Chore Rota Generator

What this generator does

Produces a rota across weeks rather than a single draw. The chore wheel and the household chore picker both answer who does this one job now; this answers who does what for the next month, and guarantees the jobs nobody wants are shared out evenly instead of falling repeatedly on whoever the wheel happens to like.

How to use this tool

1. Enter everyone who takes a turn, one per line.
2. Enter the chores, one per line.
3. Set how many weeks to plan.
4. Press Build rota and stick it on the fridge.

Understanding the controls

Household

One name per line, for everyone who takes a turn. If there are more people than chores, some get a week off each time, and the rota moves that around so nobody gets all the free weeks.

Chores

One per line. The number of chores decides how long a full cycle takes — six chores means six weeks before anyone repeats a job.

Weeks

How many weeks to print. Setting more weeks than there are chores simply repeats the cycle, and the tool says so rather than letting a repeat look like a mistake.

Seed

Enter a word to regenerate the identical rota. Handy when the printed copy goes missing halfway through the month and a fresh random one would contradict what people have already done.

Worked examples

Four people, four chores, four weeks

A complete cycle — everyone does each chore once in the month.

Five people, four chores, five weeks

Four working each week and one with a week off, and everyone gets exactly one free week.

Three people, six chores, six weeks

Three chores done each week and three left; each person covers all six across the six weeks.

Common use cases

• A shared house splitting cleaning fairly between housemates
• A family chore chart for the school term
• Student accommodation where a written rota prevents arguments
• A holiday let or group trip with cooking and washing-up to share
• Anywhere the same person always seems to end up with the bins

How this generator works

Names and chores are each shuffled once, then the pairing shifts along by one position every week. That makes the rota a cycle rather than a series of independent draws, and it is what guarantees each person works through every chore exactly once before repeating any of them. Independent weekly draws — which is how this page used to work — leave a real chance of the same person drawing the same chore two weeks running, which is precisely the complaint a rota is meant to prevent.

Randomness and fairness

Only the starting arrangement is random — who begins on which chore, and the order the chores sit in the cycle. The even spread holds whatever that draw produces, so pressing the button again gives a different rota that is exactly as fair. Adding a seed switches to a deterministic, non-cryptographic generator so the same rota can be reprinted; that is for reproducibility, not secrecy.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

• Effort is not weighted. Cleaning the bathroom and taking the bins out count the same here, so if one job is much worse than the others, consider listing it twice or pairing it with a lighter one.
• Nothing knows who is away, who is working nights or who physically cannot do a particular job, so read the rota before pinning it up.
• There is no enforcement, no reminders and no record of what was actually done — this prints a plan, and the rest is down to the household.
• Running more weeks than there are chores repeats the same cycle rather than producing a genuinely different arrangement, because past a full cycle there is not one.

Common mistakes

Redrawing whenever someone complains

Each redraw restarts the cycle, so the person who has already done the worst job may get it again. Swap two names on the printed rota instead.

Listing more chores than weeks and expecting everything to get done

With more chores than people, some jobs go undone each week. The rota shows which, so either shorten the list or accept the rotation.

Practical tips

• Plan a full cycle at a time so the rota ends on a natural boundary and everyone can see they have had a fair share.
• Print it and put it where everyone sees it — a rota agreed in a group chat is a rota nobody remembers.

Privacy and your data

Household names and chores stay in the browser on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is remembered between visits and nothing is written into the page address, so a family rota typed in here exists only until you close the page. Print it or copy it first, because none of it is saved.

Frequently asked questions

Will everyone do every chore?

Yes, over a full cycle — run at least as many weeks as you have chores, and have no more people than chores.

What if someone is away for a week?

Swap that week's assignment with someone else directly. Redrawing would change the whole rota and undo the weeks already done.

Can I print the same rota again?

Yes — reuse the seed word with the same names and chores.