A blank page beats a clever app

A chore chart template for couples, free to print

One page, two columns, and a weight against every job, so the side that looks even actually is. Print it, fill it in together in about twenty minutes, and stick it somewhere you both walk past.

Download the PDF

No email and no sign-up. One page, and it prints cleanly on A4 or US Letter from the same file.

Written by the team at Lyven · page last updated 18 September 2026.

What is on the template

Most chore charts for couples are a grid of tasks with two ticks boxes and a week across the top. That shape is why they stop working by the third week: it records who did the washing up, and says nothing about who remembered it needed doing.

This one has four columns instead. The job, written as the whole responsibility rather than the task. Who owns it, one name, not two. How often it comes round. And a weight, a rough number of minutes it costs each time, because a fortnightly bins run and a daily dinner are not the same job even though they are one row each.

There is a total at the bottom of each column. That total is the point of the whole page.

How to fill it in, together

  1. Write the jobs down first, before any names. Both of you, same table, one pen each. Naming who does what while the list is still forming turns it into a negotiation before you have agreed what you are negotiating over.
  2. Say the job out loud as the whole thing. Not "shopping" but keeping the list, noticing the staples before they run out, planning around the week, and the shop. If that sounds like more than one job, that is the discovery, not a mistake in the template.
  3. Put one name against each row. Two names in a box means neither of you owns it, and the person who notices first will keep picking it up.
  4. Fill the weights in roughly, then add the columns up. Fifteen minutes here or there does not matter. The gap between the two totals is what you are looking for, and it is usually larger than either of you expected.
  5. Move whole rows, not halves. If the totals are lopsided, hand over an entire job with its noticing attached. Splitting a row down the middle recreates the problem in miniature.

If you would rather not do the adding up by hand, the free Split Check asks a handful of questions and does the same sum in about two minutes.

Why chore charts drift back, and what to do about it

A chart fixes the split on the day you write it. Nothing on the page maintains it. Four or five weeks in, the jobs that were handed over start coming back, usually one at a time and usually without anyone deciding they should.

The mechanism is nearly always the same. The job moved but the noticing did not, so the original owner is still the one tracking whether it has been done, and reminding is most of the work. A paper chart cannot tell you that is happening. What it can do is make the starting position explicit enough that you both notice when it slips.

Two things help. Put a date on the chart and diary a twenty minute look at it in a month. And when a job comes back, put it back on the chart rather than absorbing it, because the row moving is the signal. If you want the longer version of this, see what to do when the chores went back to you.

If you want a longer list to start from

The template ships with the rows blank on purpose, because a household's jobs are its own. If you would rather start from a full list and cross off what does not apply, the printable household chores list has all 68 with their weights already filled in, and the annotated version explains what each one actually covers. Both are free and neither asks for an email either.

See the split you are running now

Before you redraw it, it is worth knowing where it actually sits. The Split Check is free, takes about two minutes and needs no account.

Take the Split Check

Questions people actually ask

Is the chore chart template really free?
Yes. It is a PDF, there is no email wall and no account, and you can print it as many times as you like. Lyven is the household app we build, and the template works on its own whether or not you ever use it.
Should a chore chart be split 50/50?
Not necessarily. An even split of rows is not an even split of work, which is why the template has a weight column and a total. What most couples are after is a split that both people would call fair given the rest of their week, and that is rarely the same as half the jobs each.
How is this different from a chore chart for kids?
A kids chart is built to teach and to reward, so it leans on stickers, points and streaks. Two adults do not need teaching, they need the load to be visible and owned. This template drops the rewards and adds the weighting and the totals instead.
How often should we redo it?
Once a month is plenty at the start, then less often once it holds. The useful habit is not the redraw, it is noticing when a job has quietly moved back and putting it on the page again.
Can we fill it in on a computer instead of printing it?
The PDF is designed for a pen, because writing it out together is most of the value. If you would rather do it on a screen, the free Split Check covers the same ground and does the totals for you.