Which family chores app helps you share the housework?

DOTOG helps because everyone sees which household chores each person still has open. You share them out yourselves: the admin creates the tasks and chooses who takes each one on.

Which household chores app shows who is doing what?

In DOTOG, the Tasks tab shows everyone what each member still has open. You don't see other people's completed tasks, but the Player tab shows everyone's stars in a ranking.

Is the DOTOG app a household chores planner for the family?

Yes, in the app you plan tasks and appointments as one-offs or on a schedule, such as every week or every month. In the calendar you see your own tasks and appointments, but there is no sync with Google or Apple Calendar.

What does DOTOG cost?

Getting started costs nothing, and every subscription is a group subscription: one price for everyone, not per person. Plus costs 3.59 €, Pro 4.99 € and Ultra 19.99 € a month, and everything else is under Help and feedback.

For anyone who shares tasks, above all families with kids, but also shared flats, couples and project groups. The stars are meant to spur kids on, and adults see at a glance who still has what open.

How does it help with mental load?

DOTOG is meant to take the thinking ahead out of one single head, because everyone in the group sees the same open tasks. Anything that comes up regularly you create only once, and after that it reappears by itself.

Is it GDPR-compliant and safe for kids?

Kids under 16 don't get their own account; they join anonymously with a child code after an admin has confirmed consent. There are no ads and no chat between members. There is no usage analysis, only pseudonymous crash reports.

What if kids don't have a phone yet?

Then they simply join in with you, and you do the tasks together. In DOTOG, kids only get their own account from 16 anyway; before that, they join with a child code.

Which app helps couples and flatmates split household chores?

DOTOG works without kids too, because a group can be a shared flat or just two people. Getting started costs nothing; without a subscription, up to four people are included, with at most two open tasks and two open appointments per group.

How can a family share out household chores?

Talk it through together first, because DOTOG does not share out tasks on its own. The admin creates the tasks and chooses who takes each one on, and in the Tasks tab everyone sees what each person still has open.

Instead of a list on the fridge, how do I share chores with an app?

As the admin, you create a task in DOTOG once, choose who takes it on and set whether it comes up once, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Then it gets ticked off in the app instead of on the list.

Is there a household chores planner app for the whole family?

Yes, in DOTOG your family plans tasks and appointments together and ticks them off. Getting started costs nothing, and without a subscription up to four people fit in a group with at most two open tasks and two open appointments.

How do you share household chores?

Write down everything that needs doing and agree together who takes on what. DOTOG does not do the sharing out for you, but it shows who still has what open.

How can couples share household chores?

Whichever of you creates the group in DOTOG is the admin, creates the tasks and chooses who takes them on. In the Tasks tab you both see what each of you still has open, and you can both create appointments.

Guide for everyday family life

Share tasks fairly with a household planner app

By DOTOG, drawing on our family experiences. Text updated: 7 October 2026.

The bins are full, there are still dishes on the table and someone is looking for a clean sports top. These tasks are easy to see. Less visible is who notices them, reminds everyone else and checks whether they were done. A shared household planner, such as a household chores app, records the tasks and responsibilities you have agreed. You then discuss what needs doing, who will take care of it and how everyone can tell when a task is finished.

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Start by listing everything, then share tasks fairly

Start with your actual routine. What needs doing today? What comes up every week? What is currently being left undone? First write down what you notice together, without immediately assigning someone to every line.

Think beyond the visible action. “Doing the laundry”, for example, also includes sorting, hanging it up, taking it down and putting it away. If one person starts the machine and another has to remember every step after that, the whole process has not been shared fairly.

The sociologist Allison Daminger describes this mental work as a separate part of housework: noticing needs, looking for options, making decisions and following things through. Her study helps explain why simply completing individual chores does not cover the organisation of a household. It is not evidence that an app works. Source: The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor, 2019.

A simple distinction is enough for your list:

Daily or several times a day: for example, clearing the table or putting used things away.
Weekly: for example, vacuuming a room or taking responsibility for a regular laundry routine.
As needed: for example, emptying a full bin or putting away a delivery.

This also shows which tasks are difficult to describe with a single tick for the whole week.

A shared task planner for your week

Find a time when you can look at the coming week together. For us, that is Sunday. Another day may work better for your family. What matters is giving the planning a reliable place in your routine.

Go through the list together. Who has time when? Which task can a child already do independently? Where is help needed? Which adults take responsibility for an area, including its planning?

Record three things for every task:

What does it include? “Clearing the table” can mean taking dishes to the agreed place, putting leftovers away and wiping the table.
When should it be finished? For example, after dinner or before the next wash.
Who will take care of it? One particular person, several people with separate parts, or someone in the family under a rule you have expressly agreed.

These are suggestions for your agreement. You do not need to turn them into a large set of rules. A clear sentence is enough for a small task. For a larger area, it is worth going through the individual steps together once.

Fairness also means discussing effort and capacity

A list with the same number of tasks for each person says little about the actual load. Putting away one cup and doing the laundry for a household are very different jobs. The time and abilities of the people involved also vary.

The official figure provides context: women in Germany do 43.4 per cent more unpaid care work than men, about 76 minutes daily (German Federal Statistical Office, Time Use Survey 2022). Visibility alone cannot change that, but it makes the imbalance open to discussion.

Look at the actual scope instead. Can someone take on a whole process? Is a task still too much for a younger child? Do the unpleasant jobs always end up with the same person? You can discuss these questions in your weekly meeting and plan the following week accordingly.

If a child says a task has been shared unfairly, let them describe what feels unfair about it. Is it the amount, the timing, the difficulty or the fact that others contribute less? It is easier to continue the conversation about a specific task than about “I always have to do everything”.

The guide Chores by age shows which tasks might be suitable to start with. The age groups there are a guide; choose the specific task with your child in mind.

From a fridge note to Sunday planning: our family experience

Before DOTOG, we had a table on the fridge. Every week there was a new note. Sometimes it was filled in, sometimes forgotten. There was also constant reminding and telling people off, plus discussions about who had not done something or felt disadvantaged. These experiences helped prompt the development of DOTOG.

Today we look together on Sunday at the tasks that come up during the week. We discuss them and put the task plan into DOTOG. Some tasks involve several family members; others come up several times a day. At home, you can also see every day what is being left undone.

For a task that only needs doing once, we sometimes use a sprint. Whoever completes it first gets the points. The children know this rule and then try to finish the task first. For us, this is one of several ways to organise tasks.

In DOTOG, the sprint function represents this shared competition: for a sprint task, the person who completes the task first receives the stars. Whether you want to use such a task is up to you when planning; only the admin can create it. Also discuss whether everyone involved has a fair chance to take it on.

When something is left undone

A weekly plan also shows the gaps. First use a task left undone as a reason to look more closely. Was it clear what needed doing? Was the timing right? Was the task too large? Or was it simply forgotten?

If the description was unclear, make it more precise next time. If the scope does not fit, split it up. For a forgotten task, you can agree a set moment when the person concerned looks at the list. Change the part of the agreement that caused the problem.

From our family:

A task left undone is not a big drama in our home. Someone else then takes care of it, or the responsibility stays with us parents. There are no points for a task that was not completed. We also see from this what comes up daily or weekly, and keep learning as a family how to deal with it.

This describes how we handle it at home. Which tasks you take on yourselves and which you discuss again together depends on your situation. The open entries are there to help you talk about it.

Use a family calendar and task planner together

A family calendar records appointments, such as a doctor's visit or a cinema night. A task planner shows the related steps and responsibilities. If a bike ride is in the calendar for Saturday, preparing water bottles and checking the bikes can go on your shared to-do list.

When choosing a family calendar app, it is therefore worth looking at your weekly routine: Can everyone see the shared appointments? Where are the tasks that need doing beforehand? Whether you use a shared family planner or separate tools is up to you and what works well for your family.

Choose a shared household planner app for the family

A plan needs to be available where the family actually uses it. A note can work well if everyone regularly passes it and keeps it up to date. A family planner app can work if tasks need to be visible while you are out and you want to record completed tasks together. A shared to-do list shows the tasks you have agreed together.

Try a household app with a real example from the coming week:

Can every family member see which task needs doing?
Can the children find their way around it after you have explained it together?
Are responsibility and timing clear?
Can recurring daily tasks and one-off tasks be represented appropriately?
Can everyone see what is still open?
If you use rewards, is it clear what points are collected for and how they are redeemed?
Does your child stay free of ads and pressure to buy in the family app?
Does the tool fit your devices, budget and requirements for child accounts and data protection?

Try the routine you actually need. Look for a clear display and understandable steps: checking tasks, marking completed work and finding agreed rewards. At DOTOG, we have deliberately kept the interface simple. Tasks and rewards remain at the centre so that everyday family life stays manageable. Information about child accounts is available under Child Safety Standards; the pricing details are in DOTOG Help.

What has changed in our everyday life

Our children can now see for themselves which tasks need doing. They also know which rewards they can redeem. We explained the app to them together; after that, they quickly started using it independently.

As parents, we no longer need to contribute much or ask questions. The constant telling off and reminding has stopped for us. The work is usually done independently. Planning together remains part of our family routine.

That is our personal experience. For your first try, you can start with a manageable selection of tasks and look together at the end of the week at which agreements were clear and which you want to change.

If you want to connect completed tasks with jointly agreed rewards, the guide Reward system for kids contains our examples and the routine we use each week. DOTOG Help explains how to use the app.

Sources and our experience

Allison Daminger: The Cognitive Dimension of Household Labor, American Sociological Review, 2019. Basis for explaining the cognitive side of housework.
Our experiences from the family life behind DOTOG, discussed on 7 and 8 September 2026. The experience sections have been edited for meaning.