Top 10 Cleanup Songs for Kids
By Jens Allmer
- Length: long enough to actually tidy something.
- Tempo: upbeat music sets a faster pace.
- Instructive lyrics: the song tells kids what to do.
- Clear ending: kids can see or hear the end coming.
- Singable: simple enough to sing without a screen.
The winner is a Dutch song with a built-in 5-minute countdown: Simsala Saartje – Het opruimlied.
How did I score the songs?
The research on cleanup songs themselves is thin, but the research around them is not. Music tempo pulls the tempo of what we do along with it, upbeat music makes physical effort feel easier, people speed up as the end comes closer, and in a handwashing study the spoken instructions did more than the melody. You can find the details and references in Do Cleanup Songs Really Help Kids Focus?. From that, I derived five criteria, each worth 0 to 2 points, so a song can reach at most 10 points.
| Criterion | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 2 to 6 minutes | 1 to 2 minutes | under 1 minute |
| Tempo | upbeat (above 110 BPM or officially described as upbeat or a dance song) | moderate or unknown | calm |
| Instructive lyrics | names actions or things to put away | general call to clean up, or unknown | no lyrics |
| Clear ending | countdown or visible progress | the song simply ends | no clear end |
| Singable | a short, repeated phrase anyone can sing | catchy chorus, longer verses | background music |
A few remarks on the scoring:
- Length. A 30-second chant is great as a signal, but no room gets tidied in 30 seconds. You end up looping it. A song of 2 to 6 minutes covers a real tidy-up and the end is still within sight.
- Tempo. BPM values come from songbpm.com, which estimates them by algorithm. Where I had no reliable information on tempo, the song got 1 point. I didn’t want to reward or punish a song for a gap in my data.
- Instructive lyrics. I scored this from the official descriptions. Where those didn’t tell me what the lyrics are about, the song got 1 point.
- Ties were broken by instructive lyrics plus clear ending (the two criteria closest to the evidence), then by singability, and then by YouTube views.
Durations and view counts are from the official YouTube videos in October 2026.
The top 10
| # | Song | Language | Duration | Length | Tempo | Lyrics | Ending | Singable | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simsala Saartje – Het opruimlied | Dutch | 5:31 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 2 | The Kiboomers – Clean Up | English | 1:00 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| 3 | CoComelon – Clean Up Song | English | 3:01 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 4 | Super Simple Songs – Clean Up! | English | 1:49 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | ELF Learning – Clean Up Song for Children | English | 2:19 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 6 | The Singing Walrus – Clean Up Song | English | 2:51 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 | Dave Moran – Tidy Up Song | English | 2:13 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 8 | Lichterkinder – Wir räumen auf | German | 2:05 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 9 | Daniel Tiger – Clean up, pick up, put away | English | jingle | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 10 | Gracie’s Corner – Clean Up Song | English | 2:41 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
1. Simsala Saartje – Het opruimlied (8 points)
Watch on YouTube · 6.4 million views · 2023
This is the only song in the list that was built as a timer. It lasts five minutes, has a countdown bar on screen, and the lyrics count down to zero, when you are done. Everything goes into the cupboard, big things and small things. That is a clear goal, a visible end, and instructions in one song. If the goal-gradient effect works for kids, this is the song where it should show. It is Dutch, but you don’t need to understand the lyrics to see the countdown.
2. The Kiboomers – Clean Up (8 points)
Watch on YouTube · 2.0 million views · 2016
Short, fast (160 BPM according to songbpm, possibly counted double), and about putting toys away. It is a circle-time song with clapping, so it is easy to sing without a device. At one minute it is a bit short for a whole room, but it is easy to sing twice. Not famous, but it does everything right.
3. CoComelon – Clean Up Song (8 points)
Watch on YouTube · 972 million views · 2018
By far the most-viewed cleanup song. Upbeat (135 BPM), three minutes long, and the lyrics go from place to place and name the kinds of toys to put away. The verses are longer than in the other songs, so it is harder to sing without the video. That, and the lack of a countdown, cost it the top spot.
4. Super Simple Songs – Clean Up! (7 points)
Watch on YouTube · 66.7 million views · 2015 (first version 2007)
The classroom classic. One repeated line tells kids to put their things away, and every teacher can sing it after hearing it once. That makes it perfect as a routine signal. At under two minutes and a moderate 95 BPM, it is calmer and shorter than the songs above it. Super Simple also offers an official 15-minute version with a countdown timer, which would score higher on length and ending.
5. ELF Learning – Clean Up Song for Children (7 points)
Watch on YouTube · 160 million views · 2014
A song about picking up toys and cleaning the room, from a Japanese English-learning publisher. Good length and clear content. I couldn’t find reliable tempo information.
6. The Singing Walrus – Clean Up Song (7 points)
Watch on YouTube · 65.6 million views · 2016
Written as a transition song about putting everything in its place at the end of an activity. Moderate tempo (104 BPM) and a good length. Like ELF, it comes from an English-learning channel, which may explain the clear and simple lyrics.
7. Dave Moran – Tidy Up Song (7 points)
Watch on YouTube · 13.6 million views · 2013
Officially described as upbeat and often used by teachers as a transition song. One of the few songs that say “tidy up” instead of “clean up”, so a good pick for British English.
8. Lichterkinder – Wir räumen auf (7 points)
Watch on YouTube · 8.8 million views · 2021 (song from 2017)
The best-scoring German song. A movement and dance song, so kids get moving while tidying. I couldn’t verify in detail what the lyrics say, so it got the middle score there.
9. Daniel Tiger – Clean up, pick up, put away (6 points)
Not really a song but a one-line jingle from the episode “Clean Up Time”. It loses points for length, but it is the most instructive item in the list: three actions in one line that every child can sing while picking up. Ideal for reusing when there is no screen around.
10. Gracie’s Corner – Clean Up Song (6 points)
Watch on YouTube · 45.7 million views · 2021
A popular, full-length song with a refrain announcing that it is time to clean up. It won the tie against the other 6-point songs on views.
Honorable mentions
- Hurra Kinderlieder – Aufräumblitz (YouTube, 34.7 million views). The most-viewed German cleanup song. In the video, two kids turn into the “tidy-up lightning” and tidy their rooms quickly. It missed the top 10 only because I couldn’t verify the tempo and the lyrics.
- Barney – Clean Up (YouTube). The classic American daycare chant. Upbeat and easy to sing, but only about 30 seconds long and with a general call to clean up rather than specific instructions.
- PLEXKITS – 5 Minute Clean Up Song with Countdown (YouTube, 32.8 million views). A real timer with a countdown and a signal sound at the end, but more background music than song.
- nijntje – ruim alles op! (YouTube), Plop – 1, 2, 3 opruimen (YouTube), and Simone Sommerland – Aufräumlied (YouTube). Solid Dutch and German options, each with 6 points.
In short
The most-viewed song is not the best one for getting a room tidied. The songs at the top all combine a decent length, a clear ending, and lyrics that tell kids what to do. If you want just one, go for the Het opruimlied countdown or the Super Simple 15-minute timer version for longer sessions. And whatever song you pick, use the same one every time and tidy up together.
Alternatives I made
Here are alternatives I made: 48 tidy-up timer songs for kids in English, German, and Dutch. They come in four lengths (3, 5, 10, and 15 minutes) and four upbeat styles (dance-pop, K-pop, hip-hop funk, and electro house). The song is the timer, and in the video the room gets tidier one toy at a time until it sparkles at the end. I didn’t rank them above, because grading your own homework is never a good idea, but I built them around the same criteria. Judge for yourself.
- English: Tidy-Up Timer Songs for Kids
- German: Aufräumlieder für Kinder – Aufräum-Timer
- Dutch: Opruimliedjes voor kinderen – opruimtimers
All playlists and every single song are in the complete list of my tidy-up timer songs.
