The room-y

This project is designed to help those with messy bedrooms find innovative ways to clean up their act.

The aim is to design a simple machine that will help you to keep your room clean and tidy, so that you don’t get nagged to “sort your bloomin’ room out”.

You will need:

• Pencil and paper to make notes and sketch your ideas
• A large sheet of paper on which to draw a detailed, annotated diagram of your finished Room-y

Step 1

Take a long hard look at your bedroom. Make a detailed list of all the problem areas; e.g. crumbs everywhere, dirty clothes on the floor, unmade bed, piles of old comics, stinky brother…

Step 2

Thinking of all the problem areas on your list and design a machine that would help you to tidy and clean your room. What would it look like? E.g. big, small, soft, hard, long, thin, fat, wide, shiny, colourful? What features or attachments would it need? E.g. grabbing arm, lever, blower, sucker, brush, nozzle, sticky pad, perfume dispenser?

Step 3

When you are happy with your design, draw it up onto a large sheet of paper, making notes to describe each feature.

Step 4

Next time someone asks you what you’d like for your birthday or Christmas, present them with the drawing of your Room-y – and see how they react…