Cleanup Songs for Young Children

It’s critical that we teach our young children how to pick up after themselves. Not only does this help us keep our homes clean, but it provides our kids with a solid foundation for other important life skills.

As you’ve likely discovered, keeping kids on task while they clean up isn’t easy. One way to help them remain focused is to use a cleanup song. The most popular cleanup song is probably the “Clean Up Song” from Barney.

I’ve always found this song to be a little annoying (perhaps due to its popularity), so I looked up alternatives when we first wanted to try using a song with my oldest daughter. Here’s what I found.

Cleanup songs for young kids

Clean Up Time

Time to Clean Up

(Sung to the tune of “Three Blind Mice.”)

Time to clean up!
Time to clean up!
Let’s pick up our toys.
Let’s pick up our toys.
It’s time to switch and do something new.
But we can’t move on when there’s still work to do.
So we’ll pick up our toys and clap our hands too.
Time to clean up.
Time to clean up.
Source

Clean Up Song

Tidy Up

(Sung to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”)

Now it’s time to tidy up
Tidy up, tidy up
Now it’s time to tidy up
And put our toys away
Source

Tidy Up Song

Let’s Clean Up

(Sung to the tune of “Farmer In the Dell.”)

Let’s clean up today
Let’s clean up today
We’ve had our fun
Our day is done
So, let’s clean up today
Source

After looking at these, I realized that you can take any common children’s song and quickly make up lyrics that work. Here’s one that I spontaneously came up with last week:

(Sung to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”)

Clean, clean, clean your room
Clean it thoroughly
Pick up your toys, pick up your clothes
Pick up ‘til it’s clean

See what I mean? You can probably come up with one, too.

Do you use a cleanup song to help your children clean up their toys? What song do you use?

Shared at the following:

Monday’s Musings, Tuesday Talk, and Making Your Home Sing.

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