14 old-fashioned chores that would make today’s kids flat-out refuse

Most kids today think loading the dishwasher is a big ask. Yet for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, children were expected to help with grueling, all-day chores that would probably make a tablet-raised tween stare in disbelief. Digital History estimates that in late 19th-century America, a typical housewife walked about 148 miles a year just to carry water, hauling more than 36 tons for cooking, cleaning, and laundry, often with daughters assisting.

Even as electricity and appliances spread, Robin Phillips suggests that women still spent roughly 50 to 60 hours a week on housework before 1965, much of it with help from kids. Here are 14 old-fashioned chores that would likely make many modern children flat out refuse.

Hauling Buckets Of Water From The Well

Before indoor plumbing, every drop of water for cooking, cleaning, and washing had to be carried by hand. A typical housewife had to bring water from a pump, well, or spring eight to ten times a day, using roughly 50 gallons just to wash one load of laundry.

Doing Laundry With A Washboard And Boiling Pot

Long before washing machines, “wash day” was a dreaded full-body workout. Living History Farms notes that around 1900, farm families without electricity or plumbing had to heat water in a copper boiler on the stove, scrub clothes on a washboard with harsh lye soap, rinse them repeatedly, and then wring out heavy, sopping fabric by hand.

Another historian describes old-time laundry as involving hauling buckets, chopping firewood, boiling vats of water, stirring clothes with long poles, and hauling wet loads between tubs before hanging them to dry, a process everyone agreed was the worst chore of the week.

Beating Rugs And Hand-Scrubbing Floors

Without vacuum cleaners or mops with detachable pads, floors and rugs were cleaned with brute force. The Smithsonian Institution states that in the 19th century, rugs were carried outside, hung over a line, and beaten repeatedly with sticks or rug beaters to knock out dust and dirt.

Floors were scrubbed on hands and knees with brushes and buckets, a job that could take hours in larger homes and was often assigned to older children or teenage daughters as part of their daily routine.

Making Soap From Lye And Fat

Soap was not always a cheap store-bought bar. Families saved animal fat and wood ashes to make lye, then boiled the mixture in large kettles outdoors to make harsh, homemade soap.

Children were often expected to stir, watch the fire, and help pour or cut the cooled soap, even though lye could burn skin and eyes, making this one of the more dangerous chores that would shock safety-conscious modern parents and kids alike.

Chopping And Hauling Firewood For Every Meal And Wash

Before electric or gas stoves, every hot task depended on firewood. Digital History’s account of laundry and cooking describes someone, usually men and older children, chopping and hauling wood daily just to heat water and fuel stoves or fireplaces.

Living History Farms notes that in the 1900 era, farmhouses required fires to be started and maintained for washing, cooking, and heating, which meant children regularly lugged logs, kindling, and coal throughout the day instead of just pressing a thermostat button.

Hand Washing Dishes In Basins With Pumped Water

Running a dishwasher is nothing like washing dishes in a house without plumbing. Water had to be pumped or drawn from a well, heated on a stove, poured into basins, and reused carefully for washing and rinsing dishes.

Clothes, floors, and even bodies were often washed in the same basic way, with someone constantly refreshing buckets and tubs, so dish duty meant a long stretch of standing, scrubbing, and hauling water that modern kids would likely label “unfair” on sight.​

Emptying and Cleaning the Chamber Pots

Before flush toilets were common, many homes relied on chamber pots that had to be carried outside and emptied daily. The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that older children, particularly daughters, were frequently tasked with emptying and rinsing chamber pots or outside privy buckets as part of their regular chores.

Given that many modern kids balk at cleaning a bathroom even with disinfectant wipes and running water, it is easy to imagine how unpopular this job would be today.

Tending Garden Plots For Food Rather Than Fun

Home gardens used to be a survival strategy, not a hobby. Children helped with planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting large kitchen gardens that supplied the family with vegetables and herbs year-round.

Without supermarkets on every corner, skipping garden chores could mean less food on the table or less to preserve for winter, a level of responsibility that would be shocking in an era when many kids see vegetables as something that just appears in the fridge.

Caring For Livestock Before And After School

On farms, feeding and watering animals were twice-daily, non-negotiable chores. Iowa PBS’s household history shows that children were expected to feed chickens, collect eggs, help milk cows or goats, and ensure animals had fresh water, all before breakfast or after school.

Skipping a day meant hungry animals and lost income or food, so there was little room for complaints that chores were “too early” compared with today’s occasional pet feeding duties.​

Hauling And Splitting Ice Or Managing Iceboxes

Before electric refrigerators, keeping food cold required ice blocks delivered from ice houses or cut from frozen lakes, which had to be handled daily at home. Derby Historical Society and Museum reports that people chipped and moved heavy ice into wooden iceboxes and regularly drained the meltwater to keep food from spoiling.

Older children often helped lift and position these blocks or empty pans, a physically demanding task that makes refilling an ice tray or adjusting a fridge setting look trivial.

Hand Sewing, Mending, and Sometimes Making Clothes

Fast fashion and cheap clothes are a very recent luxury. In earlier eras, girls and some boys were taught to mend socks, patch holes, and even sew garments by hand or with early sewing machines as a routine chore. A missing button or torn seam was usually repaired at home by female family members, including teens, rather than replaced, and that sewing and darning could occupy many evening hours in households without television or smartphones.

Ironing With Heavy, Non-Electric Irons

Ironing used to mean heating heavy cast-iron “sad irons” on a stove and then using them quickly before they cooled. Housewives and daughters will often repeatedly lift and move irons weighing five to ten pounds, in hot kitchens already warmed by the stove.

Without steam features, thermostats, or lightweight designs, ironing a week’s worth of clothes and linens could take hours and require constant effort, a far cry from a quick pass with a modern iron or steamer that many kids already avoid.

Cleaning Sooty Lamps And Maintaining Fires For Light

Before electric lights, households relied on candles, oil lamps, and fireplaces, all of which needed regular upkeep. Children were often expected to trim lamp wicks, clean soot from chimneys and glass shades, and help carry and light candles at dusk.

Messy, smelly fuel and open flames added risk and discomfort that would make most modern kids grateful for simple light switches if they ever had to try it for a week.

Doing All This On Top Of Today’s “Normal” Chores

What makes these old-fashioned chores especially staggering is that they came on top of cooking from scratch, sweeping, childcare, and other tasks that still exist today. As stated before, despite the spread of appliances, women spent around 50 to 60 hours per week on household work until at least the 1960s, and only began dropping significantly afterward.

Even now, a Nature study shows that girls and young women still do more chores than boys and are more likely to cook, clean, and care for siblings, suggesting that echoes of those older expectations remain even as the hardest manual labor has disappeared. If you handed most modern kids a washboard, chamber pot, and axe and told them these were their new Saturday chores, the backlash would be epic. But understanding just how hard everyday home life used to be can add perspective and maybe even make loading the dishwasher or taking out the trash feel like a much smaller ask.​

Disclosure: This article was developed with the assistance of AI and was subsequently reviewed, revised, and approved by our editorial team.

20 Odd American Traditions That Confuse the Rest of the World

20 Odd American Traditions That Confuse the Rest of the World

It’s no surprise that cultures worldwide have their own unique customs and traditions, but some of America’s most beloved habits can seem downright strange to outsiders.

Many American traditions may seem odd or even bizarre to people from other countries. Here are twenty of the strangest American traditions that confuse the rest of the world.

20 of the Worst American Tourist Attractions, Ranked in Order

20 of the Worst American Tourist Attractions, Ranked in Order

If you’ve found yourself here, it’s likely because you’re on a noble quest for the worst of the worst—the crème de la crème of the most underwhelming and downright disappointing tourist traps America offers. Maybe you’re looking to avoid common pitfalls, or perhaps just a connoisseur of the hilariously bad.

Whatever the reason, here is a list that’s sure to entertain, if not educate. Hold onto the hats and explore the ranking, in sequential order, of the 20 worst American tourist attractions.