In order to keep your home clean and functional, you need to know what household chores to do.
Taking care of your home may feel overwhelming because it seems like there is so much to do. But in this post I’m going to break down all of the household chores into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly lists.
I’ll also share household chores that your kids can help you with. Letting your kids be a part of cleaning the home is important.
It teaches them basic life skills they will need into adulthood. Including your children also teaches them responsibility and helps learn how to work with others.
Let’s break down all of the household chores by frequency.
Daily Household Chores
These daily chores are super important in keeping up with the well being of your family. If you stay on top of them on a daily basis, there will be less of a mess to clean up later in the week.
1. Laundry
One complaint many families have is the amount of laundry they have. The best way to reduce the pile of laundry is to do at least one load a day.
2. Prepare and Cook Meals
Your family has to eat multiple times a day. An important household chore is planning and preparing meals.
3. Wash Dishes
After meals are done and the food is put away, the dishes should either be put in the dishwasher or washed by hand. Always go to bed with a clean kitchen sink!
4. Wipe Down Countertops
At the end of the day, I like to spray my counter tops and stovetop with my all purpose spray and wipe clean. That way my kitchen is clean and ready for the next day.
5. Sweep or Vacuum Floors
Your floors gather a lot of dust, dirt, and debris throughout the day. Keep up with it all by sweeping or vacuuming. This doesn’t have to be a through job. But simply running over the floor quickly will help you avoid a really dirty floor by the end of the week.
6. Feed Pets
You can’t forget feeding your animal family members!
Weekly Household Chores
These are the chores that only need to be done about once a week. I like to write them down in my planner on different days.
But you may find that you want to do the majority of these chores on one particular day.
1. Clean the Bathrooms
Throughout the week, I will usually sweep the bathroom floor and wipe down any surfaces that get grimey. However, I only clean the entire bathroom once a week.
- clean mirror
- scrub sink and countertop
- clean toilet bowl
- wipe down the outside of the toilet
- scrub shower walls and tub
- take out trash
- sweep and mop floors
2. Dust
You may not need to give your entire house a thorough dusting. I like to run a clean microfiber cloth over the surfaces around my home about once a week.
Once a month I’ll do a more deep clean dusting including light fixtures and ceiling fans.
3. Thorough Vacuuming
Even though you keep up with vacuuming on a daily basis, you’ll want to do a more deep clean vacuuming once a week. This is when you may vacuum under furniture and on steps.
4. Mop the Floors
Once you have swept your hard floors, be sure to mop them once a week.
5. Wipe Down Appliances
I like to wipe my appliances down once a week after I finish the dishes in the evening.
6. Clean the Kitchen Sink
Your kitchen sink probably gets used multiple times a week. It’s also something that needs to be scrubbed on a weekly basis. Here’s how I clean my white ceramic sink.
7. Take out the Trash
In our home, the trash gets taken outside 1-2 times a week.
8. Take out the Recycling
We also like to take the recycling out once a week. Otherwise it starts to pile up.
9. Change the Bed Sheets
There are differing opinions about how often the bed sheets should be changed. I try to change them once a week, but sometimes I run out of time and change them every other week too.
10. Clean out the Car
Have you looked inside your car lately? If you have children, you probably have all kinds of things in the backseat!
It’s good to clean your car out on a weekly basis.
11. Mow the Grass
Depending on the season, you’ll want to add mowing the grass to your weekly chores list. You also want to weed eat and blow the sidewalks and driveways off.
12. Weed the Garden, Flower Beds, and Sidewalks
If you have flower and garden beds, you’ll want to stay on top of the weeding. They may not need to be done once a week, but you can at least check for weeds.
13. Grocery Shopping
After you have a meal plan for the week, check your freezer and pantry for food you already have. Whatever you don’t have can be added to your list. I like to go grocery shopping on the same day each week to stay consistent.
Monthly/Quarterly Household Chores
1. Wash area rugs and mats.
2. Clean garbage cans.
3. Wipe down cabinets.
4. Dust light fixtures and ceiling fans
5. Dust window sills
6. Change air vent.
7. Remove cobwebs
8. Check smoke detectors.
9. Wash shower curtain.
10. Wash window curtains.
11. Flip mattresses.
12. Dust lampshades.
13. Declutter medicine cabinets.
14. Declutter linen closets.
15. Organize seasonal clothes.
16. Sweep and clean deck and porch.
17. Clean behind appliances.
18. Clean coffee maker.
You can get a complete list of these household chores on my Etsy shop.
Sharing Household Chores in a Family
Each family dynamic is different and there is no right or wrong way to share the responsibility of the household chores.
The most important thing is to communicate your expectations with your spouse. Decide together what each one of you is willing to do, what the kids will be in charge of doing, and what you may decide to hire out.
I’ve never used a chart with my husband, but I do use charts for my kids and myself. It’s easier to keep track of the chores that way.
In our household, I take care of most of the cleaning and cooking as the stay at home parent. That works well for our home.
However, there are times I ask my husband to help out and he does the laundry or sweeps the floor even though that isn’t “his chore”. The key is to be appreciative of the work each other does and to not demand perfection from the other when they may do it differently than you.
Household Chores for Kids
Mom should not be the only one in charge of the household chores. Everyone in the family can get involved.
Of course, the type of chores your children do will depend on their age and ability. However, here are some ideas to get you started.
Personal Belongings
Even when children are as young as 1 year old, they can learn to take care of their own belongings. Here are some things your children should be doing.
- put dirty dishes in the sink
- put dirty clothes in the hamper
- put shoes away
- pick up toys
- hang up jackets
- make their beds
Once your child has taken responsibility for their own belongings, you can give them more household chores. The following are ideas based on children’s ages.
While all of these chores are important for your children to learn, you won’t want them to be responsible for all of them. In addition to their personal belongings, give them 2-5 household chores to do.
You could use a chart and rotate these chores each week. That way your children get experience trying new chores.
Chores for Ages 2-4
- set the table
- put clean dishes away that they can reach
Chores for Ages 5-8
- set table
- clear table
- dry dishes
- put clean clothes away
- feed the pets
- weed the garden
- vacuum the floor
- sweep the floor
- dust surfaces they can reach
- water the plants
Chores for 9-12
- Start laundry
- Fold laundry
- Wash dishes
- Help with meal prep
- clean bathrooms
- take out the trash and recycling
- help put groceries away
Chores for 13 +
- mow the lawn
- wash and vacuum the car
Teaching Kids Household Chores
It’s important to remember that your kids will need lots of instruction. They will not intuitively know how to sweep the floor or remember all the steps involved with doing a load of laundry.
As the parent, you’ll need to show them step by step how to do each chore.
It will also take a lot of time and repetition. Sometimes it feels like it takes years to teach my kids a certain skill. However, they eventually learn to do those things on their own and all the practice and patience is worth it!
