Clean what you use
Most rotas put every person on every job. That breaks the first time somebody with their own bathroom is told to scrub one they never walk into.
So each job here has its own list. The kitchen belongs to the whole house. The downstairs bathroom belongs to the three rooms that use it. Each job moves down its own list, one person a week, so nobody cleans up after a room they do not share.
- The whole house: kitchen, trash and recycling, living room and floors
- Only the rooms that use it: each shared bathroom, a second fridge, a laundry room on one floor
- Nobody: a private bathroom is that resident's own, and stays off the rota
Say what done means
People rarely argue about whose week it was. They argue about whether wiping the counter counts as cleaning the kitchen. Write one line per job that says what the next person should find, and print it on the same sheet as the names.
Keep each line to things a housemate can see in ten seconds: the sink is empty, the floor is mopped, the bins have new liners.
What a rota cannot do
A rota tells people whose turn it is. It does not make anyone take the turn. That part belongs in the lease: a cleaning standard every resident signs, and what happens when it is not met.
If the house keeps slipping, a cleaner for the shared rooms every week or two is the simpler answer. Price it into the room rent and keep the rota for dishes and trash.
A worked example
A six-bedroom house. Rooms 1 to 3 share the downstairs bathroom and Rooms 4 to 6 share the upstairs one. Three jobs belong to everybody. The first week starts Monday 10/05/2026. This is week one.
- Kitchen
- Room 1
- Trash and recycling
- Room 2
- Living room and floors
- Room 4
- Downstairs bathroom
- Room 3
- Upstairs bathroom
- Room 6
- Week off
- Room 5
Over the six weeks every room takes each house job once and its own bathroom twice, has one week off, and never has two jobs in the same week. Then the rota starts again.
Common questions
How do you split chores fairly between roommates?
Give each job to the people who use that space and rotate it among them, one person a week. Everyone shares the kitchen and the trash. Only the rooms on a bathroom share that bathroom. Then write down what done means for each job, so the turn and the standard are both on paper.
What if one resident has a private bathroom?
Take them off the shared bathroom jobs. Tap their name under that job and the rota leaves them out. They stay on the jobs for the rooms they do use, such as the kitchen and the trash.
What if someone skips their week?
Deal with it the week it happens, in writing. A rota on the fridge is an agreement between housemates. A cleaning standard in each resident's lease is what lets a landlord act on it. Check that your lease has one and that it says what follows a missed standard.
What happens to the rota when somebody moves out?
Put the new resident's name in the same place on the list and print it again. The order of the turns does not change, so nobody else's weeks move.
These calculators are educational and are not legal, tax, lending, or accounting advice. Rules vary by state and by city, and your lease governs your own properties. Check your own requirements before relying on any number here.