A Complete List of Chores Your 7 Year Old Can Do

Chores Your 7 Year Old Can Do. A complete list of chore ideas that your child can learn to do when your child is seven years old. Scroll down for a printable chore chart and chore cards.

If you have been doing chores with your child since he was a toddler or preschooler, by the time he is 7 you will really be seeing some payoff for all of that time you spent teaching him how to do chores and making sure he did the chores.

If you haven’t done chores with your child yet, it isn’t too late! Read my beginner’s guide to children doing chores to get started and then come back here for ideas for your 7 year old.

This year is not a huge leap in what types of chores your child can do. You are mostly focusing on improving the ability of chores taught in the past.

Always remember to start from where your child is and work up from there.

Do not expect perfection and do not expect a child who has never cleaned a bathroom to be able to take on the whole bathroom all of a sudden.

Your child needs to learn. Your kiddo needs time to learn how to do the household chores and build on the skills required to do them.

You also need to allow your child space and opportunity to do the job without you hovering and fixing what he didn’t quite do right. Practice makes perfect and it will take time.

Post Contents

Chores a Seven Year Old Can Do
Wash Dishes By Hand
Be a Gopher
Help Make Dinner
Pull Weeds/Garden
Care for Pets
Clean Bathroom
Wrap Gifts
Brush and Possibly Do Hair
Shower Independently
Put All Personal Laundry Away
Build on Previous Chores
Previous Ages Chores Posts
Printable Chore Chart and Chore Cards
Conclusion
Related Posts on Chores

Chores a Seven Year Old Can Do

Your 7 year old can do all of the chores on the 6 year old list and all other previous lists.

As you look at those lists, teach the chores on those lists first before addingnew 7 year old chores. Once those are down, add in the chores on this list.

Also, always remember these chore lists are things they learn to do during that year.

So the 7 year old chores are things your child can learn while she is 7. Turning 7 doesn’t make her capable of doing these things–she needs to learn.

Add one or two tasks at a time and once she as those down well and has confidence, add another.

Let’s discuss age appropriate chores for your 7 year old.

Wash Dishes By Hand

This is a skill your child can work on slowly over time. Start by having your child wash things that aren’t that dirty and move on to dirtier dishes as skill progresses. You can also have her help dry dishes.

This is a long-game skill. It takes time to learn the skill of washing by hand.

Even if you have a dishwasher, I would leave out a plate, cup, or silverware and have your child wash those just to get some practice in there.

Be a Gopher

Being a gopher is a fantastic step toward learning to do a skill well. I have kids do this younger than 7, but as a 7 year old, they will really start to pay closer attention and absorb things more.

By a “gopher,” I mean someone who runs between you and something else: getting you things, throwing things away, putting things where they go, etc.

A runner.

Have your child be a gopher when you bake or make dinner. Kids love helping in the kitchen. Have your kiddo get the ingredients or put them away. Have your child get tools you need.

Have your child be a gopher when you are organizing something. If you are cleaning out a closet or drawers, you stay put and have your child make trips to the garbage can or to put things in different rooms.

Have your child be a gopher when you are working outside, sewing, etc. This gives your child a chance to observe skills before having to implement them.

Help Make Dinner

I like to have my kids help make dinner. I prefer just one child at a time, so we rotate through who is helping.

As they help over the years, they naturally learn to do varies tasks and skills. I find this much more preferable to trying to go through the steps of making a certain meal all at once (unless they already have basic cooking skills down).

Pull Weeds/Garden

If you have a yard and have flower beds or a garden, have your child help as much as possible. Help pull weeds, help water plants, help plant, help prune, help run weeds to the garbage can…have your child there with you while you work.

Care for Pets

If you have pets, decide what tasks you can give your child at age 7. As a 7 year old, Brinley made sure our cats were fed and watered each day. It is very easy for kids this age to feed pets.

We also let her know she needed to give them love every day (which she would do anyway, but it helps give her a sense of ownership).

This can be a good age to get a small pet if you are so inclined to start to learn to care for others, but you would still have to do a lot of reminding and supervising. Learning to care for pets is a great life skill.

I like age 10 for the child getting a pet they take care of completely independently.

Clean Bathroom

Cleaning the bathroom completely is not a household task your 7 year old can do right now, but there are elements that can be done. Some good examples include:

Pick up the bathroom
Wipe bathroom sink
Clean the counter
Wipe outside of toilet
Empty the trash cans

Wrap Gifts

This can be a hard one to let the child do because the gifts will NOT look great at first. Wrapping is a fine motor skill and can require some attention to detail, and with practice, your child can be a contributor to the wrapping process.

Brush and Possibly Do Hair

At 7 years old, Brayden could do his own hair. None of the girls could do their own hair at that age since they all have had very long hair, but they all started to work on learning to brush their own hair out at that age.

Shower Independently

With the exception of hair for girls (especially girls with very long hair), a 7 year old can shower independently.

As a young 7 year old, Brinley did everything except shampoo. She did conditioner, so she is learning part of the hair process. She would rinse the shampoo out independently, she just could not put it in her hair.

Letting your kiddo do those few things alone is setting a great foundation toward being fully independent on this self-care task. By the time your child is 8, she will most likely be able to wash her hair independently.

Put All Personal Laundry Away

As a 7 year old (and older 6 year old), kids can put all laundry away independently so long as they can reach anything hanging. I get a step stool to help kids reach the hangers and hanging clothes.

Most 7 year olds will need to have this job inspected afterward, especially if they are in a hurry to go play or something. They can easily shove things where they don’t go or just halfway put clothes on hangers.

I highly recommend you inspect before letting the child move on from the job, but have your child do the job alone before you inspect.

If your child doesn’t do any of this task yet, start with things like socks and underwear independently, then move on to folded clothes, and do hanging clothes last.

I am telling you, one of my favorite milestones in my parenting life is my children ALL being able to put their own laundry away. I have moved from putting 5 people’s laundry away to just my own. WAHOO!

Also, if your child is putting clean clothes away, this means he can put clothes in hamper and sort his dirty clothes into darks, lights, and colors. This is listed on younger lists, but make sure your 7 year old is doing it.

Read: 5 Steps to Teaching Your Children To Do Chores

Build on Previous Chores

As your child gets older, he can perform all previous tasks better and more proficiently. Here are the tasks we have discussed in past posts that your seven year old should already know how to do and can build on.

This might mean your child does more now than he did a couple of years ago (so if it was one room, it might now be two rooms or an entire floor).

It might mean your child increases independence (so a two year old needed help cleaning her room, but a seven year old can be quite independent).

These are all age-appropriate chores for your child.:

Dust–a feather duster can make this fun
Put laundry away
Sort laundry
Set the table
Clear the table
Wipe the kitchen table
Clean own room
Yard work, including rake leaves
Dress self
Brush teeth
Pet care
Vacuum
Make own bed
Make a sandwich
Warm up canned food
Unload the dishwasher
Load dishwasher
Clean sinks
Sweep–if the broom is too big, consider getting a kid-sized broom
Use a dustpan
Empty garbages
Make own lunch, snack, or a simple meal
Base moldings or baseboards
Clean up and organize books

Previous Ages Chores Posts

Printable Chore Chart and Chore Cards

I love using chore cards or a chore chart to keep my kids on track during chore time. I really hate nagging, and these help the child know what to do and stay self-motivated.

This pack of cards includes all of the chores your child can do at age six. It even has chores for all ages 2-7 years old, so it is a great pack to start with your littles and use on through the child years.

$5.99 – To purchase, click the Buy Now button below. You will then have an instant download sent to your email. It is that simple. By making a purchase, you are agreeing to my privacy policy.

Chore Cards and Chore Chart for 5 year olds

Conclusion

Teach chores line upon line, meaning start small and build up slowly over time. You are working on skills to build over time.

Be patient with the process, but start it! Your children will be proficient at these skills much sooner than you think they can be.

Offer a lot of encouragement and affirmation. I promise it is worth the time and effort it takes to teach these skills. There are so many good reasons to teach your children these life skills and help them develop the habit of cleaning.