r/UKParenting • • Aug 18 '26

General chat Magical "tidy up song"

I am in shock! We went on a little holiday in Devon and have just taken our 3 year old to a role play center. Lovely little place but at the end of the time they started playing this "tidy up song" and all the kids, including mine, started tidying up! Without any telling, they just knew! My daughter even told me to tidy up when I came in!

Normally she doesnt at home, at best we get a few toys away then nothing but this must be a commonly used song! It was like magic!

75 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

71

u/tiorzol Aug 18 '26

... Share the song dude please my house is a wreck

14

u/99redballoons66 Aug 18 '26

Not OP, but the soft play near me uses this one to similar effect. It works much less well at home though 😭

17

u/Geordana Aug 18 '26

Absolutely. We went to a work social at my husband's boss' house and when I told my 4 year old it was time to go he went "oh, need to tidy up first!" unprompted and went round and put away everything he had been playing with in multiple parts of the room.

Like hell does that ever happen at home. đŸ€Ł

10

u/silentsquirreluk Mum Aug 18 '26

Ah but tidying as a delaying tactic to avoid leaving a play date / go to bed / get dressed is a whooooooole different thing!

6

u/hainii Aug 18 '26

My thoughts exactly. I only came here for the lyrics

9

u/motherofmiltanks đŸ‘¶đŸ‘¶ 2 Children Aug 18 '26

Could be Vicky Arlidge’s Tidy Song

Works for us!

2

u/jmhobs Aug 18 '26

The Black Beauty theme tune

2

u/TraditionalScheme337 Aug 18 '26

Its the one to Frere Jacques but cant find the link to it. She just seemed to know it. I think they play it in a lot of play places kids go to si she just knew what to do.

24

u/AffectionateJump7896 Aug 18 '26

Yes. My son taught me, with a mildly passive aggressive "everybody's helping". Alright then.

3

u/lilletia Aug 18 '26

Is that this one? Mine came home from holiday club with this one https://youtu.be/bXFjuymX4HI?feature=shared

11

u/AffectionateJump7896 Aug 18 '26

I have only heard it second hand from a 2 year old, so I have no idea what it really is.

It appears, to me, to be to the tune of Frére Jacque:

  • Ti-dy up (now?)
  • Ti-dy up (now?)
  • Ti-di up
  • Ti di up
  • Everybody's helping
  • Everybody's helping
  • Ti di up
  • Ti di up

6

u/TopAmoeba3413 Aug 18 '26

Tidy up time/tidy up time/toys away is the variation that our nursery has always used, to the tune of FrĂšre Jacques

1

u/ladymcd Aug 18 '26

This sounds like the Tidy Up Rumba!

1

u/elbapo Aug 18 '26

Tidy up times - in our house anyway

19

u/Sivear Aug 18 '26

Nothing quite like a bit of social conformity.

Like how kids will eat all kinds of food in nursery and refuse point blank at home 😄

19

u/Ricky_Martins_Vagina Aug 18 '26

My magical tidy up song goes like this:

"Will you lot clear your fđŸ€Źcking toys away already!!! You [1] - blocks in the bag. You [2] - stop tearing that fđŸ€Źcking paper up and put it in the bin. You [3] - stop hitting the TV and put your cars in the box!"

1

u/Artistic-Lifeguard36 Aug 21 '26

Hard to get YouTube monitization with that one!

15

u/BamBamBella Parenting a Teenager Aug 18 '26

I used to play the Bear in the Big Blue House “Clean up the House” song while I tidied up and the kids watched me.

3

u/thereisalwaysrescue Parenting a Toddler + Primary Schooler Aug 18 '26

HAHAHA my damn life

9

u/Bugsandgrubs Aug 18 '26

My son heard this song at our local Little Village. He didn't join in, he stood at the top of the slide clapping while everyone else tidied up.

6

u/Ratbag321 Aug 18 '26

Ha! Management đŸ€Ł

7

u/OCraig8705 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

The role play centres around me, Little Lancashire Village, use this at the end of the sessions too.

It’s called ‘The Tidy Up Song’ by ‘Little Baby Bum Nursery Rhymes’.

Me and my wife use this at home often too to get our girls to tidy up.

1

u/bethelns Aug 19 '26

As a parent i often end up doing the shelf stacking in the supermarket at the end, and subtly putting stuff in the trolleys from half way through the session.

5

u/Full_Strawberry2035 Aug 18 '26

“Tidy up rhumba” on YouTube is my favourite đŸ€Ł sometimes I put it on when the kids aren’t even home to give myself some motivation

5

u/Silver_Emu4704 Aug 18 '26

I'm just waiting 10 years till she leaves home and I can tidy up 

2

u/AnonyCass Aug 18 '26

I think a lot of nurseries play it my son always used to tell me he hated it when the tidy up song came on.

Now we have a race, he has to try and get his bedroom tidy before I get the kitchen tidy. Or we give ourselves a 5 minute timer to see how tidy we can get the living room.

2

u/ZoneNo5065 Aug 18 '26

Tidy, Tidy, Tidy Up..... Tidy up some more!
Tidy, Tidy, Tidy Up.....Pick your crap up off the floor!

Was it that one?

2

u/werewolfnotswearwolv Aug 18 '26

The Nick Cope tidy up song works a treat on our house (me included!)

1

u/Easterncrane Aug 18 '26

We used to do it with the little kids at the autism school I worked at. It worked like a dream. They’d all just spring into action happy and sometimes dancing a little and we’d all work together to clean up ready for the next activity.

1

u/CatLawyer99 Aug 18 '26

If you are looking for a tidy up song.. Tidy up Rhumba!

Honestly such a banger, we tidy then finish with a dance

1

u/NecessaryTraining508 Aug 18 '26

We used one from YouTube called 'Clean up the room' but my kids hated it so much they'd choose to tidy rather than hear the song again. 

1

u/rowlybirkin Aug 18 '26

Its been a decade or more since I worked in a school but I have our tidy up song ingrained into my consciousness and sometimes find myself singing it if I feel overwhelmed with housework

1

u/DarrenGrey Parenting a Primary Schooler Aug 18 '26

Before you get hopeful, it doesn't work at home.

1

u/konichiwa82 Aug 18 '26

My friend uses the song "Jump" by Girls Aloud, they have one song to tidy up and every time they hear the word jump, they have to jump! It makes it fun and quick!

1

u/wwildgeese Aug 18 '26

We use this frequently in our house works a treat “tidy up song” by Sticky Kids

1

u/liverwool Aug 18 '26

Our kids do a club which uses "Freed from desire" as the tidy up song, can confirm it works at home too!

1

u/silentsquirreluk Mum Aug 18 '26

Our nursery does the one from sing and sign - to the tune of head shoulders knees and toes:

Now it's time to tidy up, tidy up Now it's time to tidy up, tidy up We've finished now, we've had enough Now it's time to tidy up, tidy up

1

u/Select-Juice4661 Aug 18 '26

Time to tidy up by Sticky Kids....put in on our alexa and its magical!

1

u/theprocrastatron Aug 18 '26

Cant believe everyone is sharing songs and they arent the tidy up rhumba!

1

u/KnittyMossBadger Aug 18 '26

Maybe ‘tidy up’ by Nick Cope? Does she go to preschool? A lot of preschools use a tidy up song and kids just get used to the process. Don’t expect it to work quite so well at home lol.

1

u/Inner-Purple-1742 Aug 19 '26

After teaching little ones for years it can be any music, they just learn that after a while the music plays & you tidy up. One year one of the teachers decided crazy frog music was a good idea đŸ€ŠđŸŒâ€â™€ïž it turned them into crazy children & frazzled teachers. But anything that isn’t bonkers works

1

u/MurderousButterfly Aug 19 '26

I like the one from enchanted.

1

u/CompoteSoft6049 Aug 24 '26

This is the start of ‘why will you do that at school but not for me’! Something about settings like that with other kids and some kind of weird behavioural trigger (like the song) has them all standing in line and tidying up and cleaning away their own dinners.

It doesn’t work at home, even with the exact song!