How to Create a Chore List for The Entire Family and Get Organized

Make household chores family business.

Turn your messy home into a place that’s organized and tidy while teaching your children about shared responsibility, organization and the value of getting a job done. Call your family together to discuss and create a household chore list for the entire family that shares the load, spreads responsibility and establishes accountability. When everyone in the family is working together, the results will be a cleaner home and more time for family fun.

Things You'll Need

• Family meeting time.
• Pencil/paper or computer and the ability to create a chart.
• Place to post the chore lists
• List of pre-determined consequences.
• Less time than you did before!

Instructions

1. Call a family meeting. With the help of everyone, create a list of all the household chores that need to be completed each day. Separate the chores into personal responsibilities such as picking up clothes, and family responsibilities.

2. Agree on standards for chores. If a child's personal responsibility includes cleaning her room, specify that it includes picking up dirty clothes, making the bed and putting toys away.

3. Create a list of family responsibilities. These are general household tasks. Ask for volunteers for particular jobs. Some kids may prefer to organize the front closet every day, rather than clean the bathroom. If no one volunteers, jobs can be assigned and rotated. Avoid giving small children jobs that are overwhelming and remember to thank children for their contributions.

4. Create and display a house cleaning schedule in the form of a chart or checklist for each family member for a week. You can create several charts and simply rotate the family member's name for that list each week. A simple way to create a chart is to create a table in a word processing program.

5. Provide guidance to your family once they're using the job chart. After the chores are finished, take the family around to each room and point out the things that they missed, then help them fix it. Keep it positive. For the second walk-about, have other family members critique the job and see if they can point out what each family member missed, then have them fix it.

Tips & Warnings

• There is the possibility that your children, or spouse, may not WANT to follow a house cleaning schedule. Reinforce the idea that following this plan will mean LESS work for everyone. Cleaning a living room that was just cleaned the day before is a lot easier than cleaning one that hasn't been touched for a week or more.

• There is the possibility that your children, or spouse, may have a different idea of what CLEAN really is, but they can learn. After the chores are finished, take the family around to each room and point out the things that they missed, then have them fix it. Keep it positive, you are simply helping them learn how to clean up to your expectations. For the second walk-about, have other family members critique the job and see if they can point out what each family member missed, then have them fix it. This takes a little more effort in the beginning, but is well worth it.

• Agree on consequences when chores are not completed and rewards when the work exceeds expectations.

• Review the plan during family meetings to discuss what is working and what is not. Make adjustments if necessary. As families change, so do their needs.

References

• University of Missouri Extension; Teaching Children Responsibility; Maudie Kelly
• University of New Hampshire Extension: Children and Chores