Most parents recognize the advantage to teaching their children responsibility and teamwork. A great way to do that is to develop a list of chores for kids to do around the house. As families get busier and busier, we all have many demands on our time. Spending time with your kids while teaching them to help out as part of the family is time well-spent. If you have more than one child, separate the chores for kids by age. Not all jobs will work for all ages.

Teach, Don’t Preach

When trying to make a list of chores for kids to do, there are some things to remember. Start early and make it fun. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your kids are too young to help out around the house. Children as young as two or three can learn to do their part. Teach them how to accomplish the task, and don’t expect perfection. Recognize that little kids will not do the same quality of work that you would, but that’s okay. You are teaching valuable lessons that your kids will carry through adulthood. Praise the work they do and encourage them. Chores for kids don’t have to be a battle between the big people and the little people. Check the lists below and let the kids help out!

Two and Three Years Old

1. Pick up their own toys: Kids can learn at a very young age to have responsibility for their own stuff. Make it a game and they will be doing chores for fun. Try singing a song and see if all of the toys can be in the toy box by the time the song is finished.
2. Wipe up messes: Sponges can be fun playthings as well as being a cleaning tool. Let your toddlers be in charge of wiping up spills or wiping the table after meal time.
3. Feed your pets: Animals are a great joy as well as a great responsibility. Filling up the food dish for your cat or dog is an important job that has the added benefit of teaching a little bit about measuring.
4. Help with meal prep: One of the best chores for kids to do is to take part in meal preparation. Adding chopped vegetables to the salad bowl or measuring and pouring ingredients is fun. These kitchen chores for kids are excellent for all ages.

Four and Five Years Old

1. Fold towels: Laundry is a great place to start when assigning chores for kids. Folding towels and washcloths is pretty easy. Sorting socks can be a matching game. If you have a SockSync, your kids may not even realize they are doing a chore. It is more like a memory game played with socks.
2. Empty wastebaskets: Taking small bags of trash out to the garbage cans is an age-appropriate job for little helpers. It is also an important job. Nobody likes those overflowing garbage cans.
3. Make their bed: Don’t expect hospital corners on the bed, but this is a great age to begin learning how to straighten the blankets and make the bed. When the bed is made, the whole room looks neater.
4. Wash the easy stuff: Plastic cups and bowls are safe for little hands. What kid wouldn’t enjoy a sponge, some water, and a bunch of suds? Dish-washing can be another job that doesn’t seem like a job at all.

Six and Seven Years Old

1. Set the table: Not everybody takes the time to set the table anymore. Even if you only do it once in a while, table-setting is an excellent and age-appropriate chore. Teach your kids how and they will be able to help when you have company over. Kids love to show off their new skills.
2. Clear the table: Scraping plates and putting them in the sink or the dishwasher is easily handled at this age. Don’t let them handle sharp knives quite yet; you will want them to keep all of their fingers for future chores!
3. Raking leaves: Yard work teaches kids to take pride in their home as others see it. A nice, neat yard looks good, and the kids will be proud when they can see the benefits of a job well done.
4. All of the above: Just because a child could handle a job at three years old doesn’t mean they have outgrown it at six. The older they get, the better the skill set will become.

Eight Years and Up

1. Vacuuming: Most vacuum cleaners are pretty easy to operate. Older children are capable of doing this job very well. Hand-held vacuums can be used on the stairs or even to clean out the car. A fresh vacuuming can perk up the look of a room in a hurry.
2. Washing the car: Again, water, sponges, and bubbles are a winning combination. All kids will have fun helping to wash the car, but when an eight year old or older child washes the car, it will actually get clean.
3. Starting the washing machine: One of the best life skills you can teach your child is how to do the laundry. Sorting colors, adding the soap, and then starting the machine are well within the capabilities of kids this age.
4. Cooking: Care must be taken when kids are working in the kitchen, but all children should be taught to cook. An eight-year-old can scramble eggs, and a 12-year-old should be able to handle a simple meal.

Not all chores for kids to do around the house have to feel like work. Remember the fun factor. If you treat household chores as fun, your kids won’t feel punished when you require them to help out. Assign chores for kids by age as well as by ability. This list is just a brief guideline of some of the things that kids may be ready to do at each age level. Use your own best judgment because no one knows your children as well as you. Happy housework!

Another day, another pair of mismatched socks. Someone could make a fortune writing a book about missing socks and other mysteries around the house. It seems like every time you turn around, the laundry basket harbors another sock that has no partner. Missing socks: Where do they go? There are many missing sock theories that we can investigate. With any luck, maybe we can solve your missing socks mystery, or at least investigate the multitude of conspiracy theories.

Alien Abduction

A widely held missing sock theory is alien abduction. Considering that we don’t have a clear picture of what aliens look like, perhaps they only have one foot. If that were the case, they would only need one sock, right? Or maybe the aliens sneak in and steal a sock here and there to make a nice patchwork quilt for the mother ship. It might not seem likely to you, but is it possible?

The Appliance Company Conspiracy

If missing sock theories have any connection to making money, the appliance company conspiracy is another solid possibility. Could the appliance makers and the sock manufacturers be in cahoots with one another? Think of the money they could be making while you are busy searching for two socks that look even a little bit alike. This missing sock theory imagines the dryer guys installing a hidden compartment in the back of the dryer that sucks in one sock for every ten you put in the dryer. These socks sit in the mystery compartment until they decompose and become dryer lint. The appliance company then gets a kickback payment from the sock guys when you go buy new socks. Hmm… could be!

The Sock Circus

Maybe your lost sock isn’t lost after all. Maybe it ran away. Not every sock is content to sit in a drawer until you feel like picking him to wear. Maybe your sock was tired of being walked on and stuck in your smelly shoe. Perhaps he had bigger dreams and ran off to join the Sock Circus. You might see your sock again. Maybe he will tire of sock stardom and come back home, or maybe you will just have to let him go. Either way, be kind to the sock that is left behind: He is probably very lonely.

Socks as Shape-Shifters

Do you remember those kind of scary, very weird movies about magical creatures that could shift into the form of some other person or animal? Shape-shifters make great science fiction, but what if your socks possess this amazing ability? Maybe you aren’t missing any socks at all: The ones you have just keep changing their appearance. Right now, there is a pink striped sock sitting in your drawer, chuckling, while it plans to be an orange flowered sock by tomorrow morning.

The missing socks mystery may never be solved. Conspiracy theories are everywhere. Your socks may be conspiring against you, or the money-makers in the sock world could be at fault. Maybe your garden gnome has some strange affection for your socks, and when he comes to life, he sneaks in and grabs a sock or two for his collection. It doesn’t matter which of the missing sock theories you believe in. The bigger question of where they end up may never be answered.

Laundry is like a monster that takes over the world. Wherever you turn, there is always another pile of stinky socks waiting to be washed or overflowing baskets of laundry that need to be folded. It is something that you just can’t escape: Laundry is the job that never goes away. If you are a stay-at-home mother, the laundry can seem to overshadow your most important job: being a mom! Let’s explore some interesting ideas about how to manage family laundry.

Ask For Help

You won’t get any help with ways to manage laundry from your infants. They are much too busy dirtying laundry to participate in family laundry solutions. The good news is that toddlers can and should be taught to help. Achieving a task that makes Mommy proud boosts a child’s self esteem. Use laundry as a teachable moment. Sorting piles by color and matching up socks can be accomplished by your little ones with just a little help from Mom. Before you know it, they may not even need your help.

Pre-treat Stains

All kids stain their clothes, and if we are being honest, so do most adults. One of the best family laundry tips ever is to use a stain remover on all stains as soon as possible. Kids can help with this, too. Teach them to separate the clothes that need stain treatment from the rest of their laundry. The older kids can even spray on the stain remover before the clothes go in the hamper. It will save you a step and teach the kids a valuable lesson.

Don’t Be Afraid of New Products

Nowadays, doing laundry is far different from the job your grandmother did. The materials our clothes are made from have changed. Advances have been made in cleaning products, and technological advances have changed the washing machine as well. If you asked your grandma how to manage family laundry, you would see just how much has changed. Embrace the change. Products like SockSync could make your laundry day easier, quicker, and a little bit more enjoyable. SockSync is a revolutionary new product that makes finding and folding your socks faster and less of a hassle. It works by putting your unmatched socks right in front of you and then you match them up and push it through the sock holster into the basket. It couldn’t be easier!

Set a Laundry Time

Stay-at-home moms may find that setting a laundry schedule helps them get everything done. Maybe your family laundry solutions will include starting the laundry first thing in the morning or putting a load in the washer at bedtime. If you wash it at night, you can pop it in the dryer early in the morning. This may help you get a tedious task out of the way so you can move on to more fun adventures.

Find a Hiding Spot

No, the hiding spot is not for you. Don’t be afraid to have a room with a door that can stay closed when company is over. You can stick the laundry in there, along with anything else you don’t have time to clean and put away. Your friends and family will be dying to hear your tips on how to manage family laundry and keep your house clean with little ones underfoot.

Raising a family is the most important job you will ever have. Family laundry tips will help to ease the burden of chores that need to be completed. Just don’t let yourself get bogged down by everyone’s advice on ways to manage laundry or other household chores. Enjoy your children, and teach them the importance of accomplishing even the smallest chores. Practice a little time management, and don’t stress over the schedule you couldn’t keep or the laundry that didn’t get folded.

Folding socks can be the bane of many of those in charge of laundry. Socks are missing, and you just can’t seem to make a single pair out of the seemingly millions of socks in the pile. Have you ever been schooled in the art of proper sock folding? Or do you prefer to be a little rebellious and go with your own version of creative sock folding? There is more than one way to fold a sock! Continue reading →

The joys of having your own washer and dryer are plentiful. It seems like a great gift, especially if you have ever had to share a laundry room with other people. Unfortunately, if you live in an apartment building or complex, you will need to learn apartment building laundry etiquette. If everybody who lives there would follow some common-sense apartment laundry room tips, the laundry experience would improve greatly. Continue reading →