Weekly chore rotation schedule when there are more chores than people

A real chore list is often longer than the list of people. A weekly rotation still works: some people take two chores in a week, and the doubling-up rotates along with everything else. Here is a full example and the rule that keeps it even.

Worked example: 4 people, 6 chores, 4 weeks

Nia, Owen, Pia and Rob share six chores, listed in this order: kitchen, bathroom, bins, vacuum, mop and dusting.

Four people, six chores, four weeks
Week	Kitchen	Bathroom	Bins	Vacuum	Mop	Dusting
1	Nia	Owen	Pia	Rob	Nia	Owen
2	Owen	Pia	Rob	Nia	Owen	Pia
3	Pia	Rob	Nia	Owen	Pia	Rob
4	Rob	Nia	Owen	Pia	Rob	Nia

Follow Nia across the table: kitchen and mop in week 1, vacuum in week 2, bins in week 3, bathroom and dusting in week 4. Everyone else has the same shape, shifted by a week. After four weeks each person has done all six chores once, with two double weeks and two single weeks.

The rule behind the schedule

Every chore has exactly one person each week, and every chore moves on by one person the week after. Two consequences follow:

Counts stay level. For any chore, the number of times two people have done it never differs by more than one, whichever week you stop in.
Some chores travel as a pair. With four people, the first and fifth chores on the list always land on the same person, and so do the second and sixth. In the example that is kitchen with mop and bathroom with dusting.

The second point is the one to plan around. Put your heaviest chores in the first four places and the lightest ones at the end of the list, so that a double week is one heavy chore plus one light one.

The other two cases

If the chores and the people are equal in number, everyone has one chore a week, as in the rota for 4 housemates. If there are more people than chores, somebody has a week off and that rotates as well, as in the student house of 5.

Links and calendar files

The generator makes this schedule from the names and the chore list. Each person gets a personal link showing their own weeks and a button that downloads a calendar (.ics) file. In a double week the file holds two all-day events on the first day of that week, one for each chore.

Free at this size

The free version covers up to 4 people and up to 4 weeks, which is this example exactly. When the four weeks end, make the next four: the order starts again from week 1.