• What are your priorities? What are your spouse's priorities?  You need to know what is important to you and to him or her. Do you enjoy eating at home? Do you enjoy cooking? Do you prefer to eat out? What makes eating at home a more difficult option? Answer those questions and you can set the priorities for your relationship where these types of chores are concerned

• Work together to make a list of priorities and chores - highlight the ones that one or both of you loathe to do - for example, if one of you really hates to do the laundry - maybe one of you can do the washing and the other can put it away. If you both hate to do lawn work, then that is a task that you either have to do together or you have to set aside the budget to hire someone to take care of it for you; compromise is the key when it comes to unpleasant tasks

• Have consideration for each other - my husband really didn't know how to do the laundry, so I had to teach him and I never knew how to mow a lawn, but he taught me, so have a great deal of consideration for what your spouse knows and what they can or can't do

• Consider your natural habits - I'm an early riser - so a lot of the early morning tasks fall to me from feeding the cats and the dogs, to letting them out and getting the kiddo ready for school. My husband stays up much later, so he makes sure all the end of day tasks are done from the last run for the dogs, to taking out the trash and making sure the dish washer was run so the dishes were cleaned for the next day

• Keep your lines of communication open - if one or the other of you is going to be particularly busy the next week then it may be the other needs to shoulder a heavier burden for that time - when my husband traveled for his work a great deal, then I had to take on his tasks - when I was going to school a great deal and had exams, he took on mine - making these arrangements can provide you both with some ease and comfort

• Don't nag at each other - don't point fingers and blame - there will be days when you are both tired or when things will be overlooked - it happens, forgive each other for being human and remember - when a task isn't done today - it will likely be waiting for you tomorrow and if that means you do dishes in the morning instead of before bed and that the trash waits a couple of extra hours to be taken out - then so be it

What other ways can you balance the responsibilities between the two of you?