How To Get Your Kids to Clean Their Room

If there's one thing that you do a lot in a family with 6 kids, it's clean. I'm not talking about serious deep-cleaning. Unless somebody famous is coming to our house, that stuff pretty much never happens.

No, I'm talking about just picking stuff up. And getting your kids to pitch in, preferably without whining, taking all day, or arguing over who's cleaning up more.

Having a few clean-up games for kids in your pocket can help. Here are some of the ones we've tried in the past, some more successful than others.

The 60-Second Cleanup

When a room is, like, biohazard messy, we gather every member of the family and count off 60 seconds as we clean together at top speed.

Pros: Obviously we don't get it all done in one shot, but we make a dent and it makes the job less overwhelming. My kids also think they're getting away with something if they start cleaning before I say "ready, set, go."

Cons: It's hard to stop when the room's not even close to done. But if you keep going after you hit 60, the natives will revolt.

Divide and Conquer Cleanup

For tattle-free cleaning, assign each one a side of the room. They can come out as soon as their side is straightened up.

Pros: I started doing this when my daughters, who share a room, began to believe that "clean your room" meant "report to me constantly on whatever your sister is doing or not doing." Now, they don't care what the other does.

Cons: Sometimes it's really not fair if I know one has been responsible for making most of the mess. I'll either do a different type of cleanup, or I'll give the messier side of the room to the one who's been a piggy.

Flashlight Cleanup

The kids like it when I turn off the lights and use a flashlight to point at junk on the floor. They race to grab each item and put it away.

Pros: The kids actually beg me to do flashlight cleanups before bed sometimes. They think it's fun.

Cons: Collisions. Possible concussions. Takes forever. Can only be done at nighttime. Did I mention concussions? I think I discovered this cleanup on Pinterest, the source of all ideas that sound good but don't actually work in real life.

Fast and Slow Cleanup

Using any song of your choice, alternate between singing ridiculously slow and ridiculously fast. The kids copy you, cleaning up slow or fast depending on your singing.

Pros:  I don't know why this excites them, it just does. I mostly sing fast, but just a few seconds here and there of slow singing makes all the difference.

Cons: Listening to yourself sing "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere" over and over may cause your brain to implode. I suggest picking another song. Any other song.

Beat the Buzzer Cleanup

Sometimes I take a buzzer from a board game and put it on the far side of the room. They clean as I sloooowly walk toward it with my finger extended. The kids try to get the room straightened up before I get to the buzzer and push it.

Pros: Watching how far I am from the button is a good visual to keep them on task. You could even have the kids hit the buzzer if they beat you — if there's anything I know about children, it's that they love making loud, annoying noises.

Cons: You have to be there the whole time the cleaning is going on, which is kind of irritating. Maybe you can read a book or something?

40-Count Cleanup

When I'm feeling particularly hands-off, I'll simply tell my kids to pick up and put away 40 things. We've tried different numbers in the past, but for whatever reason 40 seems to yield the best results.

Pros: They clean fast since they know it'll be over soon (sooner if they speed up.) They choose what they put away so there's usually less whining. Doesn't require me to be physically in the room, as long as the honor system holds.

Cons: Only works with kids who know their numbers. They'll also try to count each individual Lego as one of their 40 things. Seriously, you're going to need to lay down some comprehensive ground rules about what constitutes "one" thing.  


If all else fails, you can always walk in wearing a hazmat suit and start throwing things in garbage bags with a pair of salad tongs. That'll light a fire under your kids and get the room cleaned up in no time.

Click to Share: