Cleaning Games for Kids

Oh Dear Lord---anyone who has children knows that they go hand-in-hand with MESS.  For those cool, relaxed "hippie" type moms mess is NEVER a big deal---but for A-personality type moms like ME---mess, though natural, is an actual STRESS in our my life!  I know my limits---I can only handle SO many messes at one time--running a home daycare + our household is a double challenge---so, I've come to get "creative"--enlisting as much "child labour" as legally allowed hehehe!  I found a nice list on Organized Mom and probably use 2 or 3 of these through any given day---

The days that I don't, well....the kids' rooms look like THIS! 

Days when we DO use them---they usually look something like THIS! (k, perhaps not EXACTLY but I can force them hope their rooms are similar!)

Colors Game – During this game you take turns with your child calling out a color. Then the person who did not call out the color picks up everything in the room that is mostly that color. Keep choosing colors until the room is picked up!

Find the Treasure – Hide clues under your child’s things in their room. As the clean up the room they will find the clues. When it’s all picked up and they have found all the clues it can lead them to a treasure in the house (a treat or something). A variation on this is to hide coins under all of the stuff and as they clean they find coins to keep!

Sort the Stuff – Put the different bins throughout the room (this should be the bins where the toys usually go and they already have their labels of what should go into the bin) move everything in the room into the middle of the room and start sorting.

Make it a Race – Each person in the race takes one section (it could be individual rooms or just different areas of the same room.) Try and clean up as much as you can and beat your mom/brother/sister.

Name the Person – This game has nothing to do with the actual cleaning, but can offer some distraction while doing a large job. One person starts to give clues about a person (real or fiction) and everyone else has to guess who it is. This game is good for during folding laundry, doing the dishes, etc.

“Dirty” Dancing – Blast the children’s favorite songs and get to work. Dance as you sweep, scrub, and dust. Ice Skating – Have the children put on old socks and put water and cleaner on the floor. Let them skate all over the room to get the floor scrubbed.

Mirror Fight – Give each child some cleaner and a rag and have them each clean one side of a window. They will have fun spraying each other (which won’t actually hit them because they are on the other side of the glass.)

Hotel – Have your kids open a bed and breakfast. They can be the innkeeper and change the sheets and towels in their bedroom and bathroom. Then they can make the bed and get it all ready for “guests”.

The Clean Fairy – Do random bedroom checks. If the bedroom is clean then leave a note and a treat saying what a good job they have done keeping their room clean. If it is messy leave a note saying the fairy was there but couldn’t stay because it was messy.

Decorator – Whoever sets the table gets to decorate it for dinner (a centerpiece, placemats, etc), this can also work for cleaning the bathroom

P.S. Sometimes, these games work on Husbands/Dads as well! hehehe ;)