner or housemates by email so everyone can sign in.
- 04
Set the rhythm
Click the day each job happens and choose how it repeats.
- 05
Fill and look together
Press Fill for three months and look over the turns chart together before you settle on it.
When you want it to run itself
Pro sends each of you a reminder before your turn and the week’s jobs on the day you choose, and lets you reply “I can’t make it” so the job goes to the next person. With How often you can set one person to Less often for a job they mostly hand over. It’s A$12 a year for the household.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Pick the five or six jobs that cause friction and roster those. Leave the small daily things off, or it gets noisy.
- You don’t book your own jobs; you agree who can do each one, then the roster shares them out. Either of you can move a date by hand.
- FairTurns counts dates. It doesn’t time jobs or weigh a big job against a small one, so talk that part through.
- There’s no swap button. Change the names on the date yourselves, or on Pro reply “I can’t make it” from the reminder.
Questions
Can bigger jobs count for more?
You can make the big jobs come round less often, such as the oven on the last Sunday of the month, and on Pro set each person to More often or Less often for a particular job. The roster counts dates, so agree between you what a turn is worth.
We both work shifts. Does that matter?
Mark the days you can’t do as away, or a whole week of nights as a stretch, and Fill leaves you off those days. Anything already on the roster stays put until you move it.
Does my partner need to sign in?
Signing in lets them see their own next dates first and mark their own away days. If they’d rather not, share the public link and they can see the whole roster without an account.
Can our adult kids or a housemate join in?
Yes. There is no limit on people, so add them to the same teams and the next Fill includes them. Redistribute can share out the dates already on the roster again, and shows who gains and loses a date before anything changes.
How much is it?
The roster is free. Pro, with reminders, replies and How often, is A$1 a month paid at least a year at a time, so A$12 a year.
Free templates and guides
How to split chores fairly
List every job, including the invisible ones, agree the standard, then rotate or own. A method for any household.
Chore roster maker
List the people and the chores. Each week everyone moves on to a different job.
Chore chart template
A printable chore chart for kids: jobs down the side, the week across, a box to tick each day.
Similar rosters
Household chores
The whole family’s chores on one shared roster, with whose turn it is on everyone’s phone.
Flatmate cleaning rota
Kitchen, bathroom, bins and hoovering shared out between flatmates, on a rota the whole flat can see.
Cooking and dishes turns
Whose turn to cook and whose turn to wash up, night by night, on one link the house can check.