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Chores for Teenagers: An Age-Appropriate List (Ages 13 to 18)

The NestBoard Team · 2026-07-24

Somewhere around thirteen, the chore conversation changes. The tasks that worked at eight (feed the dog, make your bed) stop feeling like growth, and a teenager who only ever tidies their own room is not being prepared for the fact that in a few short years they will be running a household of their own. Teen chores are not really about a clean house. They are the last, low-stakes rehearsal for adult life, done while you are still around to coach.

The case for giving teenagers real responsibilities is simple. Cooking, laundry, budgeting, and basic car and home upkeep are life skills, and it is far kinder to learn them at home than in a first apartment. Chores also make a teen a contributing member of the household rather than a guest, which quietly builds the sense that they belong to something bigger than themselves. And handing over real jobs is one of the few concrete ways to grant the independence teenagers are desperate for.

The honest challenge is motivation. Teenagers are busy, moody, and allergic to nagging, and the strategies that worked on a younger child (a sticker chart, an excited "great job") tend to land with an eye roll. So this guide does two things. First, an age-appropriate list of what teens can realistically handle from thirteen to eighteen. Then the harder part: how to get those chores done without turning your home into a battleground.

Chores for a 13 to 14 year old

Early teens are ready to own a full task from start to finish, not just a step of it. This is the age to shift from "help me with dinner" to "you are responsible for dinner on Wednesdays." Expect uneven results and keep coaching.

• Cook one simple family meal a week, start to finish
• Do their own laundry, wash through fold and put away
• Deep clean a bathroom, not just a quick wipe
• Take full ownership of the trash and recycling routine
• Mow the lawn or handle a defined yard task
• Load, run, and empty the dishwasher on their nights
• Watch a younger sibling for a short stretch at home
• Wash the car or help with basic upkeep like checking tire pressure

Chores for a 15 to 16 year old

Mid teens can hold responsibilities that stretch across days and involve a little planning. Many are driving or close to it, so chores can start to include errands and money. The goal is to reduce how often you have to remind them at all.

• Plan and cook two family dinners a week, including what to buy
• Do a full grocery run from a list, in person or online
• Manage a small recurring bill or a budget for a category like their own toiletries
• Handle regular pet care, feeding, walking, and vet or grooming reminders
• Take on seasonal yard work, raking, weeding, or shoveling
• Babysit younger siblings for an evening
• Keep shared spaces (kitchen, living room) reset each night
• Run simple errands by bike, on foot, or by car once licensed

Chores for a 17 to 18 year old

Older teens should be operating close to how they will as an adult, with you as backup rather than supervisor. If they can leave for college or a job able to feed themselves, keep clothes clean, and manage a few dollars, you have done the work.

• Plan a week of meals for the family and shop for them within a budget
• Manage their own money, a bank account, a debit card, and saving toward a goal
• Take a car in for an oil change, or handle a wash, fluids, and tire checks themselves
• Do all of their own laundry and ironing without reminders
• Handle a real household project, painting a room or assembling furniture
• Cover a stretch of childcare or eldercare responsibly when needed
• Book their own appointments (doctor, dentist, haircut) and keep them
• Keep their room and one shared space to an agreed standard on their own

Teen chores at a glance

Should teenagers be paid for chores?

This is where most families get stuck, and there is no single right answer. A workable middle ground is to split chores into two buckets. Some are simply the price of living in the house, tidying shared spaces, doing your own laundry, cleaning up after yourself. Nobody gets paid for those, the same way nobody pays you to do them. Then a second set of bigger or optional jobs can earn allowance, washing the car, a full yard cleanup, extra babysitting.

That split teaches two truths at once: you contribute to your family because you are part of it, and money is earned through work. If you do tie chores to allowance, be consistent about paying it. A teen who does the work and then has to chase you for the money learns the wrong lesson about how work and pay connect. For more on structuring that, our guide to age-appropriate chores by age walks through how the expectations build from the toddler years up.

Use natural consequences instead of nagging

Nagging fails with teenagers for a predictable reason: it makes you the alarm clock. As long as you keep reminding, the teen never has to hold the responsibility themselves, because you are holding it for them. The fix is to let the natural consequence do the teaching.

If the laundry is a teen's job and it does not get done, they run out of clean clothes. If the kitchen is theirs to reset and they skip it, the pans they want in the morning are dirty. Your job is to agree on the responsibility clearly, then step back and let reality deliver the feedback. It is uncomfortable at first, and far more effective than a fifth reminder.

Give teens ownership and a real say

Teenagers will fight a chore that is assigned to them and quietly accept one they helped choose. Wherever you can, hand over the how and the when rather than dictating it. Let them pick which two nights they cook, or trade the bathroom for the yard with a sibling, or decide whether laundry happens Saturday morning or Sunday night. The chore still gets done, but now it is theirs.

Ownership also means resisting the urge to redo their work. If a teen cooks a mediocre dinner or leaves streaks on the car, the pull to fix it yourself is strong, and it tells them their effort does not count. Coach the next attempt instead of correcting this one.

Tie chores to privileges, respectfully

Linking chores to the things teens care about, screen time, the car, going out, is fair and it works, as long as it is framed as a standing agreement rather than a punishment invented in anger. The difference is in the setup. "Screens and car keys come after your chores are done, that is just how our house runs" is a calm, predictable rule everyone knew in advance. Yanking a phone mid-argument is a threat, and teens rebel against threats.

Set the expectation once, together, and let it run on its own. A natural pairing many families use is trading completed chores for screen time, which we cover in an app where kids earn screen time by doing chores. Whatever the privilege, the respect comes from consistency, not intensity.

Tools that take you out of the middle

The reason teen chores turn into nagging is usually not the teen. It is that all the tracking lives in your head, so you become the reminder, the scorekeeper, and the payroll department. A chore chart or app moves that record out of your head and into a shared place everyone can see, which is what actually breaks the reminder loop.

A chore app can assign each teen their own chores, rotate them fairly between siblings, and track allowance so the numbers are not a running argument. In NestBoard, a teenager gets their own profile with no email required, sees their own chores and points, and can convert those points into allowance. The teen checks their list instead of asking you what is due, and you stop being the middle of every chore.

Frequently asked questions

What chores should a teenager do? A teenager should do chores that build real independence, cooking a meal, doing their own laundry, deeper cleaning, yard work, grocery shopping, and basic car or pet care. As they move from thirteen to eighteen, the jobs should ramp toward the full set of skills they will need to run their own home, including planning and managing a little money.

Should teenagers be paid for chores? A common approach is to not pay for basic contributions like cleaning up after themselves, since those are part of living in the household, while offering allowance for bigger or optional jobs like washing the car or extra babysitting. That teaches both that you contribute because you belong to the family and that money is earned through work. If you do pay, pay consistently.

How do I get my teenager to do chores? Give them ownership by letting them choose which chores and when, set the expectation once as a standing agreement rather than nagging repeatedly, and let natural consequences do the teaching when a job is skipped. Tying chores to privileges like screen time or the car works well when it is a calm, predictable rule rather than a threat made in the moment.

What age should a teen do their own laundry? Most children are ready to do their own laundry start to finish by about thirteen or fourteen. Start by walking them through a few loads, then hand it over completely so it becomes their responsibility rather than a task you supervise. By the later teen years it should happen without any reminders from you.

How many chores should a teenager have? There is no fixed number, but a realistic load is a handful of regular responsibilities plus a rotating share of household jobs, enough to genuinely contribute without crowding out school, sleep, and activities. Quality matters more than quantity. A teen who reliably owns three or four real jobs is learning more than one assigned ten they resent.

What if my teen just refuses to do chores? Stay calm and lean on structure rather than force. Make the expectation and its natural consequence clear in advance, keep privileges tied to completed responsibilities as a standing rule, and give them real say in how the work gets done. Refusal usually softens when the chore feels like theirs and the consequences are predictable rather than personal.