By Lyven's count, it takes 68 domestic tasks to run a home. That's cooking, cleaning, childcare, admin and money — not job titles or paid employment. Every task is grouped into one of five areas and weighted by how often it comes up and how much effort it really takes, so you can see the size of the thing, not just the length of the list.
Same verified count as our complete household jobs list · page last updated: 29 July 2026.
You won't run all 68 — the number that matters is how many land on your household, and for how many hours a week.
The number of tasks alone is misleading: a daily 30-minute task is 3.5 hours a week, every week, while a monthly one barely registers. That's why "we each do about the same number of things" can hide a wildly uneven split.
Not for meaning: on this site "household task" and "household job" describe the same thing, a domestic responsibility like groceries or the school run, never a paid position. The word that does carry a real distinction is chore. A chore is the visible action — unstack the dishwasher, take the bins out. A task is the whole responsibility end to end: noticing it needs doing, planning how and when, and doing it. Splitting the visible chores while one person keeps all the noticing rarely fixes an uneven load, which is the whole reason this list is organised by task, not chore.
Grouped into five areas. The full list — every task named, with its frequency and effort — is on the complete household jobs list.
This is about domestic tasks, not paid jobs or employment roles. By Lyven's count, running a home takes 68 distinct tasks across five areas: Inside, Outside, The Kids, Money, and The Good Stuff. A couple without kids typically runs about 45 of them, roughly 24 hours of work a week. A household with young kids runs about 64 tasks, roughly 48 hours a week.
Yes, Lyven uses the two words interchangeably for the same thing: a domestic responsibility like groceries, laundry or the school run. Neither refers to paid employment. The distinction that matters more is task versus chore: a chore is the visible action, a task is the whole responsibility end to end, including the noticing and planning a chore chart leaves out.
By Lyven's effort weights, a couple without kids runs about 24 hours of household work a week across their 45 tasks. Add young kids and it rises to about 48 hours across 64 tasks, more than a full-time job on its own. The maths that drives this: a daily 30-minute task is 3.5 hours a week, every week, while a monthly task barely registers, so counting tasks alone is misleading.
The complete list of all 68 tasks, grouped by area with how often each comes up and how long it takes, is on the household jobs list. It's free to read and print. The free two-minute Split Check runs the same list interactively and shows how your own household's tasks currently divide.
Because whole categories of task only exist once there are kids in the house. A couple without kids runs about 45 tasks; add young kids and 19 more appear (the school run, bedtime routines, medical care for kids), taking the household to 64. Empty nesters drop back to about 44 as the kids' tasks disappear but everything else stays.
The two-minute Split Check runs this exact list interactively — skip what doesn't apply, weight each task to your reality, and see the split you're actually running. Free, no sign-up.
See your split — free → See the full list