There are plenty of reasons to choose to live with housemates. Some do it strictly because of financial necessity, if they want to move to a nice area or a big city and can’t afford a place by themselves. Others do because they want to be surrounded by friends.
While living with roommates sure has its benefits, this situation can also lead to conflicts, even if you cohabitate with your best friends. Many fights are brought up by people being disorganized or forgetful, and others fearing confrontation. Luckily, technology can help. These Android and iOS apps will make it easy to get along with your housemates.
1. Splitwise
One of the most common reasons for divorce is money issues. Although a shared home is nothing like a marriage, it is still some kind of a partnership, and money may lead to endless arguments in it. There are rent payments, electricity bills, gas, internet, repairs, groceries, cleaning supplies, shared subscriptions, and more.
To ensure you pay everything on time, and no one feels shortchanged, we recommend using Splitwise. Everyone in the house needs to install the app for it to be effective. After that, open a new group, and add all of the housemates to it.
Every time someone pays for something related to the house, they can log it in the app right away and even add a picture of the receipt. You can choose to split it equally with all of the users, or just with one person.
With the option of the simplified debt, the app shows who owes who what, to make the fewest amount of transfers. It will also send notifications when items are added and an email reminder to make sure people pay up. To top it off, it offers some payment integrations, so you can settle debt directly from the app.
Download: Splitwise for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)
2. Our Groceries Shopping List
Many people prefer to keep their housemates and their food separate. This can be a smart decision if you’re one of those people who cannot get through their day without their morning coffee (and your roommate has a tendency to finish it).
However, there are some lucky people who enjoy living together, as well as cooking together. With Our Groceries Shopping List, you can make sure that whoever’s getting the groceries is well informed and doesn’t forget anything. You can also ensure there are no double purchases.
The app lets you open one account per household and start a list, which is then updated live. When you tick something off the list the other person sees it right away. It also integrates with smart home devices, so you can add items as soon as you think of them.
The Premium version allows you to add pictures of products and even scan barcodes, to add the exact items you want to the list. Items can be grouped by categories, colors, and even by what’s needed for a certain recipe.
Download: Our Groceries Shopping List for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)
3. Family Organizer - Calendar
Depending on how involved you are with your housemates, the arrangement can sometimes feel like a family. If you are that close, you may like to plan house-related events together, such as cooking, movie nights, and parties. Or you may want to schedule a day to clean up the place together.
On the flip-side, maybe you want to alert your housemates that you plan to have a date over, and want some alone time. Family Organizer lets you create a “family” account and sync all of your calendars.
You can then add events to the joint calendar, as well as chores, and reminders. Events can be assigned to certain people or all. There are also shareable to-do lists, checklists, and recipes—where you can add all of the ingredients to the shopping list with one click.
If you want to use just one app for everything, you can also add expenses to the Wallet feature. And if you are really involved in each other’s lives, you can even share your locations. For those of you who really enjoy making lists, there are many other uncomplicated to-do apps for your everyday life.
Download: Family Organizer - Calendar for Android | iOS (Free, premium version available)
4. Tody
Another common cause for friction in shared households is chores. While some people are sticklers about clean dishes, they may have a blindspot for a dirty bathroom sink. And some are just complete slobs.
Tody helps you create a cleaning schedule with a sleek and user-friendly interface. First, you determine your cleaning style. Then, you organize tasks according to the areas of the house.
You can choose the tasks from a library of suggestions, or create your own. You decide the frequency for each task, which lets you know when it was last done and when it’s due. The app allows you to add as many participants and assign specific work to them, or designate work on a rotating basis.
If you want to completely eliminate communication outside of the app, however, each housemate has to purchase a Premium subscription, so the cleaning plan can be synced across devices, instead of just one person being in charge of everything.
Download: Tody for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
5. OurHome
Setting a cleaning schedule with a detailed to-do list is not always enough to get the job done. Often, chores get overlooked simply because they are boring. OurHome is an app that tries to gamify this process and give it a little more spark.
Similar to Family Organizer, this app is geared towards a family, with the interface being a bit childlike. However, if your housemates are up for it, you can still make it fun.
Each task has an approximate amount of time it should take, a frequency, and completing it gives the user a certain amount of points. There’s also a late penalty fee. You can set rewards to claim once people collect enough points.
In the adult version, these rewards can be something like a foot massage, cooking each other dinner, buying something for the house, or any other creative thing. As keeping a tidy house can become a big undertaking over time, it may also be worth reading household experts’ advice on how to clean your home.
Download: OurHome for Android | iOS (Free)
Don’t Forget You Can Outsource Chores as Well
Making sure that your house is clean, that every cabinet is stocked, and every bill is paid can become tedious. Sometimes, it may also feel like all of this management falls on the shoulders of just one person.
So don’t forget that you can outsource some of the burdens if you feel it’s worth the money and will keep everybody happy in the long run. For instance, you can hire a cleaning person once a month. You can set up regular grocery delivery, and you can purchase a dishwasher or even a robot vacuum.