Thursday, January 19, 2012

Those Christmas shipping boxes sure are coming in handy.

Problem: Kids leave their stuff all over the place. I like my home tidy. Yet, I am not inclined to pick up after them just because it drives me crazy to have their stuff lying around. My job is to teach them. I used to just ask them to put their stuff away. Some kids do it the first time. Some do not. Nagging is no fun. Neither are backpacks, boots, jackets, and toys all over the floor.

Solution: I ask a child once to pick up a specified item. If she does not do so within a minute (give or take), it ends up in a box labeled ever-so-lovingly with her name. She cannot do anything fun until her box is emptied of its contents and stowed in its proper place.

Though the progress is not yet measurable, I'm confident that this method will at least expose them to the sheer amount of stuff they think belongs all over the floor. Raising awareness, that's what I'm doing.

2 comments:

Meeker home said...

Oooh...this is such a great idea. Stuff sits on the stairs for days at my house with everyone saying, "That's not my mess." I may just have to steal the labeled box technique! Thanks for sharing!

Joe and Joanne said...

Good idea! I'm a tidy person too (admittedly to a fault) but my sister.......not so much (to a fault). So the rule in our house was that if we were asked to clean out stuff up more than twice, and it wasn't done, on the third strike so-to-speak, my Dad would put said stuff into a bag and we had to earn it back (i.e. chores). It worked for my brothers and me, but my Dad had to endure temper tantrums from my sister until it finally sunk in. Good luck!