A chore chart that survives week two
Aaron Simo ยท 2026-09-13
Every family I know has made a chore chart. Almost none of them are still using it a month later. The chart is not the problem. The setup is.
Here is what I have landed on after a few rounds of trying and quitting in my own house.
Fewer chores than you think
Start with four. Not twelve. Four chores that repeat on a schedule, assigned to a person, with a time of day attached. If the list is longer than what fits on one phone screen, nobody is going to look at it.
Good first four for most homes:
- Take out the trash, once a week, the night before pickup.
- Empty the dishwasher, every day, before dinner.
- Tidy the living room, weekdays, ten minutes.
- Change the bed sheets, once a week.
Notice each one has a rhythm. "Clean your room" with no schedule is a wish, not a chore.
Match the chore to the age
Ages 4 to 6: putting toys in a bin, feeding the pet with help, carrying their plate to the sink. One chore, same time every day.
Ages 7 to 10: emptying the dishwasher, wiping the table, sorting laundry, taking out recycling. Two or three chores, some daily, one weekly.
Ages 11 and up: cooking one dinner a week, laundry start to finish, vacuuming, yard work. Three to five chores, and they should have a say in which ones.
Points only work if they buy something
Points for their own sake stop mattering in about a week. Points that turn into something real keep mattering. Pick two or three rewards your kid actually wants, price them in points, and let the kid see how far away they are. "80 more points until ice cream" does more than any lecture.
Keep the prices honest. If a week of doing everything earns 60 points, a 100 point reward is about two weeks out. That is the sweet spot for younger kids. Teens can handle a month.
The weekly reset
Sunday night, five minutes: look at what got done, pay out points, and reset the list for the week. If a chore got skipped three weeks in a row, it is the wrong chore or the wrong kid. Change it instead of nagging about it.
Where the app comes in
This is the exact setup HomeForge is built around. You add a chore once, tell it how often it repeats, and the next one shows up on its own when the last one is marked done. Kids see their list as big tappable cards in Kid Mode, on your phone or their own, with no email or password. Points and rewards are built in.
If you want to try it, it is free for a family of four and takes about two minutes to set up.