These cleaning games for kids are fun ways to tidy up the house or have classroom cleanup! From how to teaching toddlers to clean to preschool clean-up games and fun family organization ideas, there’s a cleanliness game in here for everyone! Remember, cleaning and organization skills and cleaning skills are part of real life learning, so make it part of your gameschooling, fun way to organize homeschool supplies, or creative classroom tasks for good cleaning habits.
Best Cleaning Games For Kids List
Kid-tested games that really work for motivating kids to clean / teaching kids to clean. Part of what makes cleaning not fun is that it feels like a job or chores for kids. Make tidying up fun really does help! (We tested these kids activities for cleaning a messy room!) So much fun for kids classroom activities or family members chores / household chores.
How do you make tidying up fun for kids?
- ABC Alphabet Clean-Up Game
- Magic Cleanup Wand
- Cleaning Scavenger Hunt / Treasure Hunt
- Superhero Cleaners
- Construction Site Cleanup
- Toy Color Sorting Race
- Roll And Toss Clean-Up
- Kitchen Chef Cleaner
- Simon Says Clean Up!
- Flashlight Zoo Cleanup Game
Get the details for these little games below. Be sure to see the toddler tidy games after the main section!
How To Play Clean-up Games With Kids
ABC Alphabet Clean-Up Game
Call out each letter of the alphabet and see if they can find something that starts with that letter to grab and toss into the toy bin.
GAME TIP: Colors count, too! So if they find a blue elephant for the letter B, that works!
Magic Cleanup Wand
This is a fun dusting trick while cleaning!
Give kids a new duster and tell them its the magic cleanup wand. They have to use the “magic wand” to see how much dust they make disappear within a time frame (like a clean up time of 5 minutes).
Cleaning Scavenger Hunt
Make a list of items that need tidying around the house or cleaning up around the classroom. (Like, lone yellow sock, toothpaste without a lid, rainbow puzzle not in box, etc.).
For older kids, you can give them a list (or even break them into teams) and see what they can find and correct. Person/team who finishes the list first, wins. (Give out fun prizes!)
For younger kids (like toddler clean-up or preschooler cleaning tasks), call out the items and see who finds it and puts it away first.
Superhero Cleaners
Give kids capes (and you can even let them choose their superhero names!).
Kids save the day in the city by cleaning up all the mess the “villains” left around the city.
Construction Site Cleanup
Give the kids play construction hats and tell them that they are construction workers that have to clean up a messy construction site.
Give them a certain amount of time to quickly clean up the “construction site” before the boss gets into work!
Toy Color Sorting Race
Place baskets or storage bins of different colors in the room.
Set a timer (like 5 minutes). Toys have to be sorted into the bin/basket with the same color within the time frame. You can even give a small cleaning prize or cleaning trophy to the first person to complete the cleaning tasks.
You could even keep track of “winners” each day with star stickers and award a trophy at the end of the week (that gets passed to a new person the next week).
Roll And Toss Clean-Up
Label different bins with numbers.
Kids roll on a dice (those big oversized dice are fun with this!) and tosses the number of toys into storage bin / toy box based on the number they rolled.
If your kids love dice games, add this one to your chore time!
Kitchen Chef Cleaner
Give kids funny play chef hats to wear. Tell the kids “Oh no! The kitchen is a mess! We have to get all the ingredients back into the right places before the main chef comes in to cook!”
Kids have to clean up the toys quickly within a specific time (like 5 minutes) before the big chef comes back!
Simon Says Clean Up!
Play a fun cleaning version of Simon Says by calling out cleaning tasks.
Kids follow instructions only when preceded by “Simon Says.”
Person who does the task when you don’t say “Simon Says” stays in the game, but has to perform two clean-up tasks first.
Flashlight Zoo Cleanup Game
Dim the lights and give kids flashlights.
They go on a search to find all the escaped items from the zoo and return them to their proper “cages” (bins, closet, toybox, etc.)
Toddler Cleaning Games
Sock Puppet Cleanup
Have kids wear socks on their hands and use their “puppet hands” to pick up toys and put them away.
This is a great way to work on fine motor skills, too!
Go Fish Cleaning Game
Help! The fish got out of their tank!
Use small baskets as fish nets and toddlers have to catch the fish (put it in the basket) to take it back to their tank (the toy box, clothing dresser, etc.).
Animal Cleanup Parade
Create a parade by assigning each child an animal.
The kids then march their animals around the room, picking up toys and imitating their assigned animal.
Great for coordination skills, too!
Freeze Dance Clean Up
Play upbeat music while kids tidy up. When the music stops, they freeze and resume cleaning when it starts again.
(I love this for a mix of older kids and younger children.)
Color Hunt Cleanup Game
Ask toddlers to find and pick up toys of a specific color and match it to a bin of the same color, helping little ones work on color recognition.
It’s also a great way to introduce little kids to organizational skills and not just a tidying task.
MORE WAYS TO CLEAN AND DECLUTTER YOUR HOMESCHOOL ROOM, CLASSROOM AND HOME:
Good luck and happy cleaning!
We hope you have fun with these cleaning games for kids!
