Shared house cleaning rota for 6 housemates

Six people in one house usually means more people than cleaning jobs. That is not a problem for a rota, as long as the weeks off are shared out as carefully as the jobs. Here is a six-week table that does it, and the rule behind it.

Worked example: 6 people, 4 jobs, 6 weeks

Jess, Omar, Kat, Leo, Mina and Raj share the kitchen, the bathroom, the bins and the hoovering. Each job moves on by one person every week, and the two people without a job that week are off.

After six weeks every person has done each of the four jobs once and had two weeks off. Jess, for example, does the kitchen in week 1, rests in weeks 2 and 3, then hoovers, does the bins and finishes with the bathroom. Week 7 looks like week 1 again.

How the rotation stays fair

The rule is the same at every house size: each job has exactly one person each week and moves on by one person the week after. Because of that, the number of times any two housemates have done the same job never differs by more than one, whichever week you stop in. The weeks off follow the same pattern, so they come round to everyone equally.

Two things are worth knowing about this particular shape:

• The two weeks off arrive back to back, followed by four working weeks in a row. Some houses like the break; others prefer no weeks off at all.
• If you want everyone busy every week, split the work into six jobs, for example by separating the hob and oven from the kitchen surfaces and mopping from hoovering. Six people and six jobs gives one job each, every week.

A personal link and calendar file for each housemate

When you make the rota in the generator, each of the six gets a personal link. It lists their own weeks, shows "No chore this week" for a week off and has a button that downloads a calendar (.ics) file with one all-day event on the first day of each week they have a job. The whole house table sits underneath, so anyone can see whose turn it is.

What size the generator covers

The free version makes rotas for up to 4 people and up to 4 weeks, so a house of six is past it. This example needs the paid Chore Rota Pro licence, which covers up to 12 people and up to 26 weeks and nothing above that. Only the organiser needs the licence; the housemates who receive links do not.

Open the chore rota generator

More guides

• Chore rota for 4 housemates
• Weekly cleaning rota for a student house of 5
• Roommate chore rotation you can add to Google Calendar
• Fair bin and bathroom rota for 3 flatmates
• Chore rota .ics file for iPhone and Outlook calendars
• Roommate chore chart for 2 roommates
• Weekly chore rotation schedule with more chores than people