Apps to help me remember to do weekly/monthly chores

July 12, 2019 8:16 AM

Most of the habit tracking apps I’m aware of are focused on daily habits, but I have a pretty good handle on those. What apps help you remember to do tasks that only need to be done once per week, two weeks, or month?

I’ll give an example to make this more concrete. I want to deep-clean the bathroom once per month. Here’s what the ideal app would do:
1) every month, add “clean bathroom” to a persistent to-do list (preferably with an app badge as a reminder)
2) keep track of how many days it’s been since I last cleaned the bathroom
3) let me check off the task once it’s done

I do not need/want:
1) to establish a “streak” if I do this every month
2) a calendar reminder on a particular day
3) any kind of reward/penalty or motivation system
4) multi-user functionality (I live alone!)
5) integration with one-off to-do items
6) anything geared toward developing better household cleaning/organization habits more generally - I keep a pretty spartan household and only tend to fall behind on longer-term tasks
7) recommendations about whether once a month is frequent enough :)

I’m on an iPhone running the latest iOS.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

posted by capricorn to Technology (13 answers total)

As an addendum, it’s neither necessary nor realistic that I do these tasks exactly every 30 days. This is more like “I have a few hours of unstructured time this evening, what task should I prioritize today”?
posted by capricorn at 8:20 AM on July 12, 2019

I use Due for this sort of thing.
posted by thursdaystoo at 8:40 AM on July 12, 2019

i use OurHome on ios to do this. i like it and does exactly what you want. it does have multi user stuff, but i just don't use it.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 8:47 AM on July 12, 2019

I use Remember the Milk for this.
posted by ellieBOA at 8:48 AM on July 12, 2019

I have used Remember the Milk for this in the past. The reason I like it for this use case it that it allows you to set something as a once a month task or a task you need to do again a month after you last did something. So, if clean the bathroom is on your list on the first of the month and you do it a week later, depending on how you set up the clean the bathroom task, it will either come back on the first of the month again, or it won't come back until the 8th or whatever day you actually did it.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:49 AM on July 12, 2019

Todoist's repeating functions are nice for this. Really a lot like RTM, so kind of a matter of which app you wind up liking the interface for more. I don't know what it does as far as notifications but probably something close to what you want--I'm on Android and actually literally have the list as a widget on my home screen.
posted by Sequence at 9:15 AM on July 12, 2019

I use TimeCave to send myself recurring email reminders (I hate computer calendars so I use this instead). I pay $12/year for it.

I've set up weekly or monthly email reminders about things like garbage night, bill payments, calling relatives, etc.

And when I have a longer term task I can defer for a while, I use TimeCave to remind me about it. Or when I sign up for a free trial of something, I use TimeCave to remind me to cancel it a few days before the automatic payments start.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:06 AM on July 12, 2019

I really love Tody. The periods for each chore are customizable in very fine detail, and you can see what's coming up soon and how long it's been since you did everything. At the beginning, I adjusted the periods frequently as it turned out that things were dirty sooner than expected, or weren't really dirty when the chore came up, but now I've got it pretty well down to a science and I love that. I don't have to think about scrubbing the shower at all until it comes up, and it comes up just as it's starting to look like it needs it. If I do it late, it comes up again based on when I actually completed the chore, not when it was due.

I hate reward/streak/etc stuff (streaks, especially, really irritate me) and Tody is very clean and simple and non-fluffy. It just tells me what chores I need to do. There's a brief "yay!" pop-up message when I check something off, but that can be turned off. Plus, the app is still being actively developed, and the updates are actually improvements.
posted by kite at 10:29 AM on July 12, 2019

Reminders app for iOS. Different reminder lists (work, home, private) for different things, and then using recurring reminders for those that need daily/weekly/monthly/yearly reminding.
posted by terrapin at 10:39 AM on July 12, 2019

I use Actions App by Moleskine. It's beautifully designed and you can set items on a due date or reoccurring. I have set an action to water plants every Sunday, for example.
posted by Bunglegirl at 11:57 AM on July 12, 2019

I use an iOS app called HomeRoutines. It is designed for EXACTLY this use case.
posted by oblique red at 1:55 PM on July 17, 2019

Updating to mark resolve and to say that I've been using Remember the Milk and it's working really well. Thanks again, all!
posted by capricorn at 8:45 AM on August 1, 2019

Apps like Evernote help me to securely store important information that I may need anytime. Over time, I realized that it is better to use a few apps that are really useful rather than just keep them for decorative purposes.
posted by Lazylord at 6:55 AM on December 25, 2019