Can Cleaning be FUN?????

    Game 1: Point Game
         I only remember one game my mom played to clean the house.  We got one point for each item we picked up and put away.  Each point then equalled 1 cent.  It's hard to believe that when I was little the gas station still had penny candy. I could get 400-500 points and then ride my bike to the gas station to count the Swedish fish, Swedish raspberries and sour patch kids.  In the end, my mom had made us count to a hundred, multiple times.  And her house would be picked up.  Not really clean, but things were put away. This works great when you have 10 minutes to clean before company comes over.
    

      I hate to clean.  I hate every part of it.  I mostly hate to do it by myself.  So, in order to get the kids to help, I have come up with many games.  Now cleaning is boring.  But competition has a way of making things interesting.        
        
          Game 2: Daily Chores
          This one is not the kids favorite, but it is the easiest.  They have 3 jobs for the week. (I hope you can see the pictures.)  Jobs have to be done to get to play the computer, watch TV, or go to a friends house. None of them are hard and take less then 5 minutes each.

 During the summer, I add one outside job to each list. My kids get paid in fake money.  I printed up our own money and to keep them from taking money from each other, they each had their own color.  At the end of the week, they get paid and then get to go shopping in the basket of goodies I picked out from the store.  (This game was harder, because some times they all wanted the same thing or nothing at all. I think this summer I will give them points and then let them trade for real money.)

   Game 3: Dice Roll

        This game is easy and fun.  We have a set of big dice we got from the dollar store. We assign each  number on the dice a job. For example: 1=pick up all garbage, 2=pick up clothes and shoes, 3=dishes, 4= vacuum, 5= dusting, 6=break from cleaning. Everyone rolls until we each have a different number. This some times takes a few minutes, but gives everyone a break from cleaning.   We do this for each room.  I usually only do this when the main 3 rooms of the house need attention. 

        Game 4:  Team Racing
             This game we turn over the room and our names.  We draw names first to see who is on which team.  Then we draw rooms and race. We have 10 rooms in our house and after each race the winning team gets a treat.  Some times I have a few big candy bars and other times I just grab a bag of mini candy bars.  The winning team get 3 or 4 and the losing team gets 1.  The kids like this game, because we can have the house clean in less then an hour.

       Game 5:  CandyLand

          I have tired forever to find a board game that I could tie to cleaning the house.  Candyland is my 2nd DD, favorite game. We play all the time.  Bonus, is it's a pretty fast game. While on a shopping trip to Wally World, I found some colored popsicle sticks. My plan was to use them for 100 day at school, but the school wanted little stuff, so the popsicles went into my crafting box. This was years ago. I came across the colored popsicle sticks while cleaning one day and almost tossed them.  Then "LIGHT BULB".  The colors all matched the Candyland board game. I wrote on the popsicle sticks small jobs.  Example: clean 1 counter in the kitchen, clean off Living Room couch, clean Hallway floor, make Bed, and clean the toilet. There are 5 of each of these jobs, make bed, pick up clothes, pick up shoes and garbage, straighten drawers. If you get one of the same jobs pick again. There about 55 jobs. So think small when you divide up your rooms.
          It's also the luck of the draw.  Some times the jobs are already done and you win that round.  We only play with the single square cards and the picture candy cards in the game.  You pick a card and then a popsicle stick of the same color. We set a timer and race. The 1st person done gets 3 points. 2nd and 3rd done get two points. The 4th and 5th person done gets 1 point.  The picture card means you get a break, but 0 zero points.....:(   This game is fun, but takes awhile. Some times an hour or 2. 

   My tip: is to play a different game every week.  It's still cleaning any way you look at it. But some how the game/competition makes is exciting.