I'm wondering how everyone who lives with at least one other adult divides household /yard chores? Especially two full-time working adults?
One system I'm thinking about is making a list of all possible chores and assigning them points. Then each person needs to do at least 150 points worth of chores each week, besides picking up after themselves.
Mowing the lawn / shoveling snow might be worth 30 points. Cleaning the bathroom might be worth 10 points. Doing laundry worth 5 points. Cleaning cat litter boxes - 10 points. Taking out trash - 10 points. Etc.
Do you think something like that might work?
What do you do?
Division of Chores
February 21st, 2016 at 09:57 pm
February 21st, 2016 at 10:05 pm 1456092317
That was particularly geared toward the couple in which one person worked outside the home and the other stayed at home. But it seems that it could be reasonably applicable in other situations.
My sister and her husband - empty nesters - he does the yard work and cooks, she does the laundry and cleans. It works for them.
February 21st, 2016 at 10:24 pm 1456093458
February 21st, 2016 at 10:46 pm 1456094790
February 21st, 2016 at 10:47 pm 1456094850
We've done it various ways. I primarily do laundry and cooking, planning of meals, and finances. I've stayed home 85% of our marriage, so more cleaning does get put on me. And I do more things for the kids. Currently, I would say DH does more cleaning and nearly always does the yard work. He has also been taking out garbage and handling kitty litter, which is a bit of a change since we've moved. No real discussion about it.
My husband told me I was going to start laundry today and I said no. I wanted to do it. And I told him it's because I'm worried he'll do it wrong...dry something he isn't suppose to. It's not that he never does or never allow it, I just prefer to do it.
February 21st, 2016 at 11:16 pm 1456096566
I'd say for us it took a long time to evolve where everyone is happy. (& I expect this was significantly sped up with reverse gender roles. Nothing like walking in other person's shoes). But in the end, whoever whines less about certain chores does them. I suppose we maybe thought about that less up front but is where things ended up. Neither of us does any chores that we hate or can not stand. & I mean, doesn't mean we don't do chores we don't like. But they are chores we can live with. Or there are some chores that one of us just doesn't mind at all. The yard work, for example, would never get done and was the only thing we fought about after several years of marriage. So we just hired it out.
February 21st, 2016 at 11:19 pm 1456096783
I think you'll find that there are natural lines of division as you go along. When I was married, I did all the laundry, and about 3/4 of the cooking. I did most of the picking up and he did most of the heavy cleaning. (Believe it or not, my husband liked to clean!) He did all of the yardwork. And I did almost all of the childcare and pet care, but I was always either at home full-time or working part-time.
February 22nd, 2016 at 01:27 am 1456104441
February 22nd, 2016 at 02:17 am 1456107425
February 22nd, 2016 at 03:48 am 1456112903
Good luck!
February 22nd, 2016 at 05:37 am 1456119436
February 22nd, 2016 at 06:13 pm 1456164813
February 23rd, 2016 at 02:13 am 1456193605
February 23rd, 2016 at 03:32 am 1456198356
February 23rd, 2016 at 03:43 am 1456199000
Petunia100 - Oh, I like! How did you come up with the chore list?
February 23rd, 2016 at 06:31 pm 1456252282
Warning: it's still not even. I do more.
Also - be sure to value what the other person does that you don't do (like D fixes our internet; all I have to do is yell "aahhhhh!" and he lets the dog out for the last time each evening and back in again which is great because it's COLD right now).
February 24th, 2016 at 04:06 am 1456286799
My idea was that if we could just get those 6 things done each day, the house would stay at a reasonable level of cleanliness and order.
February 24th, 2016 at 04:10 am 1456287023
Petunia100 -- Good idea! Thank you! Just a little bit done each day is helpful.
February 24th, 2016 at 04:11 pm 1456330306
February 25th, 2016 at 01:56 am 1456365388
February 26th, 2016 at 03:13 am 1456456413
I cook, so he cleans up the dishes. He folds and puts away all the laundry. He vacuums the manspace downstairs. I handle the bathrooms 90 percent of the time. We mow about 50-50, but I handle the food garden. That handles our everyday life.
I also made a deck of laminated cards, each has one 10 to 15-minute special cleaning job on it. Every day, we pick one from the stack. It's stuff like cleaning the windows in the living room, scrubbing out the microwave, dusting in the living room, etc. It's worked really well. These are little jobs that need done, but can easily fall through the cracks in a busy day with kids. Each task doesn't take long, and it's fair because we're both doing one every day. It also means a cleaner house, because we know these things are getting done at least once a month.
February 26th, 2016 at 01:27 pm 1456493270
I'm getting so many good ideas from all of you. Thank you all!
February 26th, 2016 at 10:36 pm 1456526174
I clean up after our pets because they technically are "mine" (I adopted them.)
He typically cleans the bathroom... especially the toilet. I'll sweep and scrub the sink once in awhile, but I avoid the toilet. That's his realm.
We take turns with dishes, vacuuming, and laundry. Whoever is home and happens to not be doing something and chores need to be done, that person will get the chores done.
We've never really discussed our system, it just happened and we've never felt the need to change up anything.