In my last apartment, cleaning became a big issue. I lived with three other people, and it took us almost two years to actually sit down and determine how to keep our apartment clean. Here are some things I learned from that experience:
1. Truthfully define your definition of clean early on. Do you expect the house to be tidied daily, or is a thorough clean weekly, or even monthly, satisfactory? Setting expectations early on can help reduce conflicts down the road.
2. Determine what the household chores are and agree on a cleaning schedule. Ask questions like: What needs to be done daily, weekly, monthly? How will you split the light cleaning (vacuuming, dishes) and the deep cleaning (refrigerator, windows)? A weekly schedule worked for us. We broke down what the expectations were in each of the common rooms, and each person was responsible for completing those tasks during their assigned week. I've known households that started with what people didn't mind doing, and then they split up what was left; if you can't stand the thought of scrubbing the bathroom, but you enjoy doing dishes, you might be able to negotiate a deal. For deep cleaning, I've found it's more manageable (and fun) when you set aside a day to tackle the big jobs together.
3. Determine how you are going to keep each other accountable. We kept a calendar in the kitchen as a visible reminder of whose turn it was to clean, which I found was also a good way to passively enforce the schedule. For some people a more detailed schedule like this one works better.
4. Check in and discuss problems as they arise. Call out problems as you see them, or schedule weekly/monthly meetings so you can talk about what's working and not working before they become a big deal. That said, I found you need to have realistic expectations; you might have to take on some of the tasks that you find important, but aren't necessarily important to the rest of the house.
What have you found to be helpful when dividing household chores with roommates? Share your tips below!
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(Image: Leela Cyd Ross)
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The holding each other accountable is the very hardest part. Having an honest conversation about "how to disagree/hold accountable" is very important, otherwise feelings get hurt or one person ends up doing most of the work and feeling resentful.
Why not take turns buying them? You buy the TP one week, she buys when it runs out. Just keep track of who bought last and it should be fine.
Rose123: you could set up a "pot" where you both contribute a set amount each month. From that pot you pay for joint items like TP, ziplocs, or beer!
We used to label the receipts each month, and put it in a box. At the end of each month we will do the calculations.. So easy and we never had any issue.
Good idea SPACESHA but make sure to throw in a few pennies for wine! :OD
I like the idea of making everyone accountable especially when it's so visable. I don't have this issue since I live alone but I remember being young and sweet 19 and my roommate did all the work. It wasn't intentional by any means but she couldn't stand even a piece of lint hanging out. And yes, we are still friends..I'm the godmother to her 30something son!
Oh, would like to see a house tour of this home. Love the ceiling!
Good idea also to assign someone each month for deep cleaning duties (like cleaning baseboards and around door handles, etc)--places that are often neglected, especially in the kitchen. We don't all clean the same way, and while I may vacuum the the dust off the top of the baseboards, my rommies would not. just another way to make the place clean and divide it up!
I think waiting to have the conversation is the worst mistake you can make. It's much easier to create new habits without the burden of breaking bad ones. That image is great, by the way. I don't know where it's from but it looks super Portlandy.
I always seemed to have the roommate who would simply NOT DO HIS/HER CHORES whether agreed to or not. The situation always deteriorated down to three choices: 1. nagging your roommate to do it, 2. doing it yourself, or 3. live with the mess. It always seems like a race to the bottom to see who can most tolerate filth.
Or you can just do it the old fashioned way and let all that juicy resentment build up until you are a seething ball of rage from the moment you wake up and every little thing your flatmates do, from eating to flushing the toilet too loudly, makes you fantasise about chopping them up into little fetid pieces and boiling them in one of the filthy congealed pans they haven't washed for a month.
Works for me.
A former roommate and I made a list of every conceivable household chore and assigned points to each task. Each of us did whatever chores we wanted to do and put the number of points beside our name. At the end of the week the person with the lowest number of points had to do additional tasks of their choosingh to make up the difference.
If neither of us bothered to clean out the fridge, for example, then apparently a clean fridge wasn't really a priority for either one of us. If dusting was important to one of us but not the other, the person who cared about it did it and the other person scrubbed the bathroom floor because that's what was most important to him/her.
Problem solved!
If possible you should find out about the cleaning habits of a person before you move in with them. What's acceptable to one person may not be enough for another. Having lived with friends that are no longer friends b/c of us all being roommates, knowing what I know now, I would have rather worked my tail off and rented a small bachelor than ever live with roommates again. I realize that in high rental cost markets this isn't always doable so a list may help but please discuss this before you move in.
What is up with this picture?
Oh, Mrs.Rob if human relationships were only that simple.
My solution for toilet paper--put it on a subscription from Amazon Prime. It just magically arrives!
@ROSE123 set up a kitty, each put in Eur10 and agree what counts as communal - such as toilet paper, etc. (I would recommend NOT agreeing wine is communal!). Then any time you buy something communal you reimburse yourself out of the kitty. When it's empty you all put in another Eur10.
I've done this with housemates for years and it's really the best way because even if one person does more than their share of actual shopping nobody is out of pocket because of it. And you don't end up with a house devoid of toilet paper because you refuse to buy some when it's been your housemate's turn for a week now.
@RUTHTOOTH - brilliant, and oh so easily true.
Forget about discussing chores...I want more information on that ceiling!