100 Ways to Make Money as a Kid Under 13 (Besides a Lemonade Stand)

Tired of the Lemonade Stand idea? Check out 100 new and unique ways to make money as a kid.

Why did I choose to write a list of 100 ways to make money as a kid?

Because finding ways for kids under 13 to make money is kind of difficult.

And the lists you can find online? Well, it seems to be the same thing over and over again.

Not only will your child find multiple ways they feel comfortable with to start bringing in a little cash, but I've included actual stories from parents and their kids who did the thing and made the money.

Excited to get started? I am!

Pssst: once your child starts earning money, you’ll likely want to figure out your Money Rules and Money Boundaries around it. Build out your Kid Money System here.

Here are the main ways a child can earn money:

• Earn Cash Around the Neighborhood
• Create and Sell Something
• Get an IRL (In Real Life) Job
• Earn Cash Online
• Earn Through an Allowance/Chore Commissions
• Do At-Home Chore Projects
• Figure Out How to Get Their Money to Earn Its Own Money

And within each of these categories, are tons of ideas.

Earn Cash Around the Neighborhood

There are tons of ideas for ways your child can earn cash around their neighborhood.

1. Clean Up Storm Debris for Tips

It seems like huge storms are becoming more of a normal thing. And this takes a lot of cleanup.

Tara from ArtsyFartsyLife shared that her son and friend went around their neighborhood after a recent large storm with a huge box of heavy-duty trash bags and made $100 in tips by helping people clean up storm debris.

2. Detail People’s Cars

Crystal from SimplifyOrlando.com has been hiring her tween since she was 12 to detail the family car. She’s 14 now and earns $10 each time she does it.

Detailing includes things like vacuuming the car, dusting it, etc.

3. Recycle Bottles for Cash

There are 10 states with bottle bills where you can earn cash by recycling bottles.

They are:

• California
• Connecticut
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New York
• Oregon
• Vermont

How much can a child make doing this?  

Samantha from SammyApproves lives in California, and her kids make money from their recycling bins.  

She shared, “Our kids do all of our recycling. Bottles, glass, cans, and cardboard and split the profits. We have different bins on our back porch for each type of item (glass, plastic). They take it in once a month and usually get about $60 (that’s $20 for each of the 3 kids).” 

4. Sell Icy Treats at the Neighborhood Pool

We’re lucky enough to have a neighborhood pool right around the corner from our house.

And an ice cream truck goes there about twice a day (boy do they rack up!).

I got to thinking: my own son could buy some icy treats, put them in a cooler, and sell them to poolgoers several times a day.

Yours could, too!

5. Sell School-Specific Shoe Strings

Ahead of homecoming events, or at sporting events (with permission), your child could buy bulk sets of school-colored shoe strings and sell them at a good markup.

You could do this ahead of the year’s Superbowl game as well, in your neighborhood.

6. Offer Snow Shoveling Services

Before the winter season hits, your child can talk to a few neighbors with you and try to secure 1-3 clients for the winter.

Help your child be clear on what part of the property their new client expects to be shoveled cleared, and to come up with a price per snow.

Also, your child could just take a snow shovel around to trusted neighbors after the next big snow day, and ask to shovel snow on the spot.

7. Open a Farmer’s Market Slime Stall

Kids love making slime! Wouldn’t it be fun to make pails of slime, and then dish it out at a Farmer’s Market stand one Saturday?

Create 3-4 different varieties, and then sell slime by the scoop.

Depending on the costs to create the product, your child could charge $0.25/scoop, $0.50/scoop, or even $1.00/scoop.

Here are some slime recipes to get you started:

• Fluffy Unicorn Slime
• Jello Slime Recipe
• Green Slime

8. Sell a Lot of Empty Toilet Paper Rolls

Your child can ask neighbors to save their empty toilet paper rolls (the cardboard). Have your child collect them at a certain time each month.

Then, help them set up a lot of toilet paper rolls to sell on eBay, Gumtree, or local Facebook marketplaces – people use them for crafting and more.

Of course, as with many of these ideas, your child shouldn’t expect to get rich. A look at “sold” lots of toilet paper rolls shows earnings of between $2.99 all the way up to $19.99 for 200 of them.

9. Get Into Sneaker Restoration & Customization

Your child could learn how to restore sneakers and practice on pairs they find at thrift stores.

Then, they can offer their services to restore old, or dirty sneakers and then sell them to “Sneaker Heads”.

Check out this video for more info.

And here’s information on how to start a business repairing and customizing sneakers:

10. Teach Neighborhood Kids How to Ride a Bike

Some parents love to teach their kids to ride a bike for the first time. Some would rather hire out!

Offer lessons as a service, if your child does well with younger children.

11. Be a Neighborhood Pool Helper

A mother with multiple younger children might feel a bit scared taking them all to the pool by herself (even with a lifeguard).

Your child could offer to help keep an eye on the little ones if they already know how to swim.

OR, they could be the person who stays out of the pool when some of her kids don’t want to swim but others do.

12. Donation Pick-Up and Drop-Off

Can your child have you drive them around your neighborhood on a designated date/time to pick up donations to take to Goodwill or a local charity?

They could have neighbors put these bags out on their front porch, with payment (or knock for payment).

13. Pick Up Metal to Scrap

Again, can your child use your truck to pick up scrap metal from neighbors and cash it in? Here’s a whole article on how to scrap metal for extra cash.

14. Costume Dress-Up Appearance

Kids can rent a costume of fun characters and offer to make appearances at younger kids’ birthday parties.

15. Help Set Up Easter Egg Hunt for Younger Kids

Does a local organization host a big annual Easter Egg hunt? You could ask if they need help and are looking to hire a child for a few hours.

16. Sitter for a Local Book Club or Bible Study

Do adults meet up for a book club or other club in your area? Your child could offer babysitting services (and with a friend or two, if there are lots of kids) at the meetup place so that adults are still around if needed.

Creating and Selling Something (at School, Market Day, Fairs, etc.)

Does your child have an entrepreneur fair, or classroom Market Day at school?

I’ve got loads of ideas for things they can make and sell at school (they can use these ideas to sell in neighborhoods, Farmer’s Markets, and more, too).

1. Start a Frozen Cookie Dough Business

Ella decided to create a frozen cookie dough business, with free delivery.

She made new cookie dough batches about once a week, then flash-froze them.

She also made a flyer and a Google form where people could place their orders.

You could even sign up for a membership, where you receive a half dozen balls of frozen cookie dough ($16 a month) or a dozen balls of frozen cookie dough ($32 per month).

Pretty neat!

2. Sell Customized Toys on eBay

Anna shared with me what her son is doing to earn between $1200 – $1500 this year alone: selling toys on eBay.

Some toys have been old ones of his or his friends (and he splits the profits with the ones he sells from friends).

Then there are the other toys that he customizes.

“He has some old Star Wars figures he’s customized and then sold. Sometimes it’s buying small toys off eBay he knows are worth more and reselling those or fixing them up (sanding, painting, patching, etc.) before he resells. He occasionally will sell a small part or item he can make from a 3D printer, but that’s a lot less frequent.”

3. Make and Sell Custom Cookies

Bethany says “My 14-year-old took 10 cookie decorating classes with our homeschool co-op. She has been selling cookies since June and making good money!”

Her daughter charges between $18 and $24 a dozen (and more for cookies free from gluten and natural dyes, or if they want them wrapped).

The cost is around $4 – $5/dozen to make (more if they’re gluten-free). The most costly ingredients are butter and meringue powder, and they now buy them in bulk to decrease the cost.

Bethany says, “Right now, she sells to people on my FB – so people I know. But a friend is making her a logo so she can get a FB page running. She plans to expand into cake pops and cupcakes soon. She took a cake decorating course too through our co-op. She does well with my friends alone. She had 6 dozen due this previous week. Her 4th of July special sold 15 dozen!”

4. Holiday Gift-Shopping Babysitter

Parents need time to shop for their kids (and for everything else on their list around the holidays – ask me how I know!).

Offering a service where they can drop off their child while you and our child are home to be played with could really take off around the holidays.

5. Make and Sell Roblox Items

Does your child use Roblox? They’ll need a premium account to do this – but they can create Roblox items and then actually sell them for Robux!

You’ll need to help them download Roblox Studio. This video has a good breakdown of how to sell an item, and how to create something in Roblox to sell.

6. Enter a Writing Contest with a Cash Prize

I wish I had known about writing contests when I was a child. Writing was all that I wanted to do!

Here are several your child can enter:

• Scholastic Storyworks Writing Contests
• Poetic Power Student Poetry Contest
• John Estey Student Writing Competition

7. Make Homemade Bath Salts with Fresh Petals

Mom Karen’s kids have kept their own garden beds within their larger family’s garden. They help maintain all of the garden beds, and in exchange, they get to use parts of it to earn money.

For example, the kids make bath salts with flower petals from the garden. Mom Karen says, “They charge $4/100g bag of bath salts with about a $2.50 profit.”

Karen explains, “Their “products” sell well at farmers markets and on our local community FB buy sell page. They offer free bicycle delivery in our neighborhood and we help them deliver within a 15-minute drive. We live on a small island, where literally everywhere is within 15 minutes.” 

Why are her kids so successful with this product (and several others)?

Karen says, “I think a lot of their success comes from the largely senior demographic of our community. There are lots of kids here, but not many doing this kind of thing, and tons of grandparents whose own grandkids live further away! We also uphold a high standard of what they sell (high-quality control), which I think helps. The bicycle delivery and their good manners always get a lot of positive feedback too.”

8. Make Pressed Flower Bookmarks

Karen’s kids have also been making bookmarks with pressed flowers from their own gardens from the ages of 4-10.

Karen says, “The bookmarks cost them maybe 25 cents each for the paper (we buy big watercolour paper and cut it to size) and they use our general watercolour paints so we don’t allocate that cost. They charge $3 each bookmark.”  

So, where do her kids get the money to buy their supplies? Karen explains, “They have “seed money” that we give them as part of their allowance that they use to buy supplies. When they take on an endeavour, they have to pay back their seed money first, and get to do what they like with the rest of their profits. Each week they each receive $3, 1 each for their “seed money”, “spending” and “savings”. They get to choose the savings goal. It’s usually a Lego kit.” 

9. Make Custom Notepads

Did you know you can make a custom notepad out of any papers you want, using this simple notepad kit?

You can find tutorials for how to design these using free Canva, like this one, on YouTube.

10. Make Doggy Shampoo Bars

People lovvvveeee their dogs.

Give them a chance to pamper their dog and spend money with you by creating dog shampoo bars of soap.

You’ll need to help your child with this recipe, FYI (it uses lye). But the end product looks SO great, and she explains why it’s a healthy version of soap to use on dogs.

11. Rent Out Your Drone

This idea comes from my very own 9-year-old.

He absolutely loves to fly his drone (he’s on his third – they’re surprisingly affordable, and he purchased his first one).

He came up with the idea to do a drone show. While he hasn’t managed to pull that one off yet (he asked for a steep $10/ticket), I do think that there’s money to be made by renting out his drone.

We’ll see how this goes (I’ll report back!).

12. Sell Foot-Long Cookie Bars

I kind of think Subway® has come up with a genius idea with their new footlong cookie bars.

Your child can create ones easily at home.

Find a cookie bar recipe (I used this one but with chocolate chips), and make sure it fits into a 9” X 13” pan (which happens to measure 1 ft lengthwise).

Allow everything to cool, and cut it into 1-ft. long strips.

Then package it up. I was able to fit them into a lunch bag, or in some parchment paper (you could staple the end if you want to).

13. Sell Homemade Doggy Treats at the Dog Park

Find your local dog park, and make some homemade dog treats. Be sure to print out your recipes (for anyone who asks).

Package them up, and sell them at a table.

Here are a few doggy treat recipes.

14. Sell Gourmet S’Mores Kits at Camping Grounds

Can your child set up a stand at a local camping ground on Saturday mornings to sell these kits to campers? OR, ask the camping ground to include a display of them and split the profit.

Very simple to make, and campers will enjoy them.

15. Smartphone Home Screen and Lock Screen Designs

Lots of kids/tweens/teens have their own smartphones. Your child could use a free graphic design program to design a background image for people to buy and use on their phones.

Here's an example of one.

They might want to write up and print out instructions for how to install the background image on an iPhone to hand out to customers.

16. Make and Sell Reusable Straw Charms

Lots of people are using reusable cups with straws now, so why not offer them a cute reusable straw charm?

Here’s how to make this.

17. Make and Sell 3D Print Toys

Our library offers free 3D printing (1 per child, per week), which is a pretty sweet deal.

He’s had some fun toys printed up.

I’ve actually talked to a mother whose child creates toys at their library’s 3D printer, and sells them!

18. Make and Sell First Aid Car Kits

Check out here for how I created Dollar Tree First Aid Car Kits pretty cheaply. Your child could make these, and sell them for a profit.

19. Make and Sell Stickers

Your child can create stickers that are very kid/tween/teen-friendly, and sell those.

Here’s a whole tutorial.

20. Rent Out a Metal Detector

Kids and tweens love to use metal detectors.

If your child has some money they can invest, then they can buy a metal detector, and rent it out to neighborhood kids who want to use it to detect treasure in their yards (without having to buy their own).

21. Doggie Adventure Outings

Dog owners can feel guilty for not really playing much with their pets.

Instead of offering regular ol’ dog walking services, your child can offer a dog adventure service.

This could include taking someone’s dog for 45 minutes or an hour to:

• Trail walking
• Free play at the doggy park
• Play workout
• Etc.

22. Get Really Good at Screen Protector Replacement

Do you know how much Apple charges to replace your screen protector? I do, because I tried to get it done there. But I completely balked at the $39.99 price tag.

Your child could get good at replacing screen protectors, and offer the same service for $10-$15 (I’ve done this three times in the last six months, and it’s definitely a skill you get better and better out. I sourced my screen protectors at Walmart for about $5 each).

23. Event Cleanup Services

Is your child good at cleaning up (well, at least when money is involved)?

They could offer help cleaning up after parties around the neighborhood. Trash cleanup, dishes, sweeping the floors, etc.

24. Sell Hot Chocolate Glitter Kits

Your child can make these edible chocolate gems, then sell them in a package with a hot cocoa mix pack and marshmallows.

25. Sell Glitter Hot Cocoa Bombs

Edible glitter is so fun…and pretty. Your child could make hot cocoa bombs, roll them in edible glitter, and package them up to sell.

26. Create Thrift Store Book Blind Dates

Your child could collect adult books from thrift stores that are in relatively good shape, and add a cover to them to make them Blind Date Books.

Set up a table at a craft fair, or church fair, or wherever adults will be, and offer Blind Date Books to surprise themselves into reading.

27. Make and Sell Mood Ring Surprise Eggs

Kids LOVE to be surprised. Your child could buy mood rings in bulk, and then create these dinosaur eggs. They would put a mood ring inside of each one, and then sell them as a surprise that other kids have to dig through to find.

28. Sell Polished Rocks

Buy one of these rock tumblers, and have your child tumble lots of rocks. They can sell them in lots.

29. Create a Book Using AI and Sell it On Amazon

Chrissy from CentralMassandMore shared that when her son was 7, he wrote and illustrated a book with the help of AI (Artificial Intelligence). He then set it up to sell on Amazon.

Chrissy says, “It only took about two weeks from start to finish; that included a little work on my part like designing the PDF of the book in Canva once he had the story and art finalized, and I also did all the backend work on KDP for him (with him watching so he understood how it worked).”

Occasionally, he still gets sales from it and has sold about $300 from the project (in about two years).

She says, “He also ordered some author copies that he uses to sell at local events, like setting up a table at a 5K race, or even just setting up a lemonade stand by our house with his books as well.”

Chrissy says he's learned some great business lessons, like when he asked “Mom, why do I only make $2.50 if I sell the book for $9.99?”

In Real Life (IRL) Kid Jobs

Ready for your child to work at a real job, or at least as “real” of a job they can get at their age?

1. Work On a Local Farm

I grew up on a family dairy farm. And we definitely had reasons to hire kids and tweens occasionally.

Such as hay-making season. Or when we opened our pumpkin stand for the fall.

You and your child can check into any local farms you have, and ask if they have the need for seasonal work or could use help on the weekends.

Also, check veterinarians and places with horses – one of my first jobs was mucking horse stalls.

2. Work On an Orchard

Kids under 16 can work at an orchard, as long as the work is non-hazardous, they have parental permission, and it doesn’t take place during school hours.

Read more about child agriculture jobs, here.

3. Hire Your Child in Your Business

Did you know that you can get a tax deduction while paying your child to work in your business?

Oh yeah! That’s a win-win.

Here’s a really helpful video all about how to hire your child to work for you.

4. Mother’s Helper for Holiday Party

My friend’s friend hired older kids to help entertain and watch younger kids at her holiday party so that the adults could relax.

This is a great service to sell!

5. Braid Hair at a Little Girls’ Sleepover

Is your child particularly good at braiding hair? They could be hired for an hour to braid hair at a neighborhood girls’ sleepover party.

6. Do Doggie Doo-Doo Clean-Up

I had to do this as a kid and didn’t get paid. How cool would it be to get paid to do something that most adults would rather not?

My friend, Aurora, also mentioned that this could be a great service for pregnant mothers/families (don’t forget cat litter box clean up, too!).  

7. Work a Concession Stand at Sports Events, Fairs, Festivals, etc.

Get in touch with your local Chamber of Commerce, and ask about any festivals or fairs happening in your area. You can reach out to vendors, and see if they could use a child to help with the cash register, delivering orders, putting together orders, etc.

8. Become a Junior Referee Official

Did you know that, depending on the sport and organization, the age range for junior referee officials is between 10 and 13 years old?

For example, kids can apply to referee at local and regional tournaments and scrimmages for the US Judo Federation starting at 10. 

Or for US Youth Soccer, starting at age 13.

9. Face Paint at Parties and Events

You can read all about 12-year-old Ella’s face-painting job here.

You’ll learn about what materials she uses, how much she charges, how she got started, permits, and much more.

10. Become a Vending Machine Operator and Owner

Your child could save up a decent chunk of change to purchase a used vending machine, like 12-year-old Adrian did, and then operate it.

He saved up and purchased a $1500 used machine (he looked at both eBay and Facebook). He purchased bulk snacks and drinks to stock his machine with and housed it in his father’s waiting room at work.

He’s learned so many lessons, such as how key location is, and to pay attention to which snacks sell out fastest.

Here are much lower-cost candy vending machines, plus further information if your child is interested.

11. Be a Mother’s Helper

A Mother’s Helper is exactly that – someone who is with a mother in their house, and who can help them with any number of tasks they need done.

For example, Shannon from ShannonTorres.com says when she was around 12, she was a Mother’s Helper to someone with two young children.

She says, “I would go there and help her with all kinds of random things. Folding laundry, entertaining kids, cleaning, and anything she needed help with at the moment. The mom was always there, so I was literally there to just help her. I think I made around $8 an hour (but that was 30 years ago lol).”

12. Work in a Distant Family Business

Maybe you don’t own a business, but your brother or parents do. Ask if your child could come to work some hours part-time for them.

13. Work at a Farm Stand

I have such fond memories of working at our farm stand on our farm (from probably about age 11 until I graduated high school).

My parents also hired our friends for some part-time work on our farm stand. Ask around at local farm stands you find!

14. Help with Farmer’s Market Set-Up and Takedown

When I was in college, I drove Amish workers to a farmer’s market each Saturday for a year. There were always kids helping their parents and relatives set up and take down their tables before and after the day started.

Online Kid Cash-Earning Opportunities & Jobs

You’ve likely noticed there are not many online kid money-earning opportunities.

Which makes sense.

BUT, there are a few, and I’ll include the minimum age requirements below.

Also, some of these sites only pay by PayPal, and you cannot have a PayPal account under the age of 18. Check out my article on if parents can open a PayPal account for their child.

1. Testbirds (Test Software and Get Paid to Find Bugs)

What a cool opportunity that kids of any age can do (as long as their guardian signs the parental consent form).

Your child can get paid to find bugs in software, between €1-5 euros (around $1-$5). 

When they sign up, they can take the Entry Test (optional) to familiarize themselves with what a test looks like, and how to use their platform.

Training is also available at The Bird School, too!

Hint: Testbirds works with the currency Euro, but you can get paid in U.S. Dollars through PayPal.

2. PlayTestCloud (Test Video Games)

I know of few kids who wouldn’t want to make a little extra cash testing out video games (my 9-year-old son told me how he wants to build video games as an adult…I think I’ll have him start with this!).

You can playtest with your child by adding them to your profile (then you’ll receive playtests for them to do themselves).

Earnings aren’t bad, either; they estimate a 15-minute playtest will have a reward of $9.

Upon signing up, your child will need to take an unpaid qualification test that will also help them learn what to do on upcoming playtests.

3. Enroll App (Test Website Usability)

Kids aged 13 and older can complete usability tasks to help test websites for how usable they are.

You can do these tests on a smartphone, desktop, or tablet. Usability tests take between 30 seconds and 1.5 minutes to complete, and you can earn between $0.10 and $1.50 each.

Compensation is through PayPal, and you can cash out when you reach at least $1.

4. Mistplay (Android Only) (Earn for Playing Video Games)

No joke…your child, aged 13 or older, can get paid to play video games! Choose from a list of video games in their mixlist, play for a number of minutes, and earn units as they do. 

This site pays in units, and kids can redeem these units for gift cards. Gift card options include prepaid Visa gift cards, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation and more.

5. Swagbucks (Earn by Searching the Internet)

Kids aged 13 and older can use Swagbucks in a variety of ways – doing an Internet search, taking daily polls, watching videos, and taking surveys, to name a few.

I've personally been using Swagbucks since 2009, and I've earned a total of 372,296 Swagbucks. That's a whopping $3,700 in cash to my PayPal account!

Bonus Tip: If the child qualifies, taking surveys will reap the largest rewards the quickest.

Users can choose from a PayPal deposit, Visa, or merchant gift card in return for the Swagbucks that they earn. If someone earns 2200 Swagbucks, they can cash out for a $25 gift card. Heavy users can usually get 2200 Swagbucks per month. However, you can cash out for as low as 450 points, which is worth a $5 gift card.

6. Slice the Pie

Kids aged 13 and older can get paid to write reviews on new songs, fashion items, accessories, and commercials before they are released to the public or to the market.  

Slice the Pie pays between $0.01 and $0.20 per review. How much they pay depends on the demand for your teen's review and the quality of their review. They pay by PayPal, and teens can withdraw payment once they reach a minimum of $10.

7. Sell Beats on BandLab

Have you ever heard of BandLab?

It’s a freemium music creation platform where your child can create their own beats and try to earn some cash.

Right now, they keep 100% of their earnings through this site (WOW, that’s a big difference from the music industry!).

The minimum age requirement is 13, and your child will need parental consent.

8. Set Up a Kid Voice Over Gig on Fiverr

People need kids to read scripts and statements, and all kinds of things.

I was able to find several Fiverr gigs where parents have set up everything for their kids to get a voice-over gig. Like this one here. Or this one.

Your child could do the same!

Figuring Out How to Get Their Money to Earn Its Own Money

Let’s not overlook the fact that your money can earn its own money: through interest in a savings account.

Don’t just think about any ol’ savings account though. Your child should open a high-yield savings account online (rates right now are around 4.5%, compared to just 1-1.5% in some traditional banks).

Through Allowance & Chore Commissions

Let’s not overlook the role allowance and chore commissions can play in your child earning money.

You’ll want to have your Kid Money System set up.

But then within that?

Well, there’s some room to play with for your child to make extra cash.

For example:

1. Negotiate a Pay Raise

Your child could try to negotiate a pay raise from you for their allowance (hey, all ideas are okay during the Brain Dump session!).

2. Be Hired by a Sibling for Chores

I’m not saying everyone will agree with this…but you’d be surprised at how often it happens (from what I’ve read in comments about earning cash for kids!).

3. Hiring them When a Sibling Doesn’t Do Chores (with that Sibling’s Allowance Money)

I’ve also heard that when one child does not do their chores to earn money, some parents let those chores be up for grabs so that other kids can earn the cash.

4. Ask for Chore Projects

They could ask to do Chore Projects around the house to earn extra money above regular responsibilities.

Speaking of chore projects…

Doing At-Home Chore Projects

I think there’s a real difference between chore tasks and chore projects.

Chore projects have several steps, and are more complex. So, I’m willing to pay for those!

Chore tasks are more one-time things that I believe my child should be doing anyway, without any pay.

Chore Projects Ideas List:

1. Clean out and vacuum the family car
2. Reorganize the family command center
3. Organize all sports gear in the garage
4. Organize the family hall closet
5. Clean out the chicken house
6. Scrub baseboards (downstairs, then upstairs)
7. Clean up the wood pile
8. Match the dreaded pile of one-off socks
9. Clean out the chicken coop (this used to be my job!)
10. Scrub all of the dried food off of kitchen cabinets
11. Clean out the fish tank
12. Get rid of expired cans and boxes of food in the pantry
13. Organize all sports gear in the garage
14. Scrub out/hose down inside of kitchen trashcan and recycling bin
15. Clean up/organize all the board games
16. Dust and wipe down each windowsill in the house
17. Hose down/scrub the garage door
18. Take everything out of the freezer, and wipe clean the racks/shelves
19. Take out all spices from the spice rank, wipe them each down, and wipe the shelves clean
20. Dust off all fake plants in the house
21. Scrub/hose down all outdoor patio furniture
22. Organize the craft room/craft area
23. Scrub down the outside of the front and back door
24. Wipe down/disinfect toys for younger siblings (with gloves)
25. Collect all the pens from junk drawers and around the house, test them, and throw out any that don’t work – then organize what’s left
26. Wipe down outside of closet doors
27. Take everything down from the bulletin board, recycle expired papers, and organize what’s left
28. Organize the linens closet – including refolding everything to look nice/fit

See how these are different from, say, “set the table”, or “take out the trash”?

Another idea is what Joanne’s grandson has done. Her grandson lives with her and decided to come up with a list of chores that he could do to get paid in Robux (the currency of the Roblox video game; it’s about $5 for 400 Robux).

The chores he came up with are:

• Clear the table after dinner
• Sweep the floor after dinner
• Sweep the floor after dinner
• Make sure there are no dishes or cups in the living room at the end of the day
• Put all my dirty clothes in the hamper
• Be at the breakfast table by 6:15 a.m. on school days

Joanne says, “It is possible for him to earn 100 Robux a day, and sometimes he can do extra chores to earn more. He was not motivated when we tried allowance, but he is very motivated with Robux.”

Remember: what you want and do not want to pay for is completely up to you – these are just suggestions and inspiration to get your mind moving on this.