A child will lead them!

So, once you've got your simple, organized house it's time to teach those who live there to help keep it that way. For us, with little ones who can't do a TON around the house it means teaching them to pick up after themselves and to do simple household chores. This will look different depending on who makes up your household and the ages of your children. Some lucky duck moms may have most of the household load while others will be able to give all the work to their children. The important thing to remember is that your kids CAN and WILL do chores if you teach them and STAY CONSISTENT!
Children 6 and under(this is my oldest child's age) can:

• Fold clothing. It may not look like you folded it, but even my 2 year old folds washcloths, dish towels, and other small things. My three girls ages 6, 4, and 2 fold all the clothing for our family. I have a basket for each family member with their name on it, and the girls put all the clothing into the baskets and take it to the bottom of the stairs for each person to take to the proper place to be put away.
• Put away clothing. This was the hardest for me because I love a tidy clothing drawer, but it's one I had to let go of. If it's at least IN the right drawer it's good enough, All the lines on the washcloths DON'T have to line up. I promise. Your house won't implode. The girls put away all the laundry in our home except for mine and the MM. We do our own. Even Isaiah(15 months) can put bibs into the bib drawer in the kitchen. He actually LOVES his "chore."
• Swish a cleaning brush around in a toilet. This is actually my kids favorite chore. Go figure. I have them do it daily so that it doesn't ever get too nasty for them to clean.
• Wipe down counters and tables after meals. This is Emma Claire's(4) daily job. She does it after each meal.
• Put away their toys. This is an obvious one, but you'd be surprised how many moms are cleaning up their kids toys. As. We. Speak...Don't do it. Make them pick up after themselves and make it easy for them. If it's taking them more than 10 minutes to clean up they either have too many toys or too many toys out. Try putting most of their toys up out of reach so that they play with one thing at a time. We have bins at our house that are separated out by kinds of toys. I let the kids have one bin at a time. SOMETIMES two depending on what the toys are they want(Babies and pretend clothes). Children are rarely organized by nature. I have one child who is, but I think it's a pretty rare trait.=) You can teach them to be responsible with their things though and expect them to take care of the things they have.
• Make their bed. Again, it won't look like you made it, but you'll be surprised. Addison makes a pretty nice bed at 2. Olivia's usually looks like it's been made by the Disney World maid.=)
• Sweep up crumbs after meals or craft time. I have a little sweeper with dust pan and Olivia has this chore. She does it as often as we eat or make a mess.
• Fill up water bottles. Olivia likes this one. Plus she gets to play in the water while she does it.
• Rinse dishes. We do this on a rotation because all the girls love this chore.
• Put away silverware. Minus knives, of course. This is usually Addison's job.
• Help with meals. They LOVE this and can actually get quite good at it. Olivia recently made an entire meal with supervision.
• Wipe baseboards and banisters. This is Emma Claire's job. It doesn't take her very long any more because I've taught her to do it like a race. She basically runs around the house with her cloth on the baseboards. You go speed cleaner!=)
• Empty bathroom trash. Emma Claire gets the honor of doing this daily chore. When done daily it doesn't get too bad and she doesn't mind it too much.
• Mop. Olivia helps me with this chore on cleaning day. I taught her to do it by telling her she was coloring the floor with a wet marker and it wasn't done until the whole floor was colored wet. She thinks it's so much fun and it's a HUGE help to me!
• Simple yard work. Scotty has the girls go in front of him before he does yard work and pick up sticks, rocks and any toys that might be in the yard.
• Dust. Addison has this job. That means it's only things that she can reach, so I still have to do a few things on my own, but she does a great job with the things she dusts. I put the dusting stuff on the cloth for her and she goes to town.=)
• Set the Table. This job is rotated in our home, and usually all the kids help.

That's all I can think of right now, but I think my point it that they can do JUST ABOUT everything with a little help or with training by you. This may seem like a lot, but I'm telling you, your kids will like the responsibility if they are little enough and should be taught to help you take care of your home if they are older. Get your oldest child on board and the others will follow. I teach my kids to do EVERYTHING with joy, and as if it were God's home and we were taking care of it, because honestly that's the truth. Everything we have comes from God and it's a gift to us while we are here on earth. We have to teach our kids to take care of what we have.
Another thing to consider is that without the distraction of cable television kids have a lot more time on their hands. Giving them a block of time in the day(ours is right after nap time-3PM) where they do their daily chores will give them something to do, and it really only takes mine about 10-15 minutes to get everything done. We don't do all these chores on a daily basis, some are just for cleaning day, so don't think I'm making my kids do these every day.
Daily Chores:

1. Sweep crumbs.
2. Wipe down bathrooms.
3. Take out bathroom trash.
4. Make beds. 
5. Wipe down counters and table in kitchen.
6. Help dad with dishes.

Most everything else we do as part of our cleaning day which I'll talk about next time. Don't get overwhelmed with starting daily chores. Talk to your kids and find out if there is something that they'd like to do. I sat all the girls down and we split things up together. This gives them a say in what they do and also makes them feel like a part in the process and not just a little worker bee who gets told what to do.=)