Chores for Young Kids

This blog post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission, at no cost to you, if you buy something from one of these links.

It's good to have kids do chores around the house. Even when my daughter was one we had her help us clean up her toys. Granted, back then her cleaning up was mostly playing with one or two toys while we picked up the rest, but she loved putting toys back in her toy basket as long as we were doing it with her.

In an effort to keep this post short I'll get straight to the list of chores to have your young kids do. If you want to make it more fun or rewarding, you can let them put a sticker next to each chore once completed.

Daily:

- Make bed (this is mostly on you, but your child might have fun helping you flatten out their blankets)

- Clean up toys around the house - best done at the end of the day, or after your child is done playing with each toy. Cleaning up throughout the day can feel useless since you know they're just going to get that toy back out in two hours, but if you can't stand a mess during the day then clean up after each activity.

- Clean up after meals - Once you get your child in this habit you'll absolutely die with pride. Teach your child to take their plate and silverware to the sink after each meal. Just make sure they have child-proof plates because otherwise you'll cringe when it gets dropped carelessly in the sink.

Weekly:

- Take out the trash - While you take out the big kitchen garbage, have you child get the garbage out of their room or the bathroom and so that you each have something to carry. Young kids love imitating their parents so let them!

- Clean toilets - my daughter loves cleaning the toilet. Seriously, I haven't cleaned it in months because she cleans it for me, sometimes two or three times per week. She loves making the water turn blue so whenever she wants to clean I let her. If the blue water isn't as cool to your kid, try out this Scrubbing Bubbles toilet wand and pads. These are initially why my daughter got so interested in cleaning the toilet. She loved picking out a pad and putting it on the wand. Make it fun and soon your child will love it to. You can order so extra pads here.

I leave it at that for now. Keep it simple and make sure you keep it as part of the routine. If your kids know to expect these chores then they (hopefully) won't fight so hard to do them.