A housework checklist for new dads: the first week at home
The first week home with a new baby, the house still needs running: dishes, washing, bins, food in the fridge, a kitchen and a bathroom that work. This is that housework as a list of jobs you take on and keep — not a list of ways to help when you are asked.
A starting point to agree together. Go through it with whoever else lives there, keep what fits and change what does not. The essentials come first; the cleaning underneath can wait. The days are suggestions for spreading the week out, not advice about anybody’s health — this page is housework only, and says nothing about feeding, sleep or recovery.
The checklist
The essentials
What keeps a house working for a week: clean dishes, food in, laundry done, bins out, a kitchen and a bathroom you can use.
- Wash up before bedEvery dayEvery night, so the morning starts with a clear sink, clean mugs and somewhere to put a plate.
- Kitchen bin and worktopsDay 1, then every other dayA kitchen you can make food in. Empty the bin before it is full, wipe what you used.
- Write down what is running outEvery dayMilk, bread, loo roll, washing-up liquid. One list, kept by you, so nobody has to notice it first.
- Do the food shopDay 2From that list, in person or delivered. Buy things that are quick to make and eat.
- Make dinnerEvery dayYours to plan and put on the table. Simple counts; so does something from the freezer.
- Put a wash onDay 2The adults’ clothes. Load it, run it, and get it dry the same day so it does not sit wet in the drum.
- Fold and put away the clean washingDay 3The half of laundry that gets left. A dry pile on a chair is still a job.
- Wash towelsDay 5, then every 10 daysBath and hand towels, with clean ones out before the old ones come off.
- Bins outDay 3, then weeklyPut it on the night before collection. Recycling too, if yours goes on a different day.
- Clear out-of-date food from the fridgeDay 6Before the shop, so there is room for what comes in and nothing at the back has turned.
- Clean the bathroomDay 4, then weeklyLoo, sink and floor, with loo roll and soap topped up while you are in there.
If there is time
Ordinary cleaning that can slip a week without anything going wrong. Leave it off if the essentials are enough.
- Hoover throughDay 6, then weeklyIf there is time. A floor can wait a week longer than a sink can.
- Change the bedsheetsDay 7, then fortnightlyStrip, wash and remake your own bed, with the clean set on before the old one is in the machine.
- Wipe the shower screenDay 4, then every 3 daysThirty seconds after a shower, if the bathroom is already done.
Where a job is already a choremen chore, it keeps the cadence it already has, and its name links to the guide on how often it wants doing. The others are given a day; that is a place to start, not a rule.
Owning it
- Agree it together, then it is yours. Go through the list with whoever else lives there, change what does not fit, and from then on these jobs are yours to remember — not to be asked for.
- Notice it before anyone has to say it. The sink, the bin, the empty milk. Owning a job means seeing it is due, not waiting to be told it is.
- Finish the whole job. Washing is not done until it is put away; the shop is not done until it is unpacked. Half a job hands the other half to somebody else.
- Essentials first. If the day goes sideways, do the dishes, the food and the bins, and let the cleaning wait. That is what the second list is for.
Make it your week
Untick what does not apply, rename anything, and give each job a day or every day. Day 1 is whichever day your week starts. Add jobs of your own underneath — up to 30 in all.
A housework checklist for new dads: the first week at home
Your first week
Made at choremen.fun/new-dad-housework
Make these my chores
A printout does not say when the towels come round again. A list does: tick a job when it is done and the next one is counted from that day. It is private to you, and nothing arrives unless you switch it on.
Next you sign in or make an account, and the jobs are shown once more before anything is added — nothing goes on the list until you press Add. On a list each one is due from the day you add it, then repeats: every day, or as often as the chore already comes round, or weekly. The days stay on the printout. No email or notification is switched on by this.
More than one week
Make a cleaning schedule for your house from a few questions about the place, or split the chores into a rota if more than one person is taking them on.