Five Easy Pieces

Today we have another little housekeeping game. If you scroll down to the House Games post, you'll see that the game I described does not necessarily involve putting things away where they belong. The point of Pick-ups is just to get crap out of the main rooms of the house, and to do it in a relatively painless, low-stress way. Because it only takes seconds, you never become bored or resentful.

Five Easy Pieces requires a tiny bit more concentration, but it's still fun. Just as the name implies, you find five objects to clean up, tidy away, or organize. In each round of the game, choose your five objects and put them exactly where they belong. The object of the game is to do it in a minimum number of trips. Sometimes I feel like a Munich Beer Wench, except with less cleavage, carrying five objects out of the room (instead of full beer steins, imagine books, catalogs, sneakers, hair clips, and the like.)

These games may sound silly, but they work unbelievably well. Try one and see.