Chores for older kids

Ahh, chores and helping out!  It’s always interesting.  Remind us the ages of your kiddos.

I’m actually in a really interesting stage because I have so many children (8 going on 9) that nobody has to handle a large number of chores.  So here is where I’m at and how it’s working right now.  The kids are age 13, 10, 9, 7, 6, 4, 3, 1.  Everyone does chores, even if it is just picking up or helping an older sibling unload and put away dishes and laundry.

My older 3 have been learning kitchen skills (more than just helping mom, actually cooking on their own with or without supervision).  So my 13 year old is becoming quite competent in the kitchen cooking, baking, etc.  The 10 year old and 9 year old still need supervision.  The way I do it is around age 9 if they haven’t asked before then I teach a child how to make some of their favorite foods.  They branch out from there.  Joseph, the 10 year old, made dinner yesterday.  In the morning he put green beans and ham in one crock pot and potatoes into another crock pot to bake.  Easy, but yummy.

The older ones have worked on easy chores as they were younger and mastered them well enough to teach them to younger children.  That means they’ve moved on to chores that take more strength (like taking out the trash) or more technical skill (sweeping the wood floors and not leaving things behind) or chemicals (deep cleaning the oven or tub).  Yes, they may clean a bathroom (wipe surfaces, empty small trash can, clean mirror, put toilet paper on the roll) or unload the dishwasher sometimes, but those basics tend to be done by my little ones age 7 and under.  So these older ones are now learning things like:

• cleaning out the van
• yard work (mowing, raking)
• responsibility for the garden (working in it and overseeing little helpers when they weed)
• trash
• deep cleaning
• babysitting
• cooking meals
• home repair with daddy
• meal planning and grocery shopping (quite a feat for the large family)

Hopefully that helps give you ideas!

I can chime in on the folding clothes!

let me start with this: Laundry is my nemesis. I do at least one load every day just to keep up. Right now my system is working the best I’ve had so far.

My washer and dryer are in the garage and I have a large clothes hanging rack. Each child has one 22″ wide 3 drawer Rubbermaid in their closet for pjs, bottoms, and dress up clothes for my 4 year old son, with a small bin on top for undies and socks. My almost 6 year old daughter has a drawer with jeans/shorts, pjs/exercise stuff, leggings/skirts, and a bin on top with undies and socks. The 1 year old has a 12″ wide 3 drawer bin, with skirts, pants, leggings/bloomers.

all shirts and dresses are hung right out of the washer by me right now. Then I sort or the kids do the load into a boy basket and a girl basket. They put away all the not folded stuff in their appropriate drawers.

So far that’s the best system I’ve found for my family. It makes me want 1 giant family closet to put everyone’s clothes in

That’s right, no folding clothes.  I teach the children HOW to fold and if it matters to them they fold.  Most of the kids just shove everything in their drawers.  But again, we don’t have a ton of clothes out so everything fits in the drawer.

I also don’t iron.  I will iron for really extra special events.  Like a wedding or graduation.  That’s about it.  Here, too, I teach children how to iron when they are interested.

I learned a long time ago that there was only so much of my time to go around, so folding and ironing were the first things I gave up so I could handle the essentials.  As I’m still in the throes of little ones 13 years later I just haven’t reached a point where those non-essentials matter enough for me to take time away for them.  To each their own!

I teach the kids to do their own laundry start to finish around age 7.  Currently my kids are dd14, ds11, dd7, ds5. DS11 did ds5’s laundry when they shared a room. Now that they don’t share, I wash and dry, but ds11 helps ds5 fold and hang his clothes.  I only do laundry once per week for my husband and myself plus once for sheets/towels. One of my best ideas ever. No ironing here either unless it’s a sewing project (rare) or really extra special event.

We don’t sort clothes. All the kids clothes go together. Occasionally I’ll run a white load or dark load of I need to wash new jeans and don’t want everything blue.

We also don’t sort laundry unless it is something new that could share its color on the first wash. Usually my daughter has enough to fill one load, so that makes it easy, when it is out of the dryer she takes to her room. The boys have about 2 loads and DH and mine 2 loads. It is nice if the loads do not mix with each other, that way they are already sorted by bedroom:)

I do laundry two times/week (Monday & Friday, because I dislike laundry on the weekends and Monday and Friday are the less busy days for us) and we have very tiny wardrobes so can’t go much longer. The kids help fold and put away, and my oldest (9) will help load and switch laundry.

We do linens every other week. It freaks my friend out that I don’t wash more often, but it works for us. My brother-in-law washes a towel after every use, I don’t have time for that. Every 2 weeks works.

Growing up we started doing our own laundry around 10, we were in charge of washing and putting away, and if something was dirty it was our fault for not keeping up.

As for chores… My kids are still young, but to me it seems like chores that I do, they will do. Already they help vacuum, dust, pick up, pull weeds, rake, they want to start to mow but our mower is tough to push… They help in the kitchen, make most of their own meals (lunch and breakfast), and have moved into making certain things on the stove top.  When they can drive, it could be running to the store for something that was forgotten, helping get their siblings to sports practice, running errands…