Tody Alternative for Families: Chores Assigned to People, Not Dirt Levels
Tody schedules cleaning by need - rooms accumulate “dustiness” and surface when they cross a threshold. It’s clever for adult households. Chore-List is the Tody alternative for families: chores belong to a person, carry a dollar value, and pay out on completion, on a board the whole family can see.
Two philosophies of a clean house
Tody’s insight is that fixed schedules waste effort: clean what needs cleaning, when it needs it. Chore-List starts from the family’s actual bottleneck, which is rarely scheduling science - it’s that the kids aren’t motivated and nobody can prove who did what. A per-person board with prices, photo proof, and balances solves that problem; a dirtiness curve doesn’t.
| Tody | Chore-List | |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling model | Need-based (dirtiness over time) | Fixed recurrence - daily / weekly / monthly with due times |
| Organised by | Room / area | Person - photo + balance per list |
| Pay & rewards | No | Dollar balances + rewards store |
| Scope | Cleaning only | Any household chore |
| Photo proof & approvals | No | Yes |
| Wall display | No | Kiosk mode on any tablet |
| Reminders | App notifications | Multiple email reminders per chore |
| Price | Paid plans (pricing varies) | Free while in beta |
Where Tody is genuinely better
If your household is adults optimising cleaning effort - flexible intervals, areas that genuinely need attention at different rates - Tody’s need-based engine is purpose-built and Chore-List won’t replicate it. Chore-List wins when the question changes from “how dirty is it?” to “whose job is it, and what do they earn?”
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Tody alternative designed for families with kids?
Yes - Chore-List. Instead of tracking rooms, it tracks people: each child has a list with their photo and balance, chores pay on completion, and a rewards store gives the earnings somewhere to go.
Can Chore-List do flexible cleaning intervals?
Not the dirtiness-based kind. Chores recur on set schedules (daily, weekly, monthly) with due times and reminders - predictable beats adaptive for kids’ routines, which is the trade Chore-List makes deliberately.
What if a chore is nobody’s job?
Post it to the Open Chores pool. Anyone can claim it, and the claimer earns the pay when it’s done - the flexible capacity Tody finds with algorithms, Chore-List finds with incentives.
Does it work for more than cleaning?
Yes - homework, pet care, yard work, music practice, errands: anything you can describe and price can be a chore, recurring or one-off.
What does it cost?
Chore-List is free for families while in beta, including recurring chores, the rewards store, reminders, and the wall display.
See also: the Sweepy & Tody family guide and the Sweepy alternative.
Assign the work to people. Pay them for it.
Free for families - set up in about a minute.
Last updated October 15, 2026.