To-dos and projects
A shared family to-do list with owners and reminders
HouseChief's to-dos are a shared family list where every item can say who owns it and when it's due, with a reminder on your phone and repeats that roll forward when you check them off. Projects turn a big date (a birthday, a move, the first day of school) into dated steps from a template. Free while in early access; runs in the browser on any phone or computer.
To-dos that say who and when
A family to-do list fails when every item is for "someone". In HouseChief each to-do carries an owner, a due date and time, a priority and notes, so "renew Leo's passport" is Sam's, due Friday, high priority, with the appointment details attached. Both parents see the same list, and each can filter to their own.
Adding one is fast: type "pay water bill friday 5pm" and HouseChief fills in the date and time for you. A kid's Today view shows the to-dos assigned to them, and lists a parent marks private never show up for kids.
Reminders with Done and Snooze
Give a to-do a reminder and it arrives as a notification on your phone at that time, with two buttons right on it: Done, which checks it off, and Snooze, which brings it back in an hour. You don't have to open the app to deal with it. Reminders go to whoever owns the to-do (or whoever added it, if it has no owner), so the right parent gets the nudge.
Repeating chores for grown-ups
Some things come back forever: the recycling on Wednesday, the quarterly HOA payment, cleaning the gutters each fall. Set a to-do to repeat and when you check it off it rolls forward to its next date, instead of cluttering the list or disappearing for good. Every check-off is logged, so you can see when the gutters really were last done.
Projects from templates
A project is a list with a goal date and sections, and the built-in templates do the planning: Birthday party, Family trip, Holiday dinner, Back to school, Moving and New babysitter. Pick one, set the date, and every step is dated by counting back from it. For a birthday, "send invitations" lands three weeks before the party and "order the cake" ten days before; "write thank-you notes" lands a week after.
Edit the steps freely, add your own, and save a project as a template for next year. You can also ask your Chief of Staff for a project in plain language ("plan Ruby's fifth birthday on March 14") and approve the one it proposes. See the templates in action in our birthday party timeline and back-to-school checklist.
A weekly review
Turn on the weekly review and your Chief of Staff posts it on a schedule you pick, say Sunday at 7. It celebrates what got done, lists what's overdue with a suggested fix on an Approve card (a new date, or handing it to the parent with more room), and lays out the coming week's to-dos next to what's on the calendar each day. If one parent is carrying a lot more that week, it says so gently and offers to rebalance. Nothing changes unless you approve it.
Home upkeep reminders
Home care is for the things you only remember when something breaks: the furnace filter, smoke alarm batteries, the dryer vent, the water heater flush. Set each one with how often it should happen and HouseChief figures the next due date from the last time you did it. What's due shows on the Today page and in the morning briefing.
Parents can also keep private lists, for gift ideas or anything else, that kids and other views never see.
Questions
How do two parents share a to-do list?
Both parents sign in to the same HouseChief family and see the same to-dos. Give each item an owner and a due date so it's clear who's on it, and each parent can filter to their own. Reminders go to the owner. The weekly review shows what's overdue and offers to rebalance if one parent has a lot more due.
Can a to-do repeat, like changing the air filter?
Yes, two ways. A repeating to-do rolls forward to its next date when you check it off, and every check-off is logged. For upkeep that depends on when you last did it, use Home care: set "every 90 days" and HouseChief computes the next due date from the last done date, and shows it in your morning briefing.
Can I assign a task to my partner?
Yes. Set the owner on any to-do to the other parent and it shows in their list, with the reminder going to their phone. Only parents can set owners and dates. Kids can be given to-dos too, and those show on the kid's own Today view.
Will I get reminders?
Yes. Add a reminder time to a to-do and you get a notification on your phone with Done and Snooze buttons. Snooze brings it back in an hour. Reminders go to the to-do's owner and need notifications allowed on their device; on iPhone, add HouseChief to the Home Screen first.
Can I keep some lists private?
Yes. Parents can mark a list as private, and it never appears in a kid's view, on the wall display or on a share link. Private lists are handy for gifts, surprises and anything else that isn't for the whole family. Everything else, like the grocery list, is shared with the household.
What project templates are there?
Six built-in templates: Birthday party, Family trip, Holiday dinner, Back to school, Moving and New babysitter. Each gives you sections and dated steps counted back from the goal date, which you can edit freely. You can also save your own projects as templates for next time.