I love the joy of having a completely clean house, but unfortunately it only lasts for about 10 minutes before someone spills or wants to make a cheese and crackers feast in the kitchen. Years ago I learned how to let this go and only have clean house envy when I visit the homes of friends whose children have long since left the nest.

Since that season is a long ways off for me, I’ve decided to find happiness amongst the chaos best I can. It’s especially challenging when we’re all home during the summer months. I’m constantly jumping over elaborate Barbie villages or abandoned stacks of books. I let them spread out and have their merry good time until the end of the day. I give everyone a five-minute warning and then I say, “It’s time for 10 minutes of tidying up.” (The reward for this is watching TV until Dad comes home, so I can make dinner in peace and the house is [mostly] clean when he gets home.)

Sometimes I assign them rooms to clean up depending how bad the damage is and depending on how well they work together to clean up. It’s amazing how quickly they can clean when they have new episodes of “Hannah Montana” waiting for them on the TiVo. I use this 10 minutes to supervise and to clean up the kitchen for dinner.

To make it more fun we’ll throw on some music or I’ll bribe them with a pre-dinner snack. If it’s not messy enough to warrant a full 10-minute commitment I’ll have each of the girls pick up 10 things and put them away. The first one to finish gets to pick the show to watch. My four-year-old is such a great worker that the threat of watching “Dora the Explorer” if Cam finishes her chore first usually makes the older two stop whining and get on their feet.

Question: What do you do to motivate your kids to pick up their stuff at the end of the day?