Turn Cleaning Into a Game: 5 Cleaning Games You Can Play

Sometimes it can be a real challenge to make your children clean up their room or tidy their toys. Especially when they are toddlers, it’s hard for them to realize why they need to do chores, tidy their bed and put their clothes away. So, when they are too young to reason, or you’re just having problems motivating them to be responsible. That’s when its time to turn cleaning into a game. 

Turn Cleaning Into a Game

This article will introduce you to five different and fun cleaning games that can be done in every household and are perfect for all families, no matter if you only have one kid or more. 

And if you’re starting to teach your kids about cleaning, check out our article on How To Teach Your Children Home Cleaning Skills. 

Treasure hunt

This game is perfect for curious kids that love adventure games. It’s easy to set up, and the only things you will need are some notes and the treasure itself. Here is what you need to: 

1. Create a map of your home and mark with an X the place of the first task. At the back, write that your kid needs to put X marks on the places where all the other chores will be. 
2. In the first note, write a description of what is expected of your kids. For example – “Fold the laundry and put it in your wardrobe.” Make sure the instructions are clear so that your child does not get confused.
3. Hide similar notes in every location. For example, if one of the chores is to fold the laundry, put the note at the bottom of the basket. This letter will describe the location of the next task and instructions on how to complete it. 
4. To keep your kid motivated, you can hide mini prizes in some of the locations, like a piece of candy or fruits. 
5. At the end of their adventure place the award or a description of it. For example, you can make a voucher for 3 hours on the gaming console, 1 trip to the zoo, etc. Choose something that will make your child truly happy and will not make them regret the whole hunt. 

Wheel of chores

To play this game, you will need to create the wheel, which can be a fun DIY project on its own, and it will make your child more involved in the process. 

How to make the wheel

You will need the following materials:

• A big cardboard box
• Scissors
• Paint, brushes, and markers 
• Two bottle caps
• Hammer and two nails
• Black duct tape 

And here is how you can make the chore wheel with your kids!

1. Cut out two circles from the cardboard – one bigger than the other, and two arrows – again, one bigger than the other. 
2. Divide the big wheel into different sections – these will be the different chores your kids need to do – sweep, mop, dust, tidy, etc. 
3. After that, divide the small wheel into the number of rooms you have in your house – living room, kitchen, kids room, etc. 
4. Let your kids colour in the different sections with paint of their choice. 
5. After the paint is dry, write down the chores and the rooms of the wheel. 
6. Once you are done with this, make a hole in the centre of the wheels. 
7. Put the nails through the bottle caps and into the holes of the cardboard wheels. 
8. If you want to attach this to the wall, just nail it carefully, on a level that would be easy to reach from your kids. 
9. If you don’t want to drill any holes, you can make a stand from the rest of the cardboard and attach the wheels to them. 
10. Just make sure to put some black tape at the sharp end of the nail to protect your kids from getting hurt. 

The rest is easy. Spinning the big wheel will show your kids the type of chore they need to do and the small one – the room they need to do it in. Include them in making the wheel, and they will love the game even more. After all, they made it! 

Boardgame of chores

This game also includes some DIY fun before you can start. Here is how you can do it:

1. Take a piece of cardboard or paper and divide it into different sections. 
2. The shapes are up to you – they can be circles, squares, starts, it doesn’t matter. 
3. Either draw or write different chores inside the sections. If you decide to do drawings, remember to create a legend on a separate piece of paper or cardboard so that your kids know exactly what they have to do. 
4. Get a cool-looking dice and you’re ready to play! 

Your kids roll the dice, and they have to do the chore written on the section they land on. If you have more than one child and they happen to land on the same section, let them do the chore together, if possible, or the same one in a different room. For example, if they both land on “tidy up toys,” they will have to do this task with their toys. 

You can set up different rules such as – one time per day. They have the right to roll again if they don’t like the chore. Or, they can switch with their sibling two times per week. Customize the whole experience so that it’s fun for your kids. 

Create cleaning tutorials

You can’t do this every time they need to clean up, but it is an enjoyable weekend activity, and it’s perfect for a spring cleaning, for example. The idea is to make your child feel like a true professional and share their expertise with the world. This will get them excited about cleaning, and they will be able to hone their theatrical skills, as well.

How you do this ambitious project is entirely up to you. You can start by writing a script together that will give you an idea of where you want to start, should you start by dusting the furniture or cleaning the dishes. We recommend filming several different videos, like your kid giving a tutorial on how to put their toys away, how to clean their room, how to mop the floors. You can find different cleaning tutorials online and follow them to make things easier. 

Your kid would want to appear cool on the camera, and they will give a lot more effort than usual. To make things even more interesting, they can even dress up as a maid, or something they like, a dragon even! It doesn’t matter. The main idea is for your kid to have fun, feel important, and want to share their fun with others. As for the videos themselves, we recommend that you post them online. After all, kids can’t consent to this. It’s best to keep them in the family. 

A game of musical cleaning chairs without the chairs

This is a fast-paced, energetic game that will not only clean the house fast but will also tire your children, so a good sleep night is guaranteed. Here is what you need to do: 

1. Make a list of chores that are quick to perform such as putting away clothes, taking the laundry out of the washing machine, fix their bed. 
2. Pick some music that your kids love, something that is high-energy and fun. 
3. Start playing the song and it’s time to start! 
4. Let them jump around and dance for around two minutes and then stop the music. 
5. Once the song is paused, they need to start doing the tasks you’ve put on the list. 
6. Continue like that until all the tasks are completed or until your children get really tired. 
7. In the end, give them a treat, like a fruit salad, ice cream, or something else that they love to keep them motivated.

Turn Cleaning Into a Game

We hope you found our cleaning games exciting and will implement them with your child. The most important part of it is to create memorable positive experiences that your child will remember for the rest of their lives and teach them to be responsible and tidy.