Top 20 Cleaning Games

Everything is more fun with a game—even household chores. I’ve always invented cleaning games, with my siblings, for myself, and with my own kids. So I thought I’d share my Top 20.

Other episodes about cleaning with kids:

Episode Transcript:

I'm the oldest of five children, which means I babysat my siblings a lot. And I actually loved being in charge. But one of the things I was always doing when I babysat was thinking of creative ways to get them to help me clean up the house, but without actually having to do the cleaning myself. So I invented a somewhat manipulative game called Don't Wake Mom. The rules were simple. I would pretend to be the mom and I was really tired and I needed to nap on the couch. They all had to clean up as quietly as they could.

If they made a sound, I would wake up and first pretend I was super mad at them for waking me up and then be amazed at how clean everything was getting. So I wondered if my siblings remembered the cleaning games I used to play with them.

Whitney: Do you remember when I used to…

Brad: Pretend you're asleep. The only one, the only one I know is like, don't wake up mom kind of thing. Yeah.

Whitney: Make up cleaning games

Brett:  That's all the ones I know are from you doing them to us.

Whitney : I know, I've just always done it. Yeah, yeah, that was my most common one.

Most of them now invent their own cleaning games to play with the 26 children that we have between us.

Intro

Welcome to the Family Lab podcast where we experiment with all things parenting and home management.

For the month of April, in the spirit of spring cleaning, I thought we'd focus on how to teach kids to clean. I've done a lot of episodes about this, and I'll include links to them in the show notes, but this week I wanted to finally do an episode that I've been wanting to do for a really long time, cleaning games. As you learned in the intro, it's been a long-term hobby of mine.

And I've determined that I'm somewhat unique in this because I keep asking people to share their cleaning games and  not a lot of people have contributed, but I have collected 20 different cleaning game ideas that you can try and I'll list them in the show notes and on the episode page at FamilyLabPodcast.com so you can get the whole list. You can also subscribe to my newsletter to get a list of cleaning skills for kids to learn, or you can buy it for a dollar from FamilyLabPodcast.com.

So first, I just want to talk about why you would play cleaning games. On one hand, no one's fooling anyone about the fact that we're still cleaning. We're not even trying to trick our kids into cleaning or into thinking that cleaning is actually fun. The point is really about like attitude and connection. Being playful while we clean up sends the message that work is a part of life that has to happen whether we want to or not. So we might as well have fun while we're doing it. And again, if you've got to do it, you might as well do it together and connect in the process.

Here's what my sister Cassie Gad had to say about it.

“I'm kind of on the fence about it, because part of me says it's ridiculous that I have to come up with a game every time I want my kids to do any work.

Then the other part of me thinks, why not make it enjoyable if they have to do it anyway so that I don't have huge complainers. And sometimes it doesn't even help. It doesn't matter if I make it super fun or not. They're just going to whine anyway. at that point, I, that's usually when I get frustrated that I have to make it a game anyway because they're like,

What we have to do work like it's brand new thing like they've They've never experienced chores before All right, and has it I know you're very good at coming up with games So has that backfired? Has it created an expectation? think somewhat but at the same time like it's worth it. They don't whine quite as much.”

Clearly games are not a perfect antidote for motivating kids to work, but I would much rather expend the energy to try and make it fun than the energy drain of listening to them whine and procrastinate. tasks can make it more pleasant for everyone. In fact, I play games as just myself all the time when I'm cleaning, beating the clock, rewarding myself with a chapter in my book or a song on the piano after each cleaning task, or setting arbitrary rules for myself, like I can't leave a room without doing at least one thing to make it cleaner.

 And also, let's be real here. I'm partly making this episode to remind myself to bring a little more fun to the work of daily life. Most, if not all, of these examples of games are from like 10 to 15 years ago when my oldest kids were little. With mostly teenagers now, I usually just tell them to suck it up and get cleaning. my poor youngest son hasn't even heard of most of these games, let alone played them with me. So don't feel bad if you haven't been bringing the fun. I haven't really been either lately. So let's get on with the actual games.

Game 1: Don’t Wake Mom

You already know the first one, the one that started it all, don't wake mom or variations, don't wake the bear or the alligator. Even though it got less than stellar reviews from my siblings, I still did play this with my own kids because it's an amazing game for a tired parent. You just lie down dramatically and talk about how tired you are and then pretend you're asleep, fake snoring encouraged.

Every once in a while when you hear a noise, you get up and start fake raging and pretend you're super mad that your kids woke you up. And then you get all excited and cheer up because you see that the room is cleaner than when you fell asleep. And then you then you can say like, wait a minute, were you cleaning without me? I wanted to help. I just need a few more minutes. And then you can start it all over again and get some rest. It's a great one. And I highly recommend it, especially with little kids.

Game 2: Role Playing

That game of pretend leads me to the second game, is actually a whole category of games, role playing. My sister Cassie's kids tend to be quite dramatic, so they love this strategy. Here are two scenarios her kids have loved.

Cassie: We pretended one time that a very rich homeowner, we were her employees and that we had to clean up the house and she was going to come and inspect. We had to be very...

careful to get everything very clean for this rich lady that was going to come back. And then I played the role of the rich lady afterwards. And I handed it off, and they thought it was hilarious. But we also picked new names. And my daughter says something pretty standard, like just some girly name. But then she decided that her four-year-old brother would be Chicken. That was his name.

for our game. House cleaner named Chicken. So they just cleaned up. then I went through and checked and told them that they were terrible workers and needed to clean things up more. And they were hurrying to get things cleaned up.

And also, sometimes we pretend that they're orphans, like Annie. And somehow, whenever you add an orphan into the mix, it becomes 10 times more romantic. I think that is the best ever

Some of my favorite role-playing ideas come from Chelsea Anderson, who appropriately calls herself the Michael Jordan of babysitting. You may know her from her Instagram, Chelsea Explains, and TikTok, Chelsea Explains It All. The first one involves one Justin Bieber.

Chelsea: In high school, I used to babysit these three girls. I think they were like seven, nine, and 10-ish, and they were obsessed with Justin Bieber. And you know what they were not obsessed with? Cleaning up. One day, the house is a disaster and I get a brilliant idea. And I say to the girls, hey girls, do you guys want to pretend that we all work for Justin Bieber? And this is his house and he's coming home in an hour and we had to get it in tip-top shape. They took the bait. In fact, not only were they motivated to clean up the obvious messes, but one of the girls came out of the pantry and she said, I lined up all the cereal and snack boxes in rainbow order because I think Justin Bieber would like that.

And I said, I think you're exactly right. I think Justin Bieber would love that. This became a recurring bit. We were almost never cleaning their house. We were cleaning Justin Bieber's house a lot. And I noticed something, even in my more adult brain, it made the cleaning easier. Just engaging the play part of your brain changes the task at hand. It really does. There's no reason that you or your kids have to suffer through boring tasks because you can always pretend that Justin Bieber hired you to do it.

And here's her second one.

You need to enlist those kids in the Secret Service. You gotta brief them, hey, this is how we talk to each other when we're in the Secret Service. Pshh, I'm Agent Chelsea. Pshh, you're Agent Sam. And when I see a big mess, I'm gonna, pshh. Agent Sam, do you read me? Sir, a bomb has gone off. Or let's say something spilled. Agent Grace, we're gonna need the chemical weapons. That's spray cleaner.

Chelsea is currently writing a book with all her best babysitting hacks so we can all tap into her genius ideas, so be on the lookout for that.

The last role playing game is a little more involved and it comes from my friend Rachel. When she was little, her mother Nan and her mother's friend used to dress up as cleaning fairies, complete with white gloves, and swap houses to inspect the quality of the cleaning their friends' children had done in their houses that day. The kids worked extra hard so that they would pass the inspection. I love that one.

Game 3: The Robot Game

Okay, so the third game is the robot game, and this is from my sister Haley Kirkland.

Hayley: I like the robot one where you program each kid. So you say you are Blocks and then they have to walk around like a robot and go put it away.  You type the program in on their back.

We've played this too and it's a big winner, especially for those with less attention than others.

Game 4: The Magic Piece

Cleaning game number four is the Magic Piece. My sister Cassie introduced me to this game, which I guess is a common game in elementary school classrooms. And after she told me about it, it became our most frequent cleaning game, partly because it's so easy to play. We actually changed the name to Jackpot, but here's my sister to tell about the game.

Cassie: So for a long time, they were into Magic Piece. And it's just back from my teaching days. I'm sure everyone who was once a school teacher knows this game. But you just pick a Magic Piece. And I used to do it with garbage when I was a school teacher. But I just say Magic Piece Go. And I have my eye on a certain toy or something like that. And I don't tell them.

I don't tell any of them who picks it up. I just wait until the very end. And at the very end, I tell them who got the magic piece. And they get something very small, like an  or something like that, like something super small. But they got really sick of that one as they got older.

So we changed it to where they would take turns. Like one of the kids would pick a magic piece. And then if a brother or sister found the magic piece, then they would have to say, ding, ding, ding, you found it. And then it would trade off. So then that person will be in charge of finding the magic piece. And if they don't find it after five minutes,

Because sometimes they would be like, is that crumb on the floor? And nobody got it. So they got to sit down and watch everybody work. So it wasn't working well. But when they would take more than five minutes to find something, then they would have to tell what color it was. And then they would find it from there.

Game 5: Level Up

Another game that my sister Cassie made up is called Level Up and I will include her backstory just because it's so real.

Cassie:

So one day I was sick. We got home late—just a bunch of after school things and they were neighbors over and I really had a messy, messy house and I had anticipated having my kids clean all day. And so was so frustrated when I didn't have their attention because they had these friends over it was dinner time and I hadn't even thought of dinner and I was like, get into the house. We are done.

Like this is not okay. And I was so ticked. I was like, you can't eat any dinner until this room is clean. This is, this is a dump. And just going off and I was furious and they started pushing back. And so it just escalated and made everything horrible. And then I just kind of paused for a second and I was like, this is not helping to be so frustrated with them because they didn't do anything wrong. They had friends come over. They didn't even invite their friends over. They just came. So I was like, OK, I need to stop. So I was like, OK, what could we do to turn this around and make it so it's a game that they can be rewarded of punished for something they didn't do?

So I just took a deep breath, and I said, “I'm sorry. I'm frustrated and I'm stressed out because this is a dump. Like I don't want to live this way and I know you don't like want to live this way. So I said, all right, we're going to play a game. And if you can get so much stuff done, then we can have ice cream after dinner. But if you get this many things picked up or something like that, then you will go up a level. You'll level up.”

 My kids don't even play video games. They have no idea what leveling up was, but they thought it was cool anyway. So was like, if you get this much, then you can have ice cream with chocolate sauce on top. If you get this much, then you can have chocolate sauce and spray whipped cream. And if you get this much, so it just kind of was like, every time they leveled up or did something better than just the average, what was required, then they would get something cooler on the ice cream. And it wasn't even like amazing things like nuts on their ice cream, which some of them don't even love having nuts on their ice cream. But because it was leveling up, they thought it was so cool. And so they totally worked hard.

And it just changed it from being me being a total tyrant and so frustrated with my life and with them, to them, like being excited and they're working to earn something. it was great. I don't like to always reward them every time they like lift a finger. But in that instance, where it was just a losing situation anyway, it was really nice to be able to have something at the end, when I realized that it wasn't their fault in the first place.

Game 6: Whipped Clean

Since we're on the topic of sweet rewards, my next cleaning game is very simple: whipped clean. You give a kid a simple task like clear all the dishes off the table and as soon as they complete it, you squirt a bit of whipped cream directly into their mouth. is usually forbidden, the kids think it's so fun. I did this a lot when my kids were little and they just loved it.

Game 7: Cookie Clean

The other treat based game is what we call cookie clean. I would make a list of cleaning tasks that matched up with chocolate chip cookie ingredients and then each time they completed a task, the kids could add that ingredient to the mixing bowl. got to pop the cookies in the oven and enjoy them together in our clean or at least cleaner house.

Game 8: Freeze Clean

Game number eight is super simple but fun. It's basically like freeze dance, but it's freeze clean. So you play fun upbeat music while everyone cleans and then you stop it once in a while and the kids have to freeze and the first one who moves gets a point against them. Or you can do it without the points and just laugh at your funny positions that you end up in. You've probably played freeze dance. So it's, it's just that basically.

Game 9: Party Day

When my kids were little, one of our favorite games was one I just called Party Day. I'd cut about 10 strips of paper and write the five most pressing cleaning tasks on half of the papers and fill the other half of the papers with fun activities I thought we could realistically pull off that day, like a trip to the park, a dance party, a game of hide and seek, a fun TV show we could watch together, those kind of things. Then I'd roll up all the pieces of paper and stick them inside balloons.

I'd have my kids pop a balloon and we'd do whatever was inside it. And then that really took up the whole day. And I usually did that when I had just toddlers at home or things like that. So that was pretty fun.

Game 10: Color Search

Number 10 is another easy one that takes no prep. And I just called it color search. So this is a great one for putting away laundry or cleaning up a playroom. Somebody chooses a color and you all have to find everything with even a little bit of that color and put it away. Then the next person chooses a color until everything is picked up.

Game 11: Beat the Clock

Game number 11 is just beat the clock. And you can do this in any number of variations using an egg timer or a stopwatch. The kids like the egg timer because you can visually see that it's getting closer. And you just kind of estimate how long it's going to take  and then try to beat the timer. Or you can use a stopwatch and time them. This is one where like,

The reverse psychology works really well with little kids like, I bet you can't clean this room in under five minutes. There's no way. And then you set the timer and they beat it. And it's this amazing thing. They prove you wrong.  I've also played this with just like commercial breaks. If they really want to watch something, then we're like, OK, we can watch it. But every commercial break, we have to see how much we can clean. And then, you you try to beat the commercial break time. So that's kind of fun because you don't even know what.

the amount of time is and you you try to get it done.

Game 12: Dice Clean

Number 12 is kind of another category it's dice games so you can do this in several ways sometimes I have like assigned each number a type of chore or a room to clean and when we roll it we clean that room for five minutes and then we move to the next room for five minutes depending on the roll so that that's one way to do it.

Or you roll the dice and that's how many items they have to pick up, things like that. But that's just another way to introduce some surprise and unpredictability to make it a little bit more fun.

Game 13: Inspector Gadget/Secret Missions

Number 13 is one of my kids' favorite. It's not on anymore, so I had to show them clips of Inspector Gadget from YouTube or something. But we played Inspector Gadget, and so I would write down missions on pieces of paper, and at the end it would say, this message will self-destruct. And so they had to throw it far away from them before it exploded in the trash can or whatever. I would give them missions, and then they were Inspector Gadget, and they had to carry out the missions. And they'd be pretty short, and then they'd come back for another mission. And I'd deliver it to them in a funny way, because that's kind one of the things in Inspector Gadget. So I'd like attach it to a stuffed animal and have it come hand it to him or something like that just to make it a little bit more fun. And then they were on a mission instead of just doing mundane jobs.

Game 14: Super Speed

Number 14 is one from my friend Amber Adams. She would just record them on their phone, like take a video of them and then play it back in fast motion and set it to music like super easy, you know, make a quick video clip and then they could do an odd how fast they cleaned that up and and how amazing they were.  It's simple, but it works.

Game 15: Races

Number 15 is kind of similar, just having cleaning races. like either split into two teams and like I bet we can clean this room before you clean that room or  on very specific tasks like let's see if who can finish the weeding the fastest in this row or this row or this section this section  There are many ways you can do races you can get creative with this but  Just a little competition can make it a little bit more fun

Game 16: One Thing Leads to Another

Number 16 is one that I just call one thing leads to another and so you start by like Just cleaning up in one room and you find an item that belongs in another room and you go to that room and then in that room you have to find something that belongs in another room and you take that to the other room and then at a designated amount of time you all see where everybody ends up in the house and you can like trace your lives here and here and then and then went there and there. It's just a way to get those annoying objects where you have to move from one room to another and make it kind of more fun and more efficient maybe even.

Game 17: Jump Rope Zones

number 17 is more of a cleaning technique than maybe a game. But this is one I used to play in my room when I was cleaning up my room as a kid, you know, especially when it would get really messy. I would take a jump rope and I would just close off a section of the room with the jump rope. And I had to clean everything that was in that section. And then I'd move on. I'd move the jump rope to another section and do that section just to split up the work. And I don't know. It worked for me. It worked for my brain.

Game 18: Wall to Wall

Another one that I played when I was a kid just by myself is one I just called Wall to Wall. And I would follow the wall and clean up everything I could reach while I was by the wall.  And then I'd just keep moving along the wall. I think it was just a way to bring order to things. And then sometimes the wall brought you out of the room before you were finished with that room. And so then you'd be cleaning a and having to clean that up.

Just another silly little game you could play.

Game 19: Jenga Clean

Another one, this comes from Alex Richards from the Momtastic website. She played cleaning Jenga. So you could like write  cleaning tasks on a Jenga set. You could even have a Jenga set that is specifically your cleaning set with different jobs like.dusting, cleaning light switches, sweeping, vacuuming, things like that. And  then, you you don't know what's on the specific block when you're playing. But if you get it out, then you see what job you have to do and then, you know, take turns doing that. So I thought that was a fun one. That is probably the only one that I haven't actually tried

Game 20: Workout Cleaning

And that brings us to number 20. The 20th cleaning game  is one that I used to play as a young mom because I found it hard to get a workout in. then later I played it with my kids you know, just to make things fun. But I just, yeah, I just called it my cleaning workout

And for this game, I would again be looking for the items that did not belong in the room that I was cleaning. And I would take it to the room where it went  doing some form of exercise and I'd mix it up. Like sometimes I'd have to do like jumping jacks the whole way or deep knee bends or lunges or I'd have to skip from one room to the other or gallop and you know, like especially with the kids, we'd make it creative like  twirling or you know, something like that. So we'd have to do like some physical activity to bring it to the room that it went in or sometimes if there's just a lot of things that belong in the same room, we'd even do like clean up five items and then after that, you have to run down the hall and run back or, you know, one of the other kinds of exercise.

So it was just a way to combine workouts and cleaning in a fun way. So those are my crazy cleaning games and mine and some other people's. Oh, I almost forgot. So there's actually going to be 21. I have one more from my brother that I almost forgot and I love this one. So I'm going to let him tell what it is. OK.

Brett: I did a Taekwondo, like, high intensity interval training type cleaning. So it'd be like, set a timer for three minutes, go clean, and then when the alarm goes off, you come and kick the thing and get in line, and then you go clean for three minutes and kick the thing. That was a good one. They love it. Because the little kids, they're all laughing. The big kids are laughing, the little kids doing it, and the big kids are just getting out some aggression.

Thank you for joining us for the Family Lab. I hope one or more of these games struck your fancy and that they were easy enough to execute. I tried to include a lot that were very easy to do, don't even take supplies--or maybe it helps you come up with one that fits your family more. I would love to hear about any cleaning games that you play either on your own or with your kids. Let's keep this list going and I'll I'm always up for trying a cleaning game as you can tell.

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