Does your house ever look like a toy monster spewed all over it? I’m guessing if you have kids, your answer is yes. It is embarrassing to admit but, all too often, my house is a mess! With five boys and all their toys and books it feels like I clean up a room only to leave and come back to it looking worse than before!
That is when it’s time to use one of the following games/activities to get my kids motivated to clean up. Cuz, I don’t know about you but saying, “Time to clean up!” just doesn’t do it. That’s why I decided to get creative and come up with 5 ways to get kids excited to clean.
Find the Secret Object
This is probably my kids favorite of the 5 ways to get kids excited to clean. Before you start, think of a prize for each round. As an example, we have used M&Ms, Starbursts, and coins. Each time there is a winner, they win one candy or coin.
To begin, everyone needs to be cleaning in the same room. Before you say, “Go” to start cleaning, pick an object in the room that needs to be picked up and taken care of. When someone finds that object, announce that it was found and who found it. Then start another round until they find the next object. Use as many rounds as you need until the room is clean.
The trick to keep everyone motivated is to secretly make sure that each child gets to be a winner. After a couple of rounds, I wait until one of my kids that has not already won picks up an object and then I make that the secret object. Of course you want to make sure it is random so they do not catch on.
This is super motivating to my kids and the room is always clean before anyone even knows they are cleaning!
Race the Clock
This one is pretty simple. Set a timer for a certain amount of time and have everyone work together to get one room picked up in that time. We usually do 3 or 5 minutes, depending on the messiness of the room. I think any longer amount of time would make the kids not as motivated. It is fun to watch my kids clean so fast to beat the time we have set.
Divide and Conquer
You could make teams if you wanted for this one. Split up the rooms you want to have clean and see who can get their room clean first. You will want to make sure the rooms are close to needing the same amount of time to straighten up. Offer a prize if it helps, but often the competition is enough to motivate my kids.
Music Cleaning Party
The trick to this one is to find a song your kids like and are pretty familiar with. Whenever the verses are on, everyone is cleaning, but when the chorus comes on, everyone stops and dances and sings along if they want. Use multiple songs to get more cleaning time.
The Floor is Lava Cleaning
First, you will need to lay something out for the kids to jump onto. Ideas could be blankets or towels (maybe already dirty but dry). The kids need to try to clean up the objects in the room by only jumping onto the objects placed on the floor.
Even better, you could actually purchase the Floor is Lava game and use the included mats (rather than your dirty towels).
My boys are always playing this game anyway, so I use it to my advantage to throw in some cleaning while they are playing.
Time to Clean!
Now that you have some tools in your arsenal to get your kids more excited to clean, hopefully your house can be more clean with your kiddos doing more of the work!