Unbound Creations trades crow-based chaos for cozy cleanup work in Cleaning Up!, a low-pressure sim built around vacuuming trash and restoring messy spaces.

Cleaning Up!. Credit: Unbound Creations

Unbound Creations made me love being an absolute menace in Just Crow Things. Every level was a playground for dumb bird crimes: stealing things, dive-bombing civilians with poop, general crow terrorism. Cleaning Up! goes in the exact opposite direction. It’s about creating harmony instead of chaos, spending a few quiet hours vacuuming, scrubbing floors, and spraying air freshener until rooms full of trash look pristine. I still had a pretty good time with it. I just missed the personality the studio brought to its previous title.

You play as a gig worker taking increasingly weird cleaning jobs through an app. One level has you clearing out a filthy apartment packed wall-to-wall with junk. Another sends you into a haunted library where a ghost drifts around as you power wash bookshelves. There are booby-trapped temples, oncoming traffic, hidden collectibles, and optional objectives scattered through the compact diorama-style stages. There’s no narrative to speak of, but a game like this doesn’t really need one. Finish a job and get on to the next.

Systematically annihilating dirt and garbage scratches a very specific part of the brain. Fans of PowerWash Simulator and Unpacking will understand the zen appeal—or obsessive compulsion—at play here. The fully upgraded vacuum inhales piles of trash from across the room, and watching an ocean of garbage vanish feels great. You sweep caked crud into chunks, use a power washer to spray slimy furniture, mop grime, and spray air freshener. What tool you need for each task is always clear. The levels are dense enough with dirt and trash that there’s always something nearby demanding attention.

*Cleaning Up!.* Credit: Unbound Creations

The mop starts out too underpowered. Before upgrades, you have to scrub the same stains repeatedly, and it gets tedious fast. Five-star rankings are awkwardly gated behind progression because you simply don’t have access to enough tools during your first visit to many stages. After earning everything, I did a second pass through the first half of the game. Even with that cleanup pass, the game is short. I earned the Platinum Trophy on PS5 in under five hours.

That breezy pacing helps Cleaning Up! stay cozy even when there’s not much depth. There are no fail states, so you can just zone out and clean. There’s no challenge and sometimes that’s ok.

I just wish the game had more visual identity and personality behind it. The environments feel more functional than memorable, with an overly plain visual style. The generic player character lacks the instantly recognizable charm Crowy had in Just Crow Things. Cleaning Up! just never reaches the same highs as Unbound Creations’ best work. Cleaning Up! brings relaxing satisfaction. Just Crow Things brought joy.