by Saphira Xenno

Created on: February 27, 2009

One of the main things kids hate to do is clean up; especially their rooms'. But if you follow these simple steps and incorporate these games into clean up time, your kids may be happily skipping off to clean that room without being told.

When my siblings and I were younger we found that with all the toys, paper sniping, crayon paper, and the like, our rooms needed cleaning several times a day. Very frustrating as you might imagine. There being many of us, we put our heads together to devised a system of games that we used to get the room clean in a fun, inventive way.

Most of the games focus on teamwork and sorting to distribute the workload. So no one person has to clean their room alone.

Below is a list of the games, how they're played and the rules.

Woof Chase
This game is named for the sound you make when you chase one of the idlers as we used to call them.

Number of people to play: 3+

Equipment: just a dirty room

How to Play: To play this game first you'll have give everyone a title.

Toys Executive, representative, handler etc. - This person is in charge of making sure all the toys go were they belong.

Clothes Executive- Same duty as the Toy person, but for clothes instead.

All other categories of stuff get their handlers too.

Chaser- The chaser is a sort of watchman to make sure no one is idle.

After everyone is assigned their job, the game and cleaning can begin.

All handlers are racing to get their respective materials in their places first.

As soon as your category is neatly filed away you may now take the place of chaser, which is basically the easiest part. The previous chaser takes up a new category if there be any.

When some one is caught being idle or horsing around, the Chaser goes after them to either tickle, playfully pinch or in a another friendly way, remind them of the task at hand.

By the time everyone has gotten a chance to be the Chaser; all the categories of stuff have been cleaned away and the room is clean, all in the disguise of a game.

Train Clean Up

The name says it all about this game which is essentially a train carrying out of place room wares, to their proper homes. It is very popular among younger kids.

Number of people to play: 2+

Equipment: A crate, box, laundry pan or other medium sized container for each child to serve as train cars.

How to play: The same concept of handlers for each class of things goes in this game, but instead your train car will carry your cargo.

First, all of the 'cargo' must be divided into lanes. This could mean instead

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