Free Kids Chore Chart Printable + 6 Tips For Success

When it comes to teaching kids responsibility, some parents are looking for ways to make life a little easier. A chore chart is an important part of growing up; they teach children about the importance of hard work and give them a sense of accomplishment.

The best way to get your children on board with this idea is by giving them age-appropriate tasks that match their skills. Making fun, colorful chore charts for kids also help motivate them and keep them on track!

Making kids do their chores is sometimes more work than doing them yourself. You may be bound and determined to teach your kids how to work. Chores teach them accountability, life skills, and work ethic. Teaching kids how to be productive members of society starts at home, and it starts with you as a mom.

You might be hoping to instill some new habits in your little ones, and chore charts for kids can help.

Keep reading to learn how to implement your kids’ printable chore chart in your home. Don’t forget to scroll down to get your free printable checklist for kids!

If you are looking for an entire chore system, check out my post Kids Chore Chart Cards Free Printable. I also have a tutorial on how I make my chore board.

You can also see how we teach our kids about money in this post: 11 Reasons to Get the Greenlight Debit Card for Kids

Why is a chore chart important?

Some moms feel like their life is to serve their kids and do everything for them. I feel like my job is to teach them independence and responsibility. Because I won’t always be there to help them with every little thing and if I can teach them these important life skills now, they will be that much farther ahead when they are grown. That’s where a simple chore chart comes in handy!

So what do you say? Are you with me? Are you ready to help your kids learn how to work hard and be responsible? It sounds overwhelming, but implementing a chore chart in your home will really help you and your kids to work together better without the nagging. Making a chore chart is a process but it’s worth it!

(Plus, with the free printable chore charts at the end, making a weekly chore chart for kids will be even easier!)

What is the best chore chart?

An important part of introducing a chore chart is making it exciting! Although chores are not going to be fun for kids, there needs to be some positives about doing chores. Making a fun chore chart for them to look at can be a huge help!

A colorful chore chart is way more exciting than plain black and white ones. While it might not make cleaning fun, it can make it more enjoyable for your kid.

Don’t forget to scroll down to download your own free printable chore charts, I have six different color schemes!

If your kids are really young, they get incredibly excited about a new chore chart. Marking things off the list can also be really satisfying for kids as they accomplish each specific chore on their weekly chore chart. It helps to keep kids motivated!

Stickers are a great way to go if your kids are really young. You could even make it some sort of an event and make it exciting for them by allowing them to go to the store with you to pick up stickers. Or let them pick out some stickers online that they are excited about.

One of the best things to look for when choosing a chore chart is to make sure that it is appropriate for your kids’ age and your family. If you have little kids, your chart will look different than if you have older children.

Steps to Create a Chore Chart System:

Here are a few at-a-glance steps to help you set up chore charts for kids:

1. Determine what tasks need to be done around the house (keep track of simple tasks over the course of a week).
2. Decide what chores are age-appropriate chores to help teach new responsibilities to kids of different ages.
3. Download my free printable chore charts.
4. Fill out the chore chart file for your specific chores.
5. Print the free printable chore charts (give each kid their own chore chart). Customize it as needed.
6. Hang the chore charts in a visible area where your kids will be able to easily reference them.
7. Decide if you are going to offer incentives, allowance, screen time, etc. that will motivate kids.
8. Only allow kids privileges (or a small reward system) such as TV, video games, or friends when all of their chores are completed.
9. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It’ll pay off, I PROMISE! My kids are living proof!

Choose Age-Appropriate Chores

It’s also important to choose age-appropriate chores for your child to do. If you have “Clean the Playroom” as one of their chores but they take one look at the playroom and burst into tears, it might not be too hard of a chore for their age.

Giving kids daily tasks that the child can actually do is super important. Even as adults, when we see a huge project in front of us, we easily get overwhelmed and shut down. But if you can give them age-appropriate chores, they can feel accomplished and successful when they complete these tasks.

Here is a great article for choosing chores for kids that are age-appropriate. I think you’ll find it really helpful. This will help give you chore chart ideas for your family as well.

It’s important to teach kids how to do household chores a little bit at a time if they seem overwhelmed with a task. When my kids are overwhelmed with picking up our Legos, I tell them to choose one color at a time or one type of Lego. This is one of the best basic life skills that you can teach kids.

What’s the best way to eat an elephant? One bite at a time! The same concept applies when you are trying to teach kids responsibility and doing household chores. So keep that in mind when creating your chore chart for kids!

What Chores Should Be Done Daily?

When deciding what chores should be done, take some time and think about things around the house that you’d like help with. Keep a running list of things for your younger kids as well as your older kids. Determine how often household tasks need to be done.

The areas in your home that get the dirtiest are the chores that should be put in the daily chores section of the chore chart. Here are some chore chart ideas for things that should be done daily that you can assign to your kids to encourage kids to progress with easy tasks:

1. Sweep the floor
2. Wipe the sliding glass door
3. Wipe the counters
4. Take out the trash
5. Brush the dog
6. Clean up the dog poop
7. Pick up dirty laundry
8. Quick clean bathrooms
9. Picking up their bedrooms
10. Tidy up the toys
11. Load the dishwasher
12. Unload the dishwasher

Don’t forget to scroll down to download your own free printable chore charts. I have six different color variations!

Our Chore Schedule

Just to give you an idea of good chores for kids, here is a picture of all of my kids’ chore sheet. We have a rule that they have to get all of their chores done (except their daily reading) before 8:00 AM. I wake them up at 7:00 (during the school year).

Some of the things on their checklist are as simple as brushing their teeth (which, in my opinion, isn’t really a chore). Some of them are more difficult – such as vacuuming the family room or, my very favorite, cleaning out the car (and their least favorite, I might add).

Adding their morning routine onto their chore chart can help kids learn to do simple tasks such as getting ready. This may be something that you only want to do for young kids but older kids can also benefit from it if they are teens or tweens and often forget important hygiene skills.

This also helps kids grow their self-esteem as they learn to accomplish simpler things. Then the chores can get more difficult as they get older.

Having a chore chart takes a lot of the pressure off you as the mom. It takes a bit of training, but after a while, children grow and as they learn how to follow and check off the chore chart, they learn time management, responsibility, how to follow directions, how to focus and stay on task, and the pride of a job well done.

The idea is for each chore to lead to a new habit. It’s the perfect way for a child to grow.

Daily and Weekly Chores

My free printable chore charts have daily chores as well as weekly chores. I found myself having a hard time finding free printable chore charts that had both of those concepts, so I created one chart myself!

My kids refer back to their chore charts several times a morning (even at a young age) and it relieves a lot of pressure off of me to remember each and every chore that they need to do each day. Not to mention how incredible it is to have your kids help you maintain a semi-clean house… because moms shouldn’t have to do it alone!

If you have young kids, you can make a DIY chore chart and add pictures to help them understand what their chores are. Chore charts are for the whole family, not just for young children.

I also highly recommend setting a time that your kids should be done with their chores. Giving kids a deadline helps them learn how to manage time. You might need to give them reminders as they start out.

Why I don’t Pay My Kids For Most Chores

Growing up in my family, I wasn’t paid for chores. But I do remember my mom and dad always had chores for us to do. And, looking back, I really appreciate the effort that they spent to teach us how to work.

Our kids have a list of chores that they need to complete before they get screen time, game time, or friend time. My kids do not get paid for chores because I believe that kids are part of the family and can help the family by doing simple, age-appropriate chores.

As a mom, I am not in charge of doing everything for everyone. It’s a team effort and while they don’t love doing chores now, I know they will appreciate it later as chores teach them how to do a good job keeping their lives in order and their home tidy.

How To Still Teach the Value of Money

Some people argue that they give their kids money for chores so that their kids can learn the value of money. I completely agree with this concept which is exactly why we have extra chores that my kids can do in order to earn the cold hard cash they’re looking for!

Aside from their regular chores, I have come up with a list of age-appropriate chores that each of them can do if they would like to earn more money.

The amount of money they get for each chore depends on the difficulty of the chore. Some chores are worth $0.25, some chores are worth way more!

In order to keep this straight, we have a kid’s chore chart, as well as kid’s chores cards so that we can easily differentiate between what chores are paid and what chores need to be done in order for my kids to access their privileges each day (such as playing with friends or watching screens.

Pick Appropriate Incentives

When my oldest daughter was very small, I went to the dollar store and stocked up on a bunch of junkie toys that I thought would incentivize her towards completing her chores. It worked great for the first couple of weeks but over time, it got old and she lost interest.

The reality was that giving our kids more and more and more stuff isn’t doing them any favors. So I no longer buy my kids dollar store toys in exchange for doing their chores. That might work for some families but I just felt like it brought in more junk into my home that broke into seconds and went into the trash.

Another option would be to have experiences that they can work towards. For example, if you have a child who loves animals, maybe create some sort of incentive system where they can earn a trip to the zoo! Or if you have really active kids, let them work for a trip to the trampoline park!

I find that these activities are so much more rewarding for kids and so much better than more toys!

Kids Chore Chart to Print

Below I have created a free printable chore chart in 6 different colors for you to download and use in your own home. The best part? They are editable!

So you can download the free printable chore charts and then write the names and chores that are best suited for your family. Now you don’t have to worry about making a DIY chore chart and you can have a complete list of kids chores!

I also forgot to mention that I always print my chore charts out on white cardstock and laminate them. Then they can just check off their chores using a dry-erase marker and wipe them off at the end of the week like a dry-erase board. Much less paper waste!

I have included a link below to my favorite laminating sheets and a laminator that has great reviews (they don’t sell my laminator anymore). It will help take your ultimate list of chores for your kid to the next level!

Free printable chore charts for kids are a great way to teach children responsibility and keep the house tidy at the same time. Print out your sheet with the free printable chore chart template in the bright colors of your choice and get started.

We hope these great chore chart ideas and free printables can help!