Summer Chores Ideas for Kids

Everyone talks about spring-cleaning, but I love summer cleaning! The kids are out of school, and it's a great opportunity for them to earn some extra cash and learn how to do routine maintenance.

Something that the kids have to do, and it is UNPAID, is a deep clean of all their areas. This includes their shelves, closets, toy baskets, everything! Once they have emptied out the closet or container (and cleaned it!), I have them sort all the items into the following categories:

• Keep - The Keep part is easy; put it back in the area you just cleaned or if it was misplaced, put it in the correct area.

• Sell - I love encouraging kids to sell unwanted items. For my kids, it teaches them that the better you take care of something, the more it is worth when you are done with it! Now is it a pain to photograph, list, sell, meet up, mark as sold? Heck yes! But it is teaching the kids some good habits, and it puts some money back into their account.

• Donate - I have a go-to charity that I like to donate all of my items to. For kids items, you might want to check with your local orphanages or abuse shelters to see if they can use them

• Recycle - this isn't just for plastics, papers and electronics. Did you know you can also recycle clothing? This goes for ripped and unusable items too! Take them to your local H&M store and look for the recycling box. They usually give you a coupon to use towards your next purchase

• Trash - the last and the worst option of course. Hopefully you don't have many items that fall here!

Now we come to the paid section. What normally happens is I see something that needs to get done as I'm walking through the house or outside, and then I add it to the paid chores list on Greenlight. (I wish they had a shared chore list!). Here are some examples of the paid chores that I set up:

• Washing outside windows

• Cleaning out and organizing closets, pantries

• Pressure washing (for older kids)

• Washing outside doors and furniture

• Repainting or re-staining outside items (for older kids)

• Cleaning outside and sliding door jams

• Refolding linens

If you have multiple kids, or don't use Greenlight, I recommend using a white board that you can write down each task and how much you are willing to compensate for it. Put the white board in an area that the kids frequently pass by, to remind them that they can earn some cash.

Please let me know what summer chores ideas for kids that you come up with so that I can add them to our list! Happy cleaning!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsqRryHs4bs