Household management - what are you using if anything?
Household management - what are you using if anything?
Hello there!
I was wondering what people on here use for general household related peojects and general recurring task management.
I feel like it would be easier to get stuff done if my wife and I could have a place to store and real time add/update information on things. Notes on the fridge don't cut it anymore, as life gets complex.
I was looking into NextCloud AIO. I don't care much for the mail, file sync or call and chat features. But a shared calendar and the Deck app with tasks sound useful. Along with the cookbook app that exists.
I was also checking out independent-ish solutions like Vikunja and Kitchen owl. I was also looking for a MS whiteboard-like thing to use, and Excalidraw came up. It is possible to tie all these together with a dashboard, so it doesn't feel like it's all over the place I am sure. But the wife approval factor is also something I have to keep in mind. Also, mobile apps are hit and miss in my opinion.
If you have extendes experiences with the above tools or alternatives that you use, please share how you like it! I could use some perspective before I deploy stuff to "prd".
Set up the regular Nextcloud install, instead of the AIO. The AIO is not required for any of the things you need, so you end up with lots of stuff you are not gonna touch.
I use Nextcloud with:
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Cookbook
- Notes
- Tasks
- Polls
Tasks can work together with the Tasks.org Android client and there are seperate apps for Notes and Cookbook, while Calendar and Contacts can integrate with your mobile apps via DavX5 using CalDav.
Seems this is what I should do too
So far this is the sanest setup for my usecase. I was only looking at the AIO docker because I thought it would be easier to scale back, rather than up from the regular. Thanks for sharing!
My partner and I use a git repository on our self-hosted gitea instance for household management.
Issue tracker and kanban boards for task management, wiki for documentation, and some infrastructure components are version controlled in the repo itself.
Home Assistant (also self-hosted) provides the ability to easily and automatically create issues based on schedules and sensor data, like creating a git issue when when weather conditions tomorrow may necessitate checking this afternoon that nothing gets left out in the rain.
Matrix (also self-hosted) lets Gitea and Home Assistant bully us into remembering to do things we might have forgotten. (Send a second notification if the washer finished 15 minutes ago, but the dryer never started)
It's been fantsstic being able to create git issues for honey-dos as well as having the automations for creating issues for recurring tasks. “Hey we need to take X to the vet for Y sometime next week” “Oh yeah, can you go ahead and put in a ticket?” And vice versa.
Very interesting! It's tempting, but I can already see the "Major Change ticket" coming in for "Divorce" if I asked for tickets at home :D
We've both got a software dev background, so it wasn't a particularly difficult solution to sell, as soon as we came up with it it was very much a "oh duh, why didn't one of us think of that way earlier"
Wife and I use KitchenOwl for grocery list. It’s nice. I should look into using Nextcloud for more.
We use Grocy, specifically with the Android app. We only use the shopping list feature but it can do a lot more.
I've never been able to fully transition away from the proprietary TickTick tasks. Nothing seems to have the features I'm accustomed too. Then again, I'm on a dysfunctional task non-management spree right now, so maybe when I get my shit together I'll try again. For context, I use a modified version of the GTD strategy to keep track of my todos.
Before TickTick I used Astrid. When Astrid tasks was bought and killed by Yahoo, I thought they were over, although it seems there is a fork https://github.com/tasks/tasks (GPL 3.0) that also syncs with tasks.org. I haven't done thorough testing yet to see what kind of issues I would have using this new Astrid and Nextcloud, but this is the best open solution I've been able to come up with and its been on my project shelf for over a year waiting to be tested.
For calendar, nextcloud synced with Thunderbird and a proprietary phone app (I know... I know) seems to work well for me. My partner uses icloud and it generally interoperates fine. I even have a raspberry pi in the living room that pulls in everyone's calendar and overlays them as a "family calendar"
Have you checked out vikunja? (https://vikunja.io/) It was a pretty easy replacement of ticktick for my family.
We use markdown notes extensively. Everything is synced to our desktops and mobile devices with Syncthing. Markor editor for Android, and VSCodium/vim on the desktop. Works great for tech notes, medical info, shopping lists, recipes, etc.
Our household revolves around the amazing Tasks.org Android app. Originally, I would sync the tasks using a Baïkal server because I prefer lightweight solutions. But since then, I've moved on to Nextcloud because I sometimes need a desktop overview of our tasks (and enjoy the other functionality). Nextcloud Tasks is very similar to Tasks.org, which I prefer over Vikunja etc.
Simple shared task lists have worked very well to keep track of chores, shopping and other reminders
For taking notes, keeping recipes etc. I use Joplin
Tasks.org and logseq here, ended up being the simplest way after bouncing off grocy and other overly detailed systems.
Tip: before going through with hosting NextCloud, you could get /e/ accounts, they don't give much space but since it's just rebranded NextCloud, you can try it out and see if it works for you.
Currently we use several tasks boards so chores are separate by type (shopping list, maintenance, bills, chores) and logseq's journal on the app makes it flexible to take notes or whatever you need (audio notes, pics, links, etc)
I'm afraid of falling into the trap of having too many new toys to play with, so I'll keep simplicity and tasks.org in mind! For taking notes for myself, I have Obsidian set up the way I like it. I must say, I under utilize that one as well. Joplin, I used in university some years ago. I should maybe revisit it to see if I find any use for it.
We definitely use the calendar on Nextcloud. Everyone has their own one and it's shared with the other. We tried using tasks but that didn't work out for us, but I'd say it's more because of us and not for a lack of tools. Both work with open source apps on Android.
What's worked best for us for our groceries is a dedicated Signal group. By now even our children are in that one.
Yes, well shopping lists worked similarly for us as well. Wife would send me a list on discord, and go by that. That might not need to change. I guess we'll have to see for ourselves how things go what sticks.
Paperless for keeping track of text written on the dead trees which companies keep sending me instead of email.
Actualbudget for keeping track where the money goes.
Self hosted version of https://homechart.app/
Not FOSS (source available I believe though) but it has the option of a lifetime license rather than a subscription. Dev is readily available and helpful too.
Thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have stumbled upon it by myself. Looking through their demo, it's rather complex, maybe too much for what I need. The price seems fair tho. With the source being available I'll consider trying it.
One neat aspect is under the admin options you can hide whole sections of the menu to not show what you don't need. Makes things a lot less cluttered that way.
I recently tried selfhosted grocy. It's really amazing, but in the end does seem over the top for us, so we went back to intuition and communication based "household management" ;)
I tried to make Grocy work as a kitchen inventory and shopping tool too but damn, it tries to do way too much detail. I'm sure there are people with enough discipline that it appeals to, but I really felt like it was way too particular and entering/tracking items across areas/brands/types seemed like overkill. Its whole system seems unintuitive to me and I never could get to the point where it seemed natural, so I gave up quickly despite really wanting it to work.
Apple reminders, Apple calendar, Apple notes etc
you know this is the selfhosted community, right?