I have been assigning chores to my kids for a couple of years now. My oldest is 9, and my youngest is 2. At one point, I had a chore chart system in place and paid my kiddos allowance if they completed everything. Since then, however, I’ve decided that chores are a part of life that the kids need to just do because they are part of our family.
It’s important to me that my daughter and all of my sons are efficient and capable of completing simple household tasks. Things like doing their laundry, clearing the table, cleaning the floors, scrubbing their bathtubs, polishing the cabinets, picking up clutter, and taking out their trash are all easy things that they are totally able to do, even now.
When they go out into the real world, they’ll have to do these tasks whether they like it or not, so they may as well learn the proper techniques and get into the habit!
Easy Chore Idea
This idea is embarrassingly simple, but totally effective.
Basically, I got a simple plastic cup and wrote which room or area it corresponded to. For us, we needed one for Upstairs Cleaning (we have a big loft up there with toys, homeschooling stuff, and a kid living room with a ton of stuff everywhere!), Kitchen Chores, and Bathroom Chores.
I have 3 participating kids (ages 4, 7, and 9), so I made sure that each set of chores in the Upstairs Cleaning and Kitchen Chores could be divided by the 3 of them. For bathroom chores, I made sure it could be divided into 2 because Grace has her own bathroom to clean, but I make the boys split up the work of cleaning both their own shared bathroom, as well as our half bath downstairs. Since it’s a frequently used room by them, it makes sense for them to clean it!
Basically, my daughter just does all 6 bathroom chore tasks in her own bathroom, and each boy completes a total of 3 types of chores each, BUT they have to do it upstairs and downstairs. That makes it where each boy had to do a total of 3 chores, twice.
Once I came up with which chores I expected to be completed, and how many, I wrote a short description of each chore on a regular old clothespin. Then, I just stuck it in the correct cup.
When I feel like it’s time for the kids to do some deep cleaning, I just have them fish in the cup and randomly choose their chores to complete. Your child can clip their chores to their shirt if they’d like to help remind them what to do and to stay on task. You could just lay it out by the cup like I did in the picture above if you’d prefer!
I love this system, because it makes cleaning “fair” and gives them a specific task to complete. This seems to work a lot better for us than for me to just say, “Clean the bathroom, boys!” This is alike a mini checklist for the family to work together to get bigger tasks and chores completed efficiently.
What are your easy chore tips?
What is the best way to keep kids on task? Which chores do your kids like and loath the most?
Melissa Cohen says
This is a great idea! I’m working on chores this summer with my three (ages 11, 8, and 4) and it’s a struggle. I’ve got a smaller place, so right now I’m doing the whole “this is your room to keep clean” thing, and having the little do very specific chores (like pick up shoes or books or put away the plastic cups). What I want is for it to become a habit, so they just do it automatically without me hollering “TIME TO DO CHORES” and then having to deal with the inevitable whining and complaining.
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Heather -Dallas Single Mom says
This is very simple, organized and effective. It’s very visual and easy for kids, even smaller ones to see accomplishments and goals being met.
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Katie Harding says
This is such a great idea! I am constantly nagging my boys to just help out with ANYTHING but this way I feel like it really makes chore distribution super fair and square, thanks for sharing!
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Aubrey says
Haha, this is SO clever! I love it and will definitely have to try it when my kids are older. Pinning it now to save! Thanks! (Stopping by from Wordy Wednesdays link up!)
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Jill says
I love this idea! It is clever and would make my life a little easier.
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Laura@Baking in Pyjamas says
Such a great idea! Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
Emily says
This is a great idea! Our current system has not been working, so I might give this a try! I’m all about simple and effective.
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N.McBee says
The idea is amazing! I love it! I will try it too!