How to Have Fun While Cleaning Your Room

Playing a Game

Make it a race. Set a timer and see if you can get your room sparkly clean before it goes off. Try to beat your time from last week, or clean your room at the same time as your sibling. The two of you can race against each other to see who finishes first. Ready, set, clean! Make sure you’re still cleaning your room well. Being speedy doesn’t mean doing a half-hearted job.

Shoot hoops with laundry and trash. Pick up all those candy wrappers and papers, and see if you can throw them into your trash can from across the room. You can shoot hoops with laundry into your laundry basket, too! Keep score of how many baskets you make. Try to beat your best score every time you clean. You’ll be a pro laundry baller in no time.

Make up a story to turn cleaning into an adventure. Get creative! Pretend you’re a maid cleaning a dirty mansion or a pirate searching for buried treasure in “islands” of dirty clothes. You can be poor Cinderella cleaning her wicked stepmother’s cobweb-filled chambers, or a spy on a mission to find a top secret document.

Roll the dice to pick a task. Make a checklist of the different tasks you need to do, like making your bed, throwing out trash, and putting away your clothes. Number the items and roll a die. Then, do the task that matches the number on the die. Who knows what task you’ll get next? For a checklist that has more than six items, roll a pair of die. If you get a number that you’ve already done or one that’s not on your list, roll again until you do.

Clean items one color at a time. For some color coded fun, focus on picking up items of one color at a time. For example, start by picking up blue things, then white things, and then black things.

Skate over wooden floors to clean them. Imagine that your hardwood floor is an ice rink and your cleaning rag is a pair of skates. Take off your shoes, and skate around the room on your rag to wipe your floor clean. Make sure you pick up all your toys and clothes off the floor before you start skating!

Motivating Yourself

Give yourself a reward when you finish cleaning your room. Pick something good. It could be eating your favorite snack, reading a good book, or watching an episode of your favorite show in the glory of your freshly cleaned room.

Break up cleaning into smaller tasks and reward yourself for each one. Different tasks might include making your bed, folding your clothes, picking up toys, and vacuuming your floor. Focus on conquering one task at a time, and give yourself a mini reward after each one. These mini rewards should be much smaller than your final reward. You might reward yourself with a short break, a few minutes on Instagram, or a cold glass of juice. Make cleaning a weekly routine so it becomes a relaxing ritual for you to complete.

Check off tasks as you finish them. Using colorful markers, crayons, and stickers, make a list of the different things you need to do to get your room squeaky clean. When you finish an item, check it off! It’ll feel really good.

Take before and after photos. Snap a photo before you clean your room, and then take another one after it’s nice and tidy. Compare them. The difference might be crazy! You can even pretend you’re on a home makeover show.

Distracting Yourself

Call a friend while you clean. Put them on speaker and chat away while you fold clothes or sweep. The time will go by much faster.

Put on your favorite show or movie. Use your TV or computer, and let it play in the background while you clean. Make sure you don’t get too distracted, though. If cleaning will only take about 30 minutes, pick a show episode. If it’s going be a longer clean, you might opt for a movie.

Turn on a playlist of your favorite music. A little music can turning a boring room cleaning session into a fun dance party. Pick songs that you can sing along to as you clean. Listening to an audiobook or a podcast can be fun, too.

Make cleaning a workout. Sprint around your room, picking up items as fast as you can. Do jumping jacks, sit-ups, or push-ups between tasks. You’ll be so involved in your workout that you may not even notice you’re cleaning!