If your kids are walking, and aren’t doing chores yet – it’s time they got started.

My oldest had no real chores until it was too late, so getting him to do housework as a teen has been an uphill battle.  He was an only child for so long, I didn’t think twice about cleaning up behind him.  He wasn’t particularly messy anyway.  It wasn’t until I had him at home for homeschool that I figured it out.  He wasn’t that messy, because he wasn’t really at home to make a mess.  Once the two younger ones came along, I started teaching chores right away.

Here are 5 chores you can teach your kids to do, today, that will save you precious time.

1. Sewing

Today’s special lesson was sewing.  Sure they can do it for fun (or as baby girl told me – “relaxation”), but when buttons come off or underwear gets a hole, their skills with a needle and thread can be useful.  When your kids get to the “I can do it by myself” phase, they may not ACTUALLY be old enough or capable of doing it.  Sewing is one of those chores that is easy to teach, and when they get older, will save you time by putting their simple clothing repairs on their plate instead of yours.

Time saved: 15 minutes per laundry day

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2. Clearing the Table

I didn’t consider clearing the table a chore, until I saw how many kids just didn’t do it.  The oldest started clearing his table when he was still in his high chair.  He would climb down and take his dishes to the sink when he was done.  Eventually, it was automatic since he started so young. Time saved: 15 minutes a day (5 minutes per meal)

3. Washing Dishes

Having two kids under two, we had moved to using more paper plates and cups…. Hard to teach the kids conservation that way, right? To save time doing dishes, I started with having them wash their own cups and plates right after they used them.  Now the big one is in charge of washing the pots and pans, other dishes, and putting away the clean dishes. I rarely wash dishes now.

Time saved: 45 minutes a day (I hand wash dishes 90% of the time)

4. Watering the Plants

This is as easy as putting a schedule up on the fridge, and assigning the job to one of the kids.  I don’t have a green thumb, so we don’t have too many plants around here.  Right now, our longest living plants are the two orchids in the kitchen.  All they need is an ice cube every few days.  My kids inherited my not so green thumb, but at least they can remember that.

Time saved: 20 minutes a week (depends on how many plants you have)

5. Cleaning the bathtub

I started teaching the big boy to clean using vinegar and water in a spray bottle and baking soda.  For the inside of the tub, right after bathing, he would use the baking soda and a really big sponge – to make sure he didn’t miss anything (I got car wash sponges from Home Depot). He’d mix the baking soda with water in a small plastic bowl first, to make sure he wasn’t sprinkling it all over and inhaling the dust.  As he got older, we switched him to dish detergent for cleaning the tub. The vinegar and water in the spray bottle worked great on the chrome fixtures, so when it shined, he really felt like he had accomplished something.

Time saved: 15 minutes a day (per person)

What chores do your kids do that make your life easier?  What do you do with your extra time?  Do you spend more time with the kids later on, read a book, or pamper yourself?  How old were you when you started doing chores at home?  What were some of your first ones?