Balls, game pieces, books, old cracker boxes are all going to have to be moved before you can vacuum. When someone sees a homeless item, it s his or her responsibility to escort that item back home. If your family does the prep work for you then you can glide the vacuum across the floor with ease and cut your vacuum time. Prepare a chart and post it in a visible place as a reminder to all. Even little ones can get in on this.
Reward systems work well for younger children.
Older children should realize that work comes before play. If your children learn to live by this rule, their spouses will thank you and, believe it or not, one day they will thank you. But it's actually a very draining mode in which to live. Let's face it, there are things that we can let go. For example, imagine the time saved over a year if you decided cleaning the bathtub every ten days was sufficient rather than every seven days.