Perhaps you are tired of having to do all the chores yourself. Or perhaps you’ve been living in anarchic mess for far too long. Whatever the reason, a cleaning rota can ensure that your home is regularly cleaned and, thus, well maintained. A cleaning rota can be especially handy amongst students, as assuming responsibility for a chore is hard in a student housing environment. It can also be a useful tool to teach small children discipline, the value of cleanliness, and the need to share unwanted chores. When devising a cleaning rota, it is important to not act like a dictator; make sure everyone consents to the rota or people will, quite frankly, begin to dislike you, especially if you’re living in a house share where no one has the authority that a parent does over their kids. With all this in mind, if you are planning on drawing up a rota, here are the chores to remember to include.

1)    Bins

This is a straight forward task. It’s easy, if a bit disgusting to do. However, as bins can be quite heavy when they are full, it is important that an adult do this task. Some people may find it quite disgusting and really hate doing it, whereas some people may not mind it as much. It’s important, especially in a house-share situation, that you establish the willingness of people to do this chore. You don’t want to randomly choose someone who hates it over someone who is indifferent to it.

2)    Vacuum

Without regularly vacuuming, regular meaning at least two times a week, your floors will soon begin to look dusty and disgusting. Especially if you have pets and they are malting, it can make your house look like a zoo enclosure if you do not vacuum regularly. You can divvy this chore up by person or by room: for example, if person a does it a certain day, it won’t be there turn to vacuum the whole house again for a long time. Or, alternatively, everyone could vacuum one particular room regularly.

3)    Washing up

Washing up can be a task done by all, no matter how big or small. Excuse the rhyme, it won’t happen again. Back on topic, if you live in a house-share then it may be best to exclude this task from the rota as often meals aren’t eaten together, which will leave the person on the rota charged with doing the washing up liable for cleaning other peoples pans and pots. But if you’re setting up a cleaning rota within your family, then simply alternate each night who will do it. Washing up is easiest when it’s done straight after you eat. It shouldn’t take very long at all and children of about 8-10 and above should have no trouble with it.

4)    Bathroom cleaning

This is a task that only needs to be carried out weekly, maybe even bi-weekly. If it’s shared among many people, then you’ll only have to clean it once every month or possibly longer. And, if kept to, the cleaning rota will ensure that you are able to maintain and clean toilet.

5)    Gardening

If you are lucky enough to have a garden, it is important to maintain it regularly. Once a week is a good schedule of maintenance. As trees and grass, needless to say, grow at quite a quick rate, if you do not maintain your garden regularly it will soon become an uninhabitable jungle of weeds. One person in the household may quite enjoy gardening; it might be an idea to offer them the chance to do it every week and in return they can forfeit some, or all, of the other house chores.