Living with someone means sharing your life with them.
You share Sunday breakfast, cold winter nights, and 3 a.m. homework marathons.
It also means you share something more intimate, something that no one likes talking about: chores. And everybody knows you have to do it in order to maintain any type of peace.
How do you decide who does what, when they do it, and how often it gets done?
If left unsaid, it may never get done, or it may end up that one person or the other is always taking out the trash, unloading the dishwasher, or mopping the floors.
To ensure that there is an equal balance, as we all need in our lives, here are a few ideas on how to craft a chore chart!
Consider Rotating Schedules
Aside from things like laundry that you’ll be doing separately, most chores fall under the “community” umbrella. This can range from wiping down tables to scrubbing the toilets, which are both gross in their own way.
When deciding how to divvy up chores, consider making a rotating schedule. Perhaps you work out that every time you clean the bathroom, your roommate does the kitchen and living room. Then it would rotate so that you do the kitchen and living room and your roommate does the bathroom.
Simple!
Keep It Constant
Or, if you prefer doing one thing and your roommate prefers the other, consider keeping it constant.
If your roommate gets a certain satisfaction out of mopping and dusting, then by all means, they can keep it!
If you feel the same about sanitizing and polishing, then you can keep that!
Figure out what is most manageable for the both of you and work from there.
Figure Out A Schedule
With that is also a time table of how often you should do certain chores. Once a week may be too often, or once a month may not be often enough.
Sit down with your roommate and talk about what needs to be done and when. From there, you can divide how often you want to do certain chores.
For example: Wipe down the stove after every meal, but wipe down the counters only if there’s a mess.
And even then, only do that if you’re the one that made the mess in the first place!
Keep The Chore Chart Visible
The easiest way to keep this schedule visible so that you know when it’s your turn is by investing in a calendar or whiteboard where you can write down when certain things should be done.
Then, it’s visible to both of you and you can keep an eye on the things you’ll be doing.
If someone skips out on the chores, let them know and work out when they can have it done. It’s not the end of the world, but it will be noticeable if you don’t sweep for three months.
Be kind and respectful—no one is happy about having to do more chores than necessary!
