A house chore list can be the structured support you need when you start living by yourself for the first time!
You made a big step, moving out of your parents’ home. Living on your own can be quite overwhelming in the beginning. You will probably call your parents or grandparents more than you would like to ask for help and that’s okay.
Household chores aren’t the favorite things to do when you arrive home, but they are a necessity. At least, some of them are. If you live alone without any roommates, feel free to do the things on this list as much or as little as you find needed.
I am a big fan of making a good structured plan to help you take control over your household. If you do chores only when you feel like it, chances are that you end up procrastinating most of them. Who wants to live in a cluttered and dirty home without food in the fridge? That’s right, no one!
Let’s start looking at all the chores you need to do to live comfortably.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure for more info.
Why Should You Make a House Chore List?
There are a lot of reasons why having a chores list or chore chart will come in handy.
First of all, it will help you to keep things neat and organized in your home. Everybody wants to live in a properly cleaned home where you can relax and unwind. There is nothing nice about living in a dump.
When you create a chore routine that works for you, chores will become habits after a while and they will take less energy to fulfill them. You also won’t forget to do them and can keep track of everything. The chores won’t pile up like they would if you just winged them. You can keep control over your household with a house chore list.
These 7 dry erase boards to stick onto your fridge let you write down everything that needs to get done per day and the beauty of it, is that you can re-use it every week if you do the same things on the same days, just erase the check. If you prefer to write everything down on paper, check out this weekly to-do list.
Making a chore chart is also a very good idea when you live with other people! Create one in consultation with your roommates or family to see who wants to do which tasks. If you can create a situation where everybody is happy about their tasks, this would be perfection. But perfection does not exist. Let’s see how you can alternate the tasks nobody wants to do and live in peace. Make sure everybody does their part of the house chore list so there won’t be any resentment towards each other.
It will be easiest to do your chores when you see what you have to do every day. You can stick this magnetic dry erase chore chart onto your refrigerator if you live together with other people and divide the chores amongst all of you. You can not get more clarity than you get working with a board like that.
What Chores and How Often?
Some tasks need to be done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Personal preferences allow for other frequencies. You can adjust this list if you feel like something needs to be done more or less often. But let me give you some basics.
Let’s dive into the house chore list.
Daily Chores – House Chore List
Cleaning
Cleaning the Countertops After Cooking: When you are done cooking you should always clean up immediately. It’s a lot easier to clean when it’s not all cooked into the countertops. Leave the kitchen clean after using it for yourself and your roomies. Get yourself some microfiber cleaning cloths for most of your cleaning jobs.
Setting and Cleaning The Table: This task can be as tiny or as extensive as you want as well. If you are with multiple people you could create a shift for this task. Otherwise, everybody can take what they need for themselves, quick and easy.
Washing Dishes: This is necessary for some dishes or bottles that can’t go into the dishwasher or if you don’t own a dishwasher. If you have sensitive hands, you might want to get some reusable dishwashing cleaning gloves to protect your skin from the soaps and detergent (which is not that good for your skin). If you do have a dishwasher, the dishes sometimes come out dirty (how is this possible??) and you have to give them a handwash anyway.
(Un)loading Dishwasher: Unloading and loading the dishwasher. Your grandparents must think you are extremely lazy if even this task is too much for you.
Washing Yourself: You can have a quick refreshment, wash your armpits and other parts that sweat during the day, or do a full body bath or shower. You can wash your hair every day but this isn’t great for the health of it. Try to skip at least one day of washing your hair. (This is more a self-care activity than a chore, but it can feel like one if you have to do it every day!)
Taking Out The Trash: Especially when you live in an apartment you will have to take out the trash more frequently or your apartment will start to smell.
Cleaning Up After Yourself: When you make a mess, try to clean up after yourself immediately. It won’t be more fun later. Only if you don’t have enough time to do it immediately, you can let it be and clean it up after a while when you have more time.
Food
Preparing Breakfast/Lunch: You can do this in the morning or the evening so pick whatever moment works best for you. I like to prepare both of them in the evening so I can sleep as long as possible in the morning. You can make them as extensive or simple as you like.
Cooking: If you want to eat freshly cooked food daily, someone is supposed to cook it. If you like cooking this can be a great way to enjoy your evenings but if you don’t enjoy it, do some research to find easy-to-cook recipes or alternate between cooking and ordering/microwaving ready-made food.
Pets
Feeding Your Pets and Giving Them Fresh Water: This is a no-brainer if you are a pet owner! Feed them and give them fresh water to keep them well-fed. I feed my dog once a day and give her a snack occasionally. Refilling her water bowl can feel like a part-time job. If you don’t want to have to refill the water bowl every two seconds, maybe get yourself a gravity pet waterer, this one has the capacity for one gallon of water and let gravity do the work for you, amazing!
Walking The Dog: Another must-do if you have a larger dog breed. Smaller dogs don’t always need to have their daily walk but if your dog loves to walk, give it some fun! Walking is also very good for your health so it’s a win-win and does not have to take a long time.
Other
Checking The Mailbox: This is a quick one, check your mailbox and email daily. Most of our post comes by email these days but make sure to check your mailbox too especially when snails might eat your mail (which happened to me before). It’s a good thing to check your email only once or twice a day so you won’t get distracted by it the entire day. Put it on silent mode and check it when it’s scheduled in your day.
Making Your Bed: A good habit to create every morning. When you are going to sleep at night, your bed can ventilate during the day and it looks clean and nice to crawl into.
Picking Out Your Clothes: A good habit is to pick out your clothes the night before so you won’t lose time in the morning. Check the weather preview first.
Weekly Chores – House Chore List
Let’s talk more about the weekly chores on the house chore list. Some things can be done less than weekly on this list, see what works best for you and your roommates.
Cleaning
Vacuuming or Sweeping: You can use a vacuum cleaner or a regular broom to clean out the house every week. If you are a pet owner, it’s probably better to do this a few times a week to not have hairballs rolling around the room.
Dusting: Dust forms so easily it’s unbelievable. It’s not good for your lungs to have too much dust in a room especially not if you have asthma or other allergies. It also looks filthy when there is a layer of dust lying on your furniture. So you must dust once in a while.
Mopping: Mopping is important when you spill things on the floor or you walk around the house wearing dirty shoes. And again, pet owners must do this more often, keep that in mind when you’re getting a pet ;).
Cleaning The Bathroom (bi-weekly if you ask me): Not a very fun job but if you want to feel good when taking a bath or going to the toilet, clean it up now and then. It helps when you do a tiny cleaning every time you take a bath or shower. This way you can postpone deep cleaning a bit longer.
Laundry
Washing Clothes and Towels: You should change your towels every week and wash your clothes when they are dirty or smell. How frequently you use your washing machine depends on your living arrangement. If you have a family, you will run the washing machine more often than when you live on your own.
Drying Clothes: A dryer can dry your clothes but if you want to save some money, hang your clothes out to dry and let the wind and sun do their thing, don’t forget to attach them with some clothespins or they will fly away! You can also do this inside of your house by using a drying rack.
Ironing and Folding Clothes: Some clothes need ironing to look presentable. If you don’t think ironing is necessary, you can skip this step. However, you still need to fold them to put them away in your closet.
Putting Clothes Away: You can collect all your clothes on the ironing board and take them upstairs when you have time to put them away or do it straight after ironing.
Washing and Changing Sheets (more bi-weekly): Washing your sheets every two weeks is okay if you don’t sweat excessively. If you do, maybe change them once a week. You could change and wash your pillowcases more frequently if you get lots of acne on your face, this will help a bit with that problem.
Food
Meal Planning: To make a shopping list, you should have an idea of what meals you are going to make and eat the following week. Make a list of the meals and all the ingredients you need to prepare them.
Grocery Shopping: You can do this multiple times a week or once if you are not a fan of grocery shopping and a good planner. It is probably better for your wallet to do this only once a week, so you will be less tempted to buy stuff you don’t need. Read more about saving money on groceries in this blog post!
Meal Prepping: This will help you save more time during the week. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to but it is highly recommended if you have a busy schedule on your workdays and want to chill and heat a pre-cooked meal. It’s a good habit to do this on a Sunday.
Throwing Out Expired Food: It’s a good habit to check your fridge before going grocery shopping. This way you know what you already have and don’t buy too much food. At the same time, you can check which products might be expired and throw them out to keep your fridge filled with edible products.
Other
Watering Plants: If you are a plant mom, water your babies when they need it. Some plants will need more care than others so always check this before you buy to make sure you can keep up with taking care of them. Get yourself a pretty watering can for your indoor plants.
Putting The Trash Outside for pickup: This will depend on the schedule of the garbage cart. You have to know when the garbage cart comes to pick up your trash in your neighborhood and put it outside then.
Monthly or Less Frequent Chores – House Chore List
Next up on the house chore list or tasks that need to be done every month or less frequently. It’s good to keep an overview to not forget them and plan them when they fit into your schedule. I will list them up for you. There will probably be more chores for your situation. Feel free to share things that I have missed to help other readers!
Cleaning & Organizing
Washing and Vacuuming Your Car
Organize and Clean Kitchen Cabinets, Fridge, and Freezer
Reorganize Your Closets
Reorganize Medicine Cabinets
Cleaning the Oven/Microwave
Checking and Treating Mold in the Bathroom
Cleaning Windows
When you want to organize and tidy spaces, maybe try the KonMari method. This method will help you tidy your home, getting rid of clutter you don’t need whilst keeping things that spark joy. Wonderful!
Garden
Mowing The Lawn
Weeding The Garden by hand or using a garden tool to help you.
And plenty more garden jobs if you have a big garden!
Conclusion
This house chore list is a reminder of everything that needs to be done to keep your house clean and pleasant to live in. Make a plan to fit your schedule that doesn’t overwhelm you to get started.
You will feel better when everything gets done on time and you can live and enjoy yourself when there are no chores planned. When you don’t have them in your planning, you could be thinking of chores every single moment. Your mind can keep bugging you with things to do instead of relaxing. The house chore list can give you some peace of mind.
It will help you to be more productive when you have everything planned out and you will save more time for doing fun stuff in the end.
Use this house chore list to create a plan that works for you and your possible roommates. Good rules make good friends or living partners 🙂.