The short answer
Household chores are hushållssysslor in Swedish. The essential verbs are städa, diska, tvätta, dammsuga, torka and plocka undan. Learn each one with a room, an object and a frequency so you can ask, divide or describe real work.
Cleaning is more than städa
Städa covers cleaning in general, but specific actions are easier to retrieve: dammsuga is vacuum, torka av is wipe, skura is scrub and damma is dust.
Walk through the Swedish home and furniture vocabulary and assign one verb to each room. The kitchen calls for diska, the bathroom skura and the living room dammsuga.
| In Swedish | What it means | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| Jag ska dammsuga vardagsrummet. | I'm going to vacuum the living room. | Announcing one specific task. |
Tidying, laundry and rubbish
Plocka undan means put things away, tvätta means do the laundry, hänga tvätt is hang laundry and ta ut soporna is take out the rubbish. The particles matter: plocka alone is closer to pick.
For the shared laundry room rules, keep the guide to using a Swedish tvättstuga. The signs reuse these exact verbs.
| In Swedish | What it means | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| Kan du ta ut soporna? | Can you take out the rubbish? | A normal direct request at home. |
Share the work without writing a rulebook
Use kan du, ska jag and vem tar to negotiate: a request, an offer and an open question. Add a concrete time instead of a general complaint.
If a pet lives with you, add its routine from the Swedish pets vocabulary guide. Feeding, walking and cleaning belong in the same plan.
| In Swedish | What it means | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
| Ska jag diska om du lagar maten? | Shall I do the dishes if you cook? | Offering a trade. |
| Vem tar badrummet den här veckan? | Who's doing the bathroom this week? | Dividing a weekly task. |
Turn your home into retrieval practice
Before each chore, say the action, room and object without checking a list. Afterwards, retell it in the past with one sentence.
Add one action from work or exercise: set up a desk with the Swedish office vocabulary, or wash training clothes after using the Swedish sports vocabulary.
Questions people ask
- What is household chores in Swedish?
- Household chores are hushållssysslor. In conversation, people also talk about what needs to be done hemma, at home.
- What is the difference between städa and diska?
- Städa means clean or tidy a space. Diska means wash the dishes.
- How do you ask someone to take out the rubbish?
- Say Kan du ta ut soporna? Soporna is the definite plural form of sopor, household rubbish.
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