How to split household chores fairly

Before you split anything, list every recurring task for a fortnight — bins out, school lunches, washing, the weekly shop, pet food, lawn, bathrooms, paying bills. Most families are shocked at the length of the list, and that's the point: you can't share what nobody has written down.

Split the list into two buckets. Chores repeat on a rhythm (bins every Tuesday, bathrooms every Sunday). Jobs are one-offs with a due date (book the car service, return the parcel). Treating them the same is why to-do lists blow out.

A 50/50 split of task count is rarely fair, because tasks differ wildly in effort. Weigh each task roughly by time: a 5-minute bin run isn't a 90-minute grocery shop. Balance the weekly minutes across everyone old enough to help, then adjust for work hours, school and sport commitments.

Kids count. Give younger children two or three short, visible chores they can tick off themselves — it builds the habit far better than a once-a-month blitz.

Every house has a task everyone dodges. Put those on a rotation rather than assigning them permanently, and cap the rotation so it has a visible end ("six turns each, then we review"). Permanent ownership of a hated chore is the fastest route to resentment.

The weekly shop is the biggest hidden chore in most Australian households — and the one that's easiest to share. A live shared shopping list means anyone can add milk the moment they notice it's low, and whoever is near Coles, Woolies, Aldi or the local IGA can pick it up without a barrage of texts.

Pair it with a pantry stocktake and low-stock limits, and the list starts writing itself: when the pasta drops below two packets, it's already on next week's shop.

Fairness only holds when effort is visible. Tick chores off as they're done, log the time a job actually took, and review it weekly. A one-minute weekly summary — who did what, how long it took — settles almost every "I do everything around here" argument without anyone having to keep score in their head.

• Daily: dishes/dishwasher, kitchen bench wipe-down, pet feeding.
• Weekly: bins, bathrooms, vacuum, one full grocery shop, lunchbox prep.
• Fortnightly: sheets, mopping, car tidy, pantry stocktake.
• Seasonal jobs: gutters, smoke alarm batteries, car service, garden clean-up.