Kids love making messes, but they are not very good at cleaning them up. Getting kids to clean up their rooms or put away their toys can be challenging. Cleaning just isn’t as fun as playing, but it doesn’t have to be boring. You can use your imagination to turn cleaning tasks into fun games, missions, or challenges.
I asked several moms how they make cleaning fun for their kids and created this list of ideas for you. These 21 games will make cleaning fun for kids and will be enjoyable for the whole family.
Table of Contents
1. Cleaning Races
Cleaning races are a great way to make cleaning fun for kids. Tell your child what you are going to clean up and what you expect them to do. Then race to see who finishes first. (ex. I’m going to clean the kitchen and sweep the floors, you need to clean your room, let’s see who gets finished first!) Make a big deal about it like you really want to win as you count down 3, 2, 1, GO! And then start cleaning as fast as you can. My daughter loves competing against me!
2. Race the Timer
Set the timer; the time you choose depends on the size of the mess. Then work together to try to clean up everything before the timer beeps.
3. Beat Your Record
This is another speed activity, but it only involves your kids. Set a timer counting up. Have your child clean as fast as they can. When they are done, record their time. Next time they clean, see if they can beat their record.
4. Play Red Light, Green Light
The rules for this cleaning game are very similar to the regular version of red light, green light. Every time you say green light, kids will clean as fast as they can, when you call red light they freeze. Make it even more fun by freezing in silly positions.
5. Treasure Hunt
Hide fake gold coins (or real coins) around the mess. As your children are cleaning, they collect the coins. When the house is clean, see who found the most “treasure.” You will have to make it a rule that they can only keep the “treasure” if they put away the toys in that area. If you want to, you can attach a reward to the treasure. But this cleaning game is fun for kids with or without a reward.
6. Secret Toy
Pick one of your child’s toys to be the secret item. Set a timer for your child to clean up the room. See if they can put away the secret toy before the timer beeps.
You can also make this game a competition by having all of your kids clean up the same area. Whoever puts away the secret toy wins.
7. Basketball Contest
You can play basketball with laundry, trash, and soft toys.
8. Dance Party
Put on your children’s favorite music and dance around the house and be silly as you clean up and put away toys. You can also play the freeze game with music. When the music stops, your children will freeze in a silly position. Then when the music starts, continue cleaning as fast as they can.
9. Shopping Spree
If your child has a shopping cart as a toy, have them go on a shopping spree around the house, collecting all of the toys they can find. You can give your child a grocery bag instead if you don’t have a toy shopping cart. You can make it a competition to see who can collect the most items. Then afterward put them all away.
You can even do this same type of idea with other toys. For example, your child can pretend to be a construction worker and can use dump trucks and shovels to clean up.
10. Cleaning Relay
Set a timer. Have your children stand in a line. The first child runs and gets 5 objects and puts them away then runs back and high fives the next person in line and then goes to the end of the line. The next child puts away five items and runs back …continue this until all the toys are put away. Stop the timer. Next time, have your kids try to beat their previous record. You can make it a competition by dividing your family into two teams.
Another idea for a relay race would be to place 2 bins at one end of the room. Line up your kids in two teams on the other end of the room. When you say go, the first person in each team runs and picks up one toy, puts it in the bin, and runs back. Then the next person in line goes. Whichever team fills their bin to the top first wins.
11. Play Pretend
Have your child come up with a character that they can pretend to be while they are cleaning up. They could be maids/butlers, police officers, or even video game characters.
For example, if they want to be a superhero, they can go around the house “rescuing” all of the toys and putting them in safely in their homes. If they are pretending to be a video game character, play the video game theme song, like Super Mario Bros. and go around the house pretending to collect all of the “coins” before Bowser comes and gets them. Get creative and be silly.
You could even pretend that you are on a TV show about cleaning, complete with a before and after picture of the room.
12. Roll Your Task
Write a list of 6 tasks your children will have to do to clean their room. For example, 1. Put clothes away, 2. Put Books away, 3. Throw away any Trash, 4. Put toys around the house away, 5. Put toys in their room away, and 6. Make their bed. Change the tasks to fit the kind of messes your child has. Your child should roll the dice to see what task to do first. When they complete the task, they roll the dice again. Continue rolling the dice and completing tasks until every task is done.
To make it more fun, write silly tasks next to the cleaning task.If your child rolls a number again and their cleaning task is already done for that number, then they have to do the silly task in order to roll again. Ideas include jumping jacks, doing a silly dance, giving mom a hug, etc.
You can also turn this game into a competition to see which child can get their tasks all completed first.
13. Cleaning Board Game
Similar to the dice game, you can sprinkle different chores around a blank board game. As your child lands on a task, they have to complete the task before they can roll again. If they land on a task they have already completed, then they can roll again. You can find free printable blank board games by doing a quick Google search.
14. I Spy
Play I spy with your child for items they need to find and put away. If you have more than one child, they can compete to see who can find the items first. Take turns giving clues to make it even more fun. For example, I spy 4 things that are red, I spy 6 things that are soft, or I spy 9 things that are smaller than your hand.
15. Simon Says
Play Simon Says Cleaning Edition. Follow the normal rules of the game. Say things like Simon says jump on one foot to your bedroom and put away all the books. If you say something like “make your bed,” without saying, “Simon says,” then your child should stay put and not do that task. Take turns being Simon.
16. Secret Mission
Write tasks on separate small pieces of paper and put the papers in the secret mission box (a regular box, or a box you and your child decorated). Your child will pull out a piece of paper and hand it to you. You open it up and announce to them in a very serious voice, “Your mission is to put away all of the toy cars in less than 2 minutes. When they complete that mission, they come back to you for their next mission. Really play up how important the missions are and use your imagination to make it even more fun.
17. Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt is a great way to make cleaning fun for kids. Hide a prize or some of your children’s favorite toys and create clues for them to find the prize. Start by reading the first clue to your child. In order to get the next clue, they have to do a quick chore listed on the clue.
For example, your first clue can be “Go to the place where your dirty clothes rest before they get washed.” Your child will go to the dirty clothes basket to find their next clue. This clue will have a task written on it as well. For example, the task could be “Put all the dirty clothes in the washer and start it, or put all the clothes from the dryer in the laundry basket.” Then the next clue could be “You rest your head on me each night.” Your child would look under their pillow for their next clue. Their task might be to make their bed. By the time they find their prize, they will have completed many chores.
18. Baseboard Race Track
Make cleaning your baseboards quick and fun with this baseboard race car cleaning game. Give your child a dust rag and see how fast he/she can race it around the racetrack (the baseboard). Use a stopwatch to keep track of how long it takes. Then have the next player go. Whoever gets around the race track the fastest wins.
19. Sock Snowball Fight
Bring out a basket of mismatched socks and have your kids race to see how many pairs they can match. Every time they fold a pair of socks together, that is a snowball. The faster they match the socks, the more snowballs they will have for the snowball fight. When all the socks are matched, let your kids have a sock snowball fight for a few minutes.
20. Dirt Hunt
For this game, give each of your kids a handheld broom and dustpan set. Then set the timer for three minutes and have your kids go around the house sweeping up any dust, dirt, or crumbs that they find on the floors. At the end of the three minutes, whoever has the most in their dustpan wins.
Turn the dirt hunt into a hockey game by using masking tape to create square goals on the floor. You will need one goal per player. Or divide the players into two teams Players use brooms to sweep as much dirt into their goal as possible. Whichever teams square has the most dirt wins. You can make this activity even more fun by having your children skate around on paper plates.
You can do the same type of activity by giving each child a wipe or a damp cloth and have them go around wiping surfaces down. In the end, whoever has the dirtiest cloth wins.
21. Challenges
Think of fun challenges for your child. Can you put all the Legos away with your eyes closed? Can you put away all of your stuffed animals only using tongs? Can you put away your blocks while crawling like a snake on your belly, etc? Silly challenges like these definitely make cleaning fun for kids.
Conclusion
Making cleaning fun is a great way to get kids to willingly do chores and to get kids to clean up after themselves. Turning cleaning tasks into games will make even the most boring cleaning task fun and exciting. Think about what your child is interested in and keep their interests in mind when you come up with a cleaning game or activity.
What do you do to make cleaning fun for kids? I would love to learn new ideas for cleaning games. If you have ideas please share in the comments section below.
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