One of the most valuable life skills you can teach your little one is how to clean up after themselves. Not only does it instill good cleaning habits early on, but it also encourages responsibility, introduces discipline, and paves the way for positive routines down the road.

The best way to teach kids any new skills is by making it engaging and fun! How do you make something fun? Turn it into a game! If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry, I’ll be sharing my favorite clean up games for kids. 

10 Clean Up Games for Kids

Music-a-Thon Clean Up Time 

Creating an allotted time-slot for clean up time may sound stressful, but it can actually be incredibly beneficial. Setting a timer when cleaning up is a fantastic way to encourage time management, make a game out of cleaning, and inspire some healthy competition. 

Rather than setting a timer on your phone and letting your little ones run free, let’s maintain a positive and fun environment! Create a small playlist of their favorite songs and give them until the end of the song(s) to finish cleaning! Dance party + clean up = one big happy family!

Parent Versus Child Clean Up Challenge

This activity is fantastic for teaching your kids the importance of working together to clean up. It’s super versatile and it can be applied to practically any task!

The concept is simple; you and your spouse do one task while your kids do another. You compete to see who can get their chore done first! They’ll love racing against you, and you’ll love that not one but TWO chores get done.

For example, if you’re getting your little one’s bath ready, their job is to clean up their toys and put them back in their proper spots. For older kids, you can have them wipe down the counters and table after dinner while you finish up with the dishes!

Laundry Basketball 

One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways you can teach your little ones to put their dirty clothes in the basket is by making a game out of it! Not to mention, a task becomes much more rewarding when children feel as if they’re winning something.

It’s SUPER simple to play this game. Just ball the dirty clothes up, set up your “basket/goal”, and have your little ones “score” every time they make it in. Before you know it, they’ll be putting their dirty clothes away without you even having to ask!

Paint and Clean the Windows

Window painting is a fan favorite in my house. My little ones love it solely because they’re allowed to make a mess that would usually be super against the rules! Of course, I love it because it’s both entertaining and beneficial to their development!

Yes, I am telling you to let your little ones paint on the windows. But don’t panic just yet! I created a DIY window paint recipe using things that you probably already have at home you’re saving money and using natural alternatives that won’t stain.

I know what you’re thinking, “Won’t that make your windows dirty?” Yes! But, I am not advocating you do this on clean windows. Instead, when you see the windows are getting really dirty, then go ahead and let them paint. Because afterward, you’ll have them clean it all up and you’ll have a clean window and they’ll have had a great time!

At at the end of the activity, show them how to use window cleaner, paper towels, and a small squeegee to magically wipe their masterpiece away! It helps teach them a basic cleaning task while also refining those find motor skills! That’s a win-win! 

Family Foam Fun Car Washing Activity 

This activity takes the same idea from the window paint activity, but the whole family gets to enjoy it and it uses foam instead!

You can find my DIY foam recipe here, and then just let the kids go crazy! When they’re over the activity, it’s time to wash the car together. Little can scrub the outside with rags and man the hose while older kids can vacuum the interior or wipe down the surfaces. It’ll be a blast! (But, plan to get wet!)

Bingo Chore Chart

Chore bingo is another fun way to keep your kids engaged and tantrum-free in their to-do lists! You can make it a little more complex for older kids, or simplify it for younger ones.

Creating a weekly or monthly bingo card full of things like “make the bed”, or “wash the dishes”, is a great way to keep older kids on track with their chores. For younger kids, you can do things like “put all the blocks away”, or “help match socks.”

To make it a game that they really care about, you need a prize! Think of a reward system that’ll keep your kiddos focused until they hit their Bingo or full up the card!

Clean Up Scavenger Hunt

This game will really have your kids moving! Make a stack of cards (index cards are fine) that includes all the categories of toys or belongings that need to be put away on a given day.

Put things like “art supplies” or “dirty clothes” or “blocks.” For younger kids, include a picture. Then, split the cards between all your kids and put them face down on a table. When you’re ready, say “Ready, Set, Go,” and get everyone moving! 

Toys to Clean Toys

For parents with little ones that love their toy cars, dump trucks, or even maybe a mini wagon, this is an activity your kids will enjoy so much they won’t even realize they’re cleaning!

Your kids are already stacking toys anyways, make a game out of it! Ask them how many Lego pieces that can fit into their dump truck to put back into the bin, or how many stuffed animals they can fit into their wagons so they can roll them back to where they need to be!

Clean-Up Guessing Game

If you’re a household with multiple kids, even if they’re different ages, this game is the perfect mix of cooperative fun.

You can split your kids up and assign them each a task. Have one kid clean up all the blocks in one room, while the other kid cleans up all the stuffed animals in the other room. Ask them to switch rooms after 5-10 minutes, and see if they can guess what the other cleaned up!

This is a super easy way to have them use critical thinking skills while also getting them to clean up in the process! Keep it going until all the toys are cleaned up. 

How To Get Kids To Clean Up

Making clean up games for kids is an effective and fun way to teach your child the importance of cleaning up after themselves. It’s also a creative way to aid the development of other important skills, like creativity, cooperation, communication, and critical thinking!

We want to teach our little ones to clean up early on, so as they grow up these tasks just become routines! Start involving them from the beginning, and ensure you always keep an organized play space that makes clean up easy. If the kids know where things go from a young age, teaching them to clean is a piece of cake!

Beyond that, you can also encourage good cleaning skills by demonstrating the value of cleaning up after yourself in day-to-day life. This may look like, picking up your table after eating at a restaurant or tidying up the chairs and picking up trash after leaving an event. Cleaning up is not only a skill, but a value! 

Have you used any of these games to make clean up time easier? 

I want to hear all about what YOU guys think! I’d love comments on some other fun games, or even feedback on how the games I listed may be helping your little ones during clean-up time!

For all types of different activities, recipes, sensory games, and more, visit the Mothercould blog! For some more behind-the-scenes on set-up recipes, step-by-step tutorials, and lots of beneficial sensory fun, download Mothercould in your Pocket!