How to Reward Yourself for Cleaning the House

Cleaning is one of the hardest habits to keep, and it isn’t because it’s difficult. It’s because it never pays out. You clean the kitchen, and the next day it needs cleaning again. Nothing you can see builds up, and nobody notices a clean bathroom the way they notice a dirty one.

A reward fixes that. If every chore earns something you can see and spend, the work stops disappearing the moment it’s done.

1. Give every chore a price

Not every chore takes the same effort, so they shouldn’t pay the same. A simple rule: the longer or less pleasant the chore, the more points it pays.

Chore	Points
Make the bed	2
Do the dishes or load the dishwasher	5
Wipe the kitchen counters	5
Take the bins out	5
A load of laundry, washed and put away	10
Vacuum the flat	10
Clean the bathroom	20
Change the sheets	15
Clean the fridge or the oven	30

The exact numbers don’t matter. What matters is that the chore you keep putting off pays the most, so it’s the one worth doing first.

2. Price your rewards in the same points

Now write down what the points buy. Mix small rewards you can have this week with bigger ones to save up for.

Small (10–30 points): a fancy coffee, an episode of your show, a long bath, an hour of a game
Medium (50–100 points): a takeaway night, a new book, a film at the cinema
Big (200+ points): a cleaner for a deep clean, a new duvet, a day trip

A takeaway night at 60 points is about a week of keeping the kitchen and the laundry under control. Once a reward has a price, a pile of dishes stops being a chore and starts being 5 points towards Friday.

If you’re stuck for ideas, here are 70 ways to reward yourself, sorted by cost.

3. Pick rewards that make home nicer

Some of the best rewards for cleaning are ones that make the clean home better to be in:

Fresh flowers, a plant or a good candle for the room you just cleaned
New towels, a soft throw, nicer bedding
A tool that makes the next clean faster: a cordless vacuum, a good mop, a caddy for supplies
A night in: friends round, a film, a home-cooked dinner in a kitchen you don’t have to clear first

They do two jobs at once. The reward feels good, and it gives you a reason to keep the room the way it is.

4. Pay yourself for starting

The hardest part of cleaning is the first five minutes. Once you’re going, you usually keep going. So reward the start, not just the finish:

The 10-minute rule. Set a timer for 10 minutes and clean anything. When it rings, you’ve earned your points, and you can stop. Most days you won’t want to.
One room, not the house. “Clean the house” never feels done. “Clean the bathroom” does. Give rooms their own points so a single room counts as a win.

5. Pair cleaning with something you only get while cleaning

Save a treat for cleaning time only: a favourite podcast, an audiobook, a playlist, a call with a friend. Researchers call this temptation bundling. In a 2014 study, Katy Milkman and colleagues found people went to the gym more often when they could only listen to a gripping audiobook there.

It works for chores too. If the next episode of your podcast only plays while you fold laundry, you’ll find yourself looking for laundry to fold.

6. Add a bonus for a full week

Daily points keep the small chores going. A weekly bonus keeps the big ones from piling up. Pick the chores that make a week feel under control, for example dishes every day, one load of laundry and the bathroom, and pay a bonus of 20–30 points when all of them are done.

If you miss a day, you just don’t earn that day’s points. Don’t wipe out what you’ve already saved. A bad week costs you a little, not the whole system.

Sharing a home

If you live with a partner, family or housemates, the same system works for everyone. Give each person their own points and their own rewards, and agree on the prices together, so nobody argues about whether the bins are worth as much as the bathroom.

Our free chore chart maker builds a weekly chart like this in a minute: list the chores, give each one coins, add a reward menu and print it for the fridge.

Track it on your phone

Habit Rewards is a habit tracker for iPhone and Android that works like this. Add daily chores as habits, or weekly ones on the days you pick, and give each a coin value. One-off jobs like “clean the oven” go in as tasks, which pay coins too. You spend the coins on rewards you set yourself, from a coffee to a deep clean. It keeps your streaks and sends reminders, and you can skip a day without losing a streak.

✅ Try Habit Rewards: the habit tracker that pays you

Every habit pays coins by how hard it is (1, 4, 8 or 16). Write your own reward list, put a coin price on each treat, and claim it once you've earned it.