Need a family chore chart to hang on your fridge and keep track of household responsibilities for all of your family members? These printable family chore chart templates can help!
I once met a fellow mom who told me that she was constantly exhausted because she homeschooled her children all day, had to make dinner, and then stayed up until midnight cleaning her house.
I almost choked on my pumpkin spice latte. Midnight? Homeschool? Making Dinner??? Okay, okay, so I do occasionally make dinner (but luckily not often). I honestly just wanted to hug her. And then stand guard at her door while she napped for several hours.
The endless list of household chores and everyday tasks is a constant struggle for many moms. But no one should be fighting that battle alone! My husband and I decided a long time ago that we were equal players in this thing called life, and that meant sharing the chores. And when our kids got old enough to help, they joined in as well.
One strategy that has helped us be successful has been our family chore chart routine. We’re able to divide responsibilities so that no one person feels like they’re doing it all. I’ve created a printable family chore chart you can use at home, whether you’re new to chore chart routines or just need a fresh template!
And the best part is, you can type in the printable chore charts to add the names of your family members and each person’s responsibilities, AND I’ve got cute charts that are perfect for 2 through 5 family members!
Here’s everything you need to know about starting a chore chart for your family:
Why You Need a Family Chore Chart
Everyone shares in the household cleaning
When everyone helps to shoulder the burden of household chores, they don’t all fall on Mom. And since my husband and I both work an equal number of hours, a family chore chart helps me feel like I’m not rushing around like a madwoman every day of the week!
Helps kids develop a good work ethic
As much as kids might whine and groan, helping with chores won’t actually kill them. When you give your children daily and weekly tasks, you’re helping them develop a positive work ethic.
You’re also teaching them the rewards of delayed gratification – they can watch that 99th episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but not until they’ve cleaned their room.
*I’ve also got some awesome printable chore charts with picture job cards for younger kids here!
Prepares kids for the “real world”
A family chore list also helps prepare your kids for the world beyond high school. Whether they’ll continue to live at home, in a dorm, or get their own place, they’ll need to keep those spaces clean and livable.
Beyond the early years of adulthood, the importance of assigning chores from an early age has even been shown to affect marriages. A research study published by the University of Minnesota noted that “managing household responsibilities can be the biggest cause of stress in marriages.” I can see that!
It makes cleaning tasks more manageable
More than anything, a family chore chart allows you to come home and not be faced with an overwhelming amount of tasks each day. Moms – especially stay-at-home moms – are often perceived as having this dream life where we lounge around in our pajamas and eat bonbons all day.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Dividing up cleaning tasks throughout the week allows you to have more free time for what matters to you and keeps everything more manageable on a daily basis.
How to Start a Chore Chart with Your Family
Starting a family chore chart shouldn’t be something you just jump into. Here are a few suggestions for getting started:
Have a family meeting to outline expectations
If you have slightly older children (let’s say, 6 years and up), try having a family meeting where everyone sits down together. You can show them the chore chart, explain why you think it’s a good idea, and assign chores to each child.
It’s also an excellent opportunity to make your kids feel involved and allow them to ask questions. This doesn’t mean that it should turn into a complaining session, though! You’re the parents, so be firm about this process becoming a part of your children’s new reality.
Hang the chore chart in a highly visible place
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the many attempts I’ve made at creating effective chore chart routines, it’s that you have to put them somewhere you’ll see them every day. Hang your family chore chart on your fridge, a wall in your kitchen, or wherever your eyes frequently rest each day.
Work it into your daily routine
Although it will feel strange at first, work hard to build your family chore list into your daily routine. According to one study, it takes an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become a habit. That’s more than two months!
So, even if you forget a time or two, kindly keep reminding yourself and other family members about their new responsibilities. It’s a learning process!
Come up with age-appropriate chores and set realistic expectations for each family member
When filling out your printable family chore chart, setting realistic expectations is important. Assign age-appropriate chores for each family member, and don’t give too many tasks per day.
For example, an age-appropriate chore for a four-year-old might be to feed the family pet each morning and evening. It’s wise to begin with one task, especially with young children, and then increase responsibilities as they grow older.
Check out the 12 Different Family Chore Charts in my Shop HERE!
Set ground rules for how chores are completed and verified
Based on experience, I suggest setting some “hard and fast” rules for how and when tasks should be completed each day. You don’t want to constantly be hounding each family member (or be hounded by someone else) because they haven’t completed their assigned tasks. No one wants that life!
If you have school-aged kids, a rule could be that their daily chores need to be completed before they play video games or watch TV. For younger kids, you could build the task into their morning routine chart, where they always do it after they get dressed in the morning or before they eat lunch.
Schedule a time to check in each week to look at each person’s progress
Figuring out how you’re going to verify whether or not chores have been completed might be the most challenging part of the whole family chore chart process. My printable family chore chart has check boxes on each line so that each person can mark tasks off as they finish them.
You could also have a quick nightly check-in at the dinner table for daily chores and a weekly check-in time for tasks that need to be done each week.
Think of incentives and rewards for completing chores each week
Deciding whether or not to create incentives or rewards for your family chore chart is entirely up to you. Some families believe that doing chores is just a fact of life and shouldn’t always have to be rewarded.
Others like to make daily tasks more fun by allowing kids to choose incentives like a family game night or movie tickets. The best thing about these family chore chart printables is that you can use them to create a system that works for your parenting style.
Stay consistent!
We all know how crazy life can get – a nasty stomach bug makes its way through the entire family, you’re deep in the throes of basketball season, I get it.
While missing a day or two (or even three!) of your family chore chart one week is perfectly normal, do your best to stay consistent. Focusing on completing those daily tasks is the most effective way to build new habits.
Family Chore Ideas
Creating a family chore list of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks is an important part of any family chore chart. Then you can decide who is going to do what, selecting the most age-appropriate chores for each person.
Daily chores can include:
- Make the beds
- Put dirty clothes in the hamper
- Wipe down kitchen counters
- Check the trash cans and change out trash bags if needed
- Load the dishwasher
- Put toys away
- Empty lunchboxes
Weekly chores would be more like:
- Vacuum, mop, and sweep the floors
- Wipe down kitchen appliances
- Clean the toilets
- Wash, fold, and put away clothes
- Clean the bathroom sinks
For a master list of chores, check out my Ultimate Household Chores List + Free Printable Template here!
How to Use My Fillable Chore Chart Printables
One of the best things about my family chore chart printables is that you can type in them! Great for my fellow Moms that have awful handwriting!
You can CLICK HERE to see the fillable Family Chore Charts in my SHOP!
You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader (it’s free!) installed to use the fillable feature.If you don’t want to download Adobe Reader, then you can also just print the pages and write in your info by hand.
Here are the instructions for how to type your recipes and meal plans directly in the family chore chart templates:
- Go to the Adobe website hereand download and install Acrobat Reader to your computer.(If you already have Adobe Acrobat installed you can skip this step).
- Open the file using Adobe Acrobat Reader… You should be able to right click on the file icon on your computer (wherever you saved it) and select Open With>Adobe Acrobat Reader. The printable chart will then open in Reader.
- Once the file is open, click File>Save As> and then name it whatever you like and save it to somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it, like your desktop.
- Then you can start typing in your info… Easy peasy!
Get the Family Chore Chart Template
You can CLICK HERE to see the fillable Family Chore Charts in my SHOP!
Alternatives to a Family Chore Chart
If you’re interested in beginning some type of family chore chart process but don’t think a paper chart is quite your thing, here are a few alternatives:
Use a household management app
Many moms manage their lives on their phones, and I definitely fall into that category! It’s so easy and satisfying to open up a to do list app and check off those completed tasks.
If a tech-friendly family chore chart alternative is more your thing, these apps could just do the trick. And the best part is, they’re all FREE!
- Cozi – This amazing little app color codes everyone in the family and shows who is involved in each activity. You can create to do lists, agendas, and more. This would be an excellent family chore chart system for families with older kids because you can share schedules through email and push notifications.
- Today – This app has been voted one of the best to do list apps out there because it assigns a certain amount of time for each task. You can input daily, weekly, and monthly chores and help everyone in your family build new habits!
- S’moresUp – Create an individual calendar for each family member and schedule all their chores in one place! Each person can check off tasks as they complete them, and you can even manage allowances in the app!
Try printable chore cards
If you like the idea of a family chore chart but wish it was a little more portable, why not give these printable chore cards a try?
Each card contains cleaning tasks for a specific room of your home, and you can hand them out to each person at the beginning of the day or week for them to complete. And you can also type in the cards to customize them to fit your needs!
Chore sticks
Here’s another family chore chart alternative I found from mom Jordan Page at Fun Cheap or Free. Jordan uses chore sticks with her kids, and it sounds like a really fun way to get younger kids involved in the process.
Instead of making a chart and writing everyone’s responsibilities there, write each chore on a popsicle stick and place them in a mason jar. When it’s time to do chores, each child selects one or two popsicle sticks from the jar. They’re responsible for completing that task, and there are no backsies (well, only a few). Boom. I love it!
If you’d like another great printable for organizing household chores, check out my Editable Weekly Cleaning Schedule Template!
Happy nesting!
