Chore wars: How an app is making housework fun (sort of)

STOCKHOLM, Nov 24 — Who’s doing household chores? There’s an app for that — in an effort to make “invisible work visible”, Swedish engineering students have developed an app for families to organise and track housework.

Among the early adopters are Marko, 40, and Neha Sarcevic, 37, a married couple of business owners living in the wealthy Stockholm suburb of Taby with two small children, aged three and four.

“We thought, okay, let’s try this out, maybe it can solve many of our issues that we have at home,” Neha told AFP.

Her husband agreed, saying the app — which has some 2,000 users so far — “brought up the conversation at home. ‘Like, okay, so if things aren’t being done, who’s responsible for them?’”

Neha scrolled through the tasks specific to their family on her mobile screen: hanging up the children’s coats when they get home, emptying their gym bags, washing up, taking out the compost bin.

The setup is simple: users insert chores of their choice into the app.

Other family members can then follow their progress and send a “reminder” if a task is not done in time.

Neha said she loved the feature, “but I don’t use it very often”, prompting a burst of laughter from her husband.

The idea for the app was born a year ago when engineering student Victor Fredrikson’s father got tired of reminding him to tidy up his room and wash his clothes.

“So finally one day he basically had enough and said like, why don’t you just programme an app so I don’t have to nag you all the time about getting your laundry,” the 23-year-old CEO told AFP.

“And I took that pretty literally and talked to my classmate” — 23-year-old co-creator Marcus Pahlman — and Accord was born.

‘Family harmony’

The idea, Fredrikson explained, is to turn household chores into a rewarding experience.

“Accord was our sort of answer to achieving family harmony and tackling these problems that like almost every family face on a daily basis.”

The app — which officially launched in early September — allows family members to show their appreciation when someone completes a task.

By revealing who does what around the house, the platform can also help address the gender gap that remains for domestic chores.

“We want people to talk about it more and be more involved in the family discussion about household chores and making invisible work visible, and see actually who does what and help start that discussion,” Floreteng said.

According to a study by United Nations agency UN Women published in October 2023, women worldwide spend on average 2.8 hours more on unpaid domestic work than men per day.

Once they are old enough, Neha and Marko are also hoping to get their children on the app.

“Clean the room, you get some points. Let’s cook dinner together, get some points,” Marko said, adding that it could serve as a basis for their allowance.

The couple employs an au pair to help look after their children. Neha said using the app allows her to keep tabs on developments at home without needing to ask if the children have been fed or had their bath.

“That makes my ‘mum brain’ also a bit more relaxed,” Neha said. — ETXStudio