OurHome - chores and rewards Reviews

by IveTriedEmAll

We love using OurHome and use it daily. I like the simplicity of its design once you figure it out. You do have to tweak it to have it do what you want

My complaint with it is with the way everything shows up. You have to toggle back and forth several times to make sure all the chores have actually shown up. The other huge problem is with the sort order. I have tried to use a manual sort and arrange the chores in the order I want them done but they only stay in order for a day. By the next day they are all out of order again. I emailed support and they just said another family member must have messed with it. My husband is the other person on the account and he has not changed anything. The other thing I tried is to set reminders for the chores but the reminders randomly disappear as well. I have emailed support several times about this and uninstalled OurHome , signed in and out like they told me and the problem still persists. We really like OurHome otherwise and it is an app we would be willing to pay for (which is saying a lot as I typically don’t buy a lot of apps) But with these bugs it makes it almost unusable for us. We would love to see these issues fixed but meanwhile we will be looking at other options.

by JenniferR1025

I am updating my original review from when I had issues adding a family password. It took me several days to figure that out.
There is A LOT to learn in OurHome. It’s very busy and overly complicated. I found several things that could be simplified. Such as splitting a task, this makes it a competition for kids to see who can complete a task first, then the task is completed and no longer available for the other child to do. This took some learning. So, if you have the same task for both kids you have to create two of the same task for both kids making your task screen overly busy when it doesn’t need to be.
It could be simplified by adding a check box for “first finished” and leaving the “task split” for both kids to complete as a shared task meaning the chore is to be completed by both kids as an individual task. That eliminates multiple task of the same job on the screen and if you want it to be a competition, just check the box-or not.

We’ve stopped using OurHome for now as it became too time consuming. I may revisit it in the future and give it another go but I don’t have time to be policing an app on top of my kids. Things need to be simplified for busy lives.

by GennM

We have been using OurHome for about a month and I love it, mostly. The interface is clean and easy to use. We love being able to add and take away points as well as leave instructions for chores and feedback. All awesome....but.....it’s a bit buggy and that’s why I cannot rage OurHome 5 stars.

We’ve had issues with chore rotation throwing off the entire schedule if a child misses their chore day. If one of our kids doesn’t do their chores OurHome doesn’t continue the rotation, it just keeps it on that child and bumps chores assigned to others, which throws everything off and we have to reset the entire thing. The rotation should continue regardless. Also, every time we add or deduct points we get an error message telling us “Sorry, we can’t do that...” but the deduction or addition works so I don’t understand why the error pop up happens. Also, the server completely shuts down without warning. We’ve all been logged out randomly, then not allowed to log back in. We’ve had to reset our family twice now in one month. It’s becoming quite a hassle, which is disappointing because we would like an app that works on a consistent basis.

I’ve tried to submit help tickets for this issue, but the website times out time and time again for support or it’s a blue screen. Not helpful.

by BZMallory

I have 5 children and maintaining our home and a chore rotation schedule was impossible on paper. We tried several different methods, but they were too cumbersome to update as children grew and were able to take on new chores. OurHome lets us add and remove assignments based on what the kids are capable of and keep their tasks rotating to avoid boredom. I also love that it give the children the independence to do their chores when they have time so everything gets done, but we aren’t being overwhelmed by the chores.

My only feedback would be to add more icons for the categories, and allow tasks to be prioritized. My younger kids work better with a specific routine, so being able to order the tasks in a specific order would be great.

Overall, I love this. I’ve spent quite a bit of time setting it up to cover all our tasks. Even better...my kids have taken an active interest in OurHome and doing their chores. They love being able to see their points add up. Anything that makes kids eager to help with the housework is a home run in my opinion.

by Fuzzyluck

I actually don’t have kids, and haven’t tried to convince my wife to use this yet, but I’ve found OurHome is superior to any task management tool I’ve used. As some have pointed out, this is due to the fact that it’s not bogged down with complexities, but still has the functionalities you need for checking off your routine.
Mostly I just like the fact that I simply press the check bubble when it’s done.

My criticism for OurHome takes into account that I don’t use this exactly how it was intended (I mostly use it for managing my exercise, personal health, and basic habitual needs for work)—one thing I would like to see is better organization of daily, weekly, or monthly tasks. The feature where you can set a task to recur, say, twice a week, is amazing because it’s versatility allows you to account for tasks that don’t necessarily require they be every Tuesday or on the 24th of each month, but still must happen multiple times... I wish this function would be neatly filtered in my list, where my tasks for the day appear first, followed by tasks still to do for the week, finally with tasks that I must accomplish sometime this month. Currently it’s just randomly placed

by Ssrobinson16

Recently I’ve been on the hunt for a way to keep our family tasks and schedule more organized. There certainly is no lack of availability to apps for this but I was frustrated by how many of them are too complicated on one hand, and yet lack so many basic features on the other. OurHome was the answer to the simple but developed tool I wanted for our family and with a clean design and user interface to boot!

The customization in task ownership, categories, and scheduling are awesome, and the ‘nudge’ function may just be my favorite! The only reason I can’t give it 5 stars is because there are some additional features I would love to see. A notepad with the availability to use the categories for storing information relevant to your family that isn’t task related (insurance info, important contacts..) Also the ability to Create reminders that aren’t task related, and lastly a functioning calendar that allows broader use than just showing your tasks on a timeline.

I think these features will take this from a family task management app to a full blown home organization tool that would get all ten of my stars - waiting anxiously to see if these updates will come along, love OurHome!

by Jshdhhwnsjdxhbss

I love OurHome is so easy to use, three so many people features that I love about it, like the one that my kids can take a picture when they’re done with their chores that way I can make sure that they’re actually done with it even if I’m not home another feature that I like and then you can put reminders not only a date but a time there is so many stuff that I love about OurHome. The only reason I’m not given at five stars is that I am running a problem about OurHome telling me I can connect to your Internet even if I’m using my cell phone data still saying the same thing and then I have to wait until OurHome reached Internet to make sure that I actually make the changes that I want to make, I even tried to erase OurHome and download it again, but it’s still the same problem.

by Siamesegomouw

Just got this today to help myself and my husband not get upset when one reminds the other of something. The only thing I’m having an issue with is the repeat scheduling feature. To get a weekly task scheduled I have to select daily or monthly first and save. Then go back into the repeat menu and then select weekly. This is the only way I can seem to get the weekly schedule options to appear. I can not toggle correctly thru the three repeat scheduling options without closing the menu and going back in to an option I didn’t not previously have selected. It’s a smidge hard to explain.

I do have a feature idea that I think would be good. Have a way to tie a specific task to a specific reward. For example I want to work on writing in my journal more but I know I’m slowly running out of room. My reward for writing in my journal x number of times/minutes could be buying a new pretty journal.

I look forward to using OurHome and it’s reward system even more when we have children.

by BetzyBorg

We used chore monster for a while and the kids loved how fun it was to spin for monsters. I also found it very easy to set up and add rewards too. Unfortunately, every few months it would just cease to work for weeks at a time. I downloaded so many apps trying to find a suitable replacement and none of them worked for us....
Until I found this one! It’s a bit more complicated to set up, (it could be that I’m just lazy after having to set up a billion other apps that stunk.) but it wasn’t overly difficult. I’m still learning how to use OurHome but over all, I can easily add new tasks, add and subtract points as needed, and reschedule tasks as needed.
I also love that it offers task suggestions.
Perhaps some tutorials would help a bit? Or maybe they are there and I have missed them. They do offer tips in OurHome that help as well and that’s nice.
I gave 4 stars bc of the learning curve and bc it actually has more functions than I really need or want. What a goofy thing to subtract a star for! Too much functionality?! Lol! Sorry!

by Shouseee

So far I love OurHome for how clean it looks and how simple it is to set up. We will definitely be using the grocery list, since our kids are now old enough to pack their own lunches and make their own food choices. I would really like to ditch our Apple Calendar and use OurHome in order to streamline things, but I have 2 hesitations:

1. When I schedule a repeating event, I can’t find a way to tell it when to end. This would be helpful for lessons and things that only run 8-10 weeks.

2. When I’m looking at the whole calendar view, I can’t see a specific day’s events listed out unless I click onto the day...then I can’t see the rest of the calendar. The Apple Calendar shows the whole month with a bulleted list underneath for whatever day you’ve clicked on, and it’s super helpful in scheduling.

by Office PCA

For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled with a lack of direction when a bit of unclaimed time came my way. I’ve read and tried to implement many household organization books. In the end I’ve set up meal planners and chore planners, but after a week or two I’ve forgotten where they are or that they exist.
OurHome has helped me remember to do the daily language lessons needed to learn a new language. 😊 It has helped me begin to make cleaning part of my routine, so I’m not constantly overwhelmed and looking at unkept areas with regret. ⭐️ My husband mowed our lawn in a timely manner without a word from me when he realized he could get points for it! 👍 I kept the needed tasks at the front of my thoughts when preparing the house for guests this weekend by arranging the timing of the tasks to fit the event. Super! 🎉
My only disappointment is that when I move from OurHome to another app and come back I need to close Our Home and reopen it before it will respond. Otherwise it’s a great platform with lots of flexibility for use in creating reminders and rewards to motivate under multiple categories at the same time.

by Jeff162738

We now use these points as a reward system instead of money or in-app purchases for our 9 and 11 yr old. This is really important because it incentivized the things we want to do as parents... the rewards we chose are things like “Read a story together” or “Play Minecraft with Dad”. This lets the kids choose special experiences.
It also helps limit things we don’t want them to do like drink soda. If you want a soda you have to spend your points on it. This makes the everyday battles so much easier because everyone knows the “rules” of the house. It’s eliminated the constant begging for things that slowly wears us down.
We participate as parents. For example I get points when I hang up my shirt and pants after work, or turn the lights off when I leave. She gets points for all the house chores she does. This helps me see all the things my wife does, and helps me remember simple things that matter less to me (lights). We get to spend our points on things that matter to us like “go on a walk” or “5 minute massage”.
Thank you this app team!

by EvrAftr

This is an incredibly effective tool to provide kids a list of to do’s to be productive in school and contributing to chores. We’re using it for our middle schooler (age 11) and he’s extremely motivated to collect points and cash. Using OurHome has decreased arguing/nagging because if he doesn’t complete something I either deduct points (which he doesn’t like) or he doesn’t earn cash (for chores) if I complete them (example: unloading dishwasher, vacuuming).
My ‘wish list’ for the developers is to make it a more user friendly for the kid in being able to view categories instead of a total list. Also for the kiddo to be able to view a pie chart based on categories of completion and maybe a button/suggestions to kiddo to complete school/responsibilities to increase their points/rewards earned. These features would help parents reinforce areas that need to be developed. Those changes would be absolutely amazing! Overall, I’m so happy I’ve found OurHome!

by MomKVG

After trying several other chore list/task assignment/allowance tracking type of apps, this one finally has the perfect combo of features we needed. This includes easy to assign tasks (for one person or several) with clear “points” associated with them (which are equivalent to dollars in our case). You can add specifics to the tasks or not. You can get fancy with them and add recurrences, etc or not. And when someone finishes something they just click that it’s done, it goes away and the points get added to their “bank.” Again, you can get fancy with that part and add required approvals, etc or not. You can track who did what and completed it at what time or you can not give a crap about those details. And then we pay them for their hard work, we simply zero out their “bank.”
It’s uncluttered, easy to set up and easy to explain to 3 other family members how to use. I was seriously shocked that all of those other apps just couldn’t accomplish this very straight forward tracking system.
Best part ——-> It’s FREE.

by Joznjayne

I really like using OurHome. It helps my performance around the house because I can create the tasks for throughout the week and it feels great to check off the items as completed. The kids stay motivated because they don’t want the other one to have more points. Nothing like a little competitiveness to get them to happily complete their chores. Oh, and if they forget a chore the nudge option is a nice way to let them know without feeling like s nag. I also like the grocery list, it’s helpful to have the whole family have access and add things as they think of it. The only thing that I don’t like is how encouraging good behavior and disciplining bad (and the option responsibility, but mostly behavior) shows up as a task. For whatever reason I don’t understand how to use that on a case by case basis as the kids do or don’t follow those expectations. For now I’ll just add or subtract the points manually and create a note but if I can find a way to use the other options I’d like that for ease of use. Everything else feels very user friendly. The best house management app I’ve used.

by Fiorella27

My husband and I had a difficult time getting into the swing of things when it comes to cleaning. I can clean all day long because I enjoy it but that is the last thing on his list. He wants to help but just doesn’t think of it. OurHome helped by giving him an incentive! He doesn’t even claim his points even though he’s got a ton, because he just likes getting points lol men need to win and stuff? Idk. I’m loving the 10 minute massages I get to claim and he loves getting points for doing dishes and laundry and construction around the house. Since I’m home more I was getting more of the home maintenance points and he was getting discouraged. So we made categories that he could claim and feel proud of! Like going to work everyday to provide for our family and serve the Lord and others, working extra hours on our online business, cuddling me (wife! Lol), taking vitamins, etc...
It’s been a really fun app to use. We use this probably as much or more than our bank account apps and our calendar app. We love it!!
You guys really did a great job. :)

by 404AppleNotFound

This is the best points tracker/bank I have tried. I don’t use it in the family capacity but to keep track of earning and spending points for my habit-points system.(I assign my recurring habits points based on difficulty and importance and cash in the points for guilty pleasures or splurges. This helps motivate me to complete the habits and also places a higher value on pleasures and splurges to ensure I don’t overindulge.) One of my frustrations with comparable apps was that many of them lock into using it strictly as a family/chore tracker, so task details such as due date as well as building out a “family” are all required to use OurHome , which is fine for the designated purpose but obviously that doesn’t suit my use-case. OurHome allows those customizations without requiring them. It also easily functions as a true points “bank,” allowing you to add task completion and points redemption as transactions.

Over all, love OurHome . Frankly I need all the help I can get in staying motivated and OurHome has been a godsend in that regard.

by Bomber Bumer

I’ve downloaded OurHome to keep track of chores and behavior. With a family of 7 it can get hectic at times. OurHome has allowed me to customize tasks for point values and also customize wrong behavior for subtracting points. We’ve set rewards for certain level of points and allow the points to roll over so they can collect those hard to reach rewards over a longer period of time. I’ve been spending the past week or so customizing it and making sure I have the permissions set just right before rolling it out to all of the devices. We don’t want big sister deducting points from little brother just because they can! I haven’t tested it in a “go live” environment just yet but wouldn’t expect any issues from what I’ve seen. I used an old device to test the child’s perspective which helped greatly to ensure they can’t remove each other’s points or mark them for a bad behavior. I love how flexible everything is and it is completely customizable. 5 children rotating chores and OurHome tracks that just fine when you figure out how to set it all up. The only downfall is learning how to get everything just right. It shouldn’t be to hard for a tech savvy person but not all of us are. It would help to have some tutorials or “how to’s” otherwise I could see many people getting frustrated and deleting it.

by Julies Personal Opinion

I tried out multiple apps trying to find something to keep track of cleaning schedules and daily habits. This was the nicest looking, easiest to customize, and it’s free. I love that I can customize how often something needs to be done and the due date can be based off of when it was last done. It’s easy to put something off if I just don’t have time for it at the moment. Being able to reschedule all overdue tasks at once is very convenient.

I don’t use the points or rewards system or the grocery list, but I might in the future if I see a need for it. There is so much to OurHome, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming to use.

The one thing I haven’t figured out how to do is create one task that multiple people need to check off, for example ‘make your bed’. To get around that I created a new task for every bed. It would be nice to have one ‘make your bed’ task that showed who else still needed to get it done.

by Mrsbarn3tt

First, I want to say that I LOVE OurHome. I love how customizable it is, so it can work for any family (even if your family is like mine, just the hubs and myself). We’re finally starting to get organized now, thanks to OurHome. It’s great having chores split up visually and seeing your progress on custom rewards. I even went out and made a Workflow so that the hubs and I can pick from a list of chores to remind each other. Still figuring out a clean way to log bills in the calendar.... The one thing I would love to see is support for the Apple Watch with a complication. It’d be so helpful to have the grocery list sync with my watch, or to be able to use my watch to log/create tasks or send reminders. Tactile/discreet usage through the watch, away from the distraction of phones, would be great for families with loved ones on the Spectrum or with ADHD, etc. Thank you so much for OurHome, looking forward to watching OurHome grow in its potential!!

by Dr. Livengood

Honestly, while OurHome seems to be made for kids, I use it for just myself. I love the system of doing things you don't feel like doing and trading them for rewards. It's made me more productive around the house and not forget what there is to do.

I also use it to track if I've taken my vitamins each day (but it would be great for a prescription medicine).

I wish that there was a lock button that makes certain tasks unable to be rescheduled. It would be nice to be able to press "reschedule all" and it would exclude certain locked tasks. I have one task called, "get to work early" with a fairly high amount of points set to it, but each day I don't do it, it decreases the points I would receive upon completion as a penalty. I never want to reschedule tasks with penalties, but currently the "reschedule all" button does reschedule tasks with penalties.

As one other suggestion, I would love if the behavior tasks weren't intermingled with the others. It would be nice if they were completely separate.

Aside from this, I've told all my friends about how much I love OurHome, telling them they have to try it out. I like the positive reinforcement behind the reward system. It's excellent for encouraging me to workout. I love the free reign I have in setting tasks and rewards. I wish there was more in terms of personalization (backgrounds, profile characters, etc.), but what they have is cute. OurHome is one of the best to-do list apps I've ever seen.

by SDDizzle

I rarely review apps, but this one deserves it. Trying to run a 7 person household is rough, but OurHome helps! I love this customizations available. I can assign chores on a rotating basis throughout family members, or set them to be always available, and everything in between. I love that you can have multiple admins, so you can share the responsibility of approving tasks and assigning them. At first I thought the grocery list was a little silly that I couldn’t remove it, but I’ve grown to love that I can plug something in the list, and my other half can see it and grab it on his way home from work. It took quite awhile to get everything set up how I wanted it, but it was worth it, and now that’s it’s all set up and the kids can see their chores from their tablets it’s smooth sailing. I also love the messaging feature, for family wide conversations, and that you can comment on individual tasks to incentivize even further than just the points/rewards system. I cannot stress how many apps I’ve tried and ultimately ended up deleting because they didn’t do everything I needed. OurHome is insanely inclusive, and I plan to use it forever.

by Cece.bernstine

I wanted an app that allowed me to write all the things I want done for the home and to assign them to other people in the house. Check.

I looked through a couple "family management" apps and downloaded another one first, but it didn't allow me to make a genetic task list; everything had to have a deadline and a time block - it was more of a calendar than a task manager. OurHome won out for it's ability to quick list and to make more detailed assignments like exactly when it needs to be done or how many times it needs to be done in a time frame.

The points were fun in theory, but we had to get a handle on what take would go on there and come up with a firmer understanding of point values. It takes some time and intention to set down and set it up to get the most out of it, but if you want to just put all the"to-do" lists on a place where everyone in the family can see them, this is good for that too.