Useful Drawer

Chore Wheel

Put the chores on a wheel and let it do the arguing. Take turns spinning — the wheel says who’s up — and every chore that lands comes off the wheel, so the jobs spread out and nothing lands twice. For the house, the roommates, or the kids.

Why a wheel settles it

Nobody wants the bathroom. Assign it and you’re the villain; ask for volunteers and the same person does it every week. The wheel’s whole value is that it has no favorites and everyone watched it decide — the same reason it works for picking names works for handing out jobs. The spin is the fun part; the fairness is the point.

Two details make this one work as an actual chore chart rather than a toy. Chores come off the wheel as they’re assigned, so the last spin has exactly one job left on it and everything gets covered exactly once. And the turn order is the wheel’s, not whoever grabs the mouse — it announces who’s up, goes down your list, and wraps around until the wheel is empty.

Ways people run it

  • Weekly reset. The chore and people lists are remembered in your browser, so Sunday night is one click: reset, spin through the wheel, done. The handed-out list below the wheel is the week’s chart.
  • Kids take their own spins. The suspense of the wheel does a lot of work — a chore you landed feels different from a chore you were given.
  • No people list at all. Turn the list off and it’s a plain chore spinner: spin when it’s your turn, do what it says.
  • On a shared screen. Full screen or the second-screen window puts the wheel up big — same wheel, same spin, on the TV or projector.

Not just chores

Anything that needs handing out works the same way: who brings what to the potluck, which section each person presents, who takes which shift at the bake sale. If what you actually need is to pick a person rather than a task, the Random Name Picker is the same wheel pointed the other way.

Questions

How does it work?

Type your chores, one per line, and the wheel fills with them. Spin, and whatever the pointer lands on is the chore. Once a chore is assigned it comes off the wheel, so the next spin can only land on what's left — nobody gets handed the same chore twice.

How do turns work?

Add a list of people and the wheel announces who's up before each spin — turns go down the list and wrap around, so spins are spread evenly. You can also turn the people list off and just spin for chores.

What if there are more chores than people?

The turns wrap: once everyone has spun, it's the first person's turn again, and the wheel keeps going until every chore is handed out. The list below the wheel keeps score of who got what.

Is the spin actually random?

Yes. The chore is chosen uniformly from what's still on the wheel before the animation starts, and the wheel turns to land on it — the result is never at the mercy of where an animation happens to stop.

Does my chore list get sent anywhere?

No. The wheel runs entirely in your browser and there is no server behind it. Your chores and people are saved on your own device so they're there next week, and clearing site data removes them.

What would make this tool better? A device that's missing, a detail that looks wrong, an option you went looking for and didn't find — all of it is useful. Send a note.

More in Classroom & Event Screens

See the collection

Also coming to this collection: Full-Screen Countdown Clock, Full-Screen Stopwatch.

Related reading