Budgeting Household Chores

Spring is here in two hours. Spring cleaning officially starts in two hours. Do you share a household with others? Do those of the household not share an equal level of desire to maintain an orderly and clean environment?

Whether a husband and wife or roommates, sharing this responsibility can be a challenging task. How do you peaceful resolve the differences? One option: the envelope. How much would it cost to have a cleaning service come in weekly and keep the home in a 'guest-ready' state?

Each of you contribute proportionally to the envelope. Each of you record your contribution to the clean environment for the past week. If the effort has been equally shared then divide the contents of envelope equally back to all of you. Somewhat lopsided? You get that percentage of the envelope that equates to your percentage of exerted work. No one worked at it - you have the budget collected to hire out.

Either way, the "envelope" method helps for everyone to feel fair about how much effort they contribute and the household stays orderly. Budgeting the work and budgeting the pay helps everyone feel compensated for extra effort and the house stays organized. Try this one at home and let us know how it plays out.