Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Living with Chores

We all know that one of the most frustrating and annoying things about co-habitating with other people can be getting all the chores done. My husband and I do pretty darn well with splitting the work fairly and getting most things done. I was reminded of our system today by this Wednesday's tip topic on Gretchen Rubin's blog The Happiness Project. I love reading this blog as I think it's full of great advice, and this post is another great collection of tips. But, it doesn't have the method that I use on it. So, here it is, for those who don't know how we do it . . .

Basically, we work on a points system. We write down all the chores on a list and assign a point value. The points come from how frequently the job gets done and how much we like/dislike it. We try to keep it to one page. Across the top of the page, we list the dates for each week. If we do something, we make a mark next to the appropriate chore, under the appropriate week. The system works because we are both a little bit competitive. Once you get enough points, you can 'cash them in' for a reward (which is whatever works for you). It also helps us to keep track of how often certain chores are getting done. Plus, you get a healthy dose of humility when you notice that your partner has done chore x 5 times more than you have.

Our system is having a few kinks right now, but it's mostly because we took a break for a while as we got settled into the new house. Plus, chores in the townhouse are a bit different than chores in our apartment, so it'll take some getting used to.

2 comments:

Kim said...

Just out of curiosity, what kinds of rewards do you guys have?

Jenn said...

It depends on what we feel like. Sometimes it's a special dinner, a movie/date night, a massage, stuff like that.