As I was walking down the aisle, I came upon a giant stack of black boxes. Big boxes. Big black boxes. More specifically, they were Rubbermaid 32 gallon storage bins, with lids. Until I saw them, I did not even realize I was looking for one. I bought one – not cheap ($30 – lid cost extra) – and took it home.
That evening, I tried to suppress my glee as I unveiled my find to the family. They were much less excited.
You see, we have four boys living in the home, ages 10 to 21. They are wonderful, they are righteous, they are smart, they do the most important things, but they are messy. They just leave stuff around the house. Constantly. My EC and I are getting older, and more tired, and I am getting crankier. We are tired of constantly reminding them.
“Take your shoes to your room”
“Don’t leave your socks on the couch”
“Throw your wrapper in the trash”
“Don’t just leave that on the floor”
“If you leave that there, the dog’s gonna eat it”
I’m sure that you have never uttered such painful difficult phrases – count your blessings.
So I called the family together and showed them THE BLACK BIN. (I warned my EC in advance – always a wise thing to do.) This is what I said:
We are tired of the constant messes in the kitchen, family room, hallways and living room. We are even more tired of asking you to put your things away. So, beginning now, I am using THE BLACK BIN. (Wishing I had some pre-recorded music for effect here)
As you know, I am the first one up in the morning. Starting tomorrow, part of my morning ritual will be to pick up anything that is yours in any room that is not your bedroom, and put it in THE BLACK BIN. This includes clothing, shoes, books, electronics, backpacks, half-full milkshake cups, homework, etc. All of it. THE BLACK BIN will be outside on the back patio.
There will be no announcements, warnings, or second chances. I would suggest that if you can’t find something, you look in THE BLACK BIN. I would also encourage you to not leave milkshakes, food or drinks lying around, because they go into THE BLACK BIN as well. Any questions?
There were no questions – just an interesting assortment of shocked and/or bemused expressions.
The next morning, I made my rounds, picked up stuff and dropped it in THE BLACK BIN. Took all of two minutes. When my EC got up, the house was all neat and tidy. I enjoyed it. It has been a week now, and the house is still neat and tidy. And I think my EC loves me more. Best of all, there has not been one conversation about picking things up. It is a “nag-free zone”. I think the follow-up will be a weekly “Clean out THE BIN” chore on Saturdays.
Current inventory:
1 laptop
2 pairs shoes
1 pair dirty socks
1 missionary journal
1 backpack
1 Nintendo DS charger
and this morning’s addition, a comfy quilt.
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My Mom did a version of this called the “Gunny Sack”. I think she got the idea from Joy School. Her version was a jumbo cloth bag complete with scary eyes and teeth she added.
To get things back from the “Gunny Sack” monster, you had to earn them back. I like the “outside” factor! Maybe your youngest will enjoy putting stuff into the BBB. Thus doing the tidy for you.
We did the Gunny Sack too growing up! For me, it wasn’t as much the inconvenience of earning back/retrieving items as it was the fact that the eyeballed pillowcase and ‘gunny man’ song completely freaked me out.
I have two boys, 9 and almost 8 years old and the oldest one won’t leave his head somewhere because it’s “glued” to his neck. I should have thought about it! I need to find this BBB in my small town, in Northern Brazil!!
Perfect idea! Must try it when my monkeys are older. Right now, threatening to throw things (i.e. toys) in the trash is very effective.
Bacon is delicious. You should out that in the black bin too. Then the dog would follow.
Simply brilliant!
Great idea that can definitely be classified as home improvement on so many levels. Who says you shouldn’t make impulse purchases? By the way, the elders quorum in my ward holds its own Pinewood Derby every year. I’d say the majority of them are certifiable.
I think that It does teach them to clean up after themselves because of presenting a quickened natural consequences it is like a little bucket of “Hoarders” like condensing their future homes if they don’t learn to clean up into a little box I LOVE IT when my kids are old enough I will be using this I am pinning it!
We tried to do this and make the kids do chores to get stuff out. They never wanted the stuff badly enough to do chores.
Maybe just putting outside would work.
We do chores to get the stuff out of the bin. This works out fab for me! 🙂 I love the bin!
Ah the plastic bin version of what my kids faced – “the mad bag.” My wife’s creation. Once it went in the mad bag, it took an act akin to Moses parting the Red Seas to get it out. It was extremely effective.
Once, as a teenager, I made a partial list of what I found under my bed:
1. Case of old Barbie dolls (Did you know they can get old? Well they can.)
2. Overdue library book (X2)
3. Plate with cookie crumbs (how did that get there?!)
4. Recording of Jesus Christ Superstar (that my friend lent me and that I hid from Mom)
5. One sock
6. Another sock (not even similar)
7. The pants that I was looking for the week before.
8. My old radio. (The one I dropped)
9. My track shoes. (It was Winter. Who missed them?)
10. My Treasures of Truth journal. (The original Personal Progress)
11. An apple core.
12. Mouton. (This is my Husby’s fancy French term for dust bunnies. I thought it was cotton candy. It only tastes a bit different . . .)
Sounds like this is the family lost and found box. It will be interesting to see how this works about a month from now. I like this idea.
Ah, the wisdom…
Yeah – they can get the stuff out when they want to, or when they realize they lost it. That’s why I put it outside – to make it a little more inconvenient. I’m going to make them clean it out every week as a group, so that should prevent it from getting too full or disgusting.
One milkshake, or other fluid item gets in and you are already beyond disgusting… Great idea though!
Thankfully, they figured that out as well. 🙂
Let me get this straight…can they just go to the bin anytime they want and get their stuff back? We have done this with our younger kids, however we don’t know when to give it back, or how…
Can’t argue with success. The BBB from MMM. Does the BBB come with bacon, too? (A BBB w/ B?)
You should trademark this the “MMM’s BBB”
Am I the only one who thinks that one laptop, some shoes and socks and a charger doesn’t even constitute a problem? lol If I made a list of what is just lying around on my floors after the kids left for school…
That’s the success of it. Had it been the week before, I would have needed to rent one of those storage pods they drop on your driveway. My youngest is responding the best of all, and he finds some perverse joy in seeing what is older brothers have lost to the bin.
Nice.
Parenting genius!!!!
I agree with first comment–they’re still not learning to clean up and you have to do it for them. Lame! Maybe you should threaten to throw things away . . . then they’d really remember to clean up.
But it is working. The amount of stuff going into the bin has already dropped to almost nothing.
It would work for me. Especially with food products. I would hate for a milk shake to be dropped on my lap top or missionary journal!
Love it!!
Maybe you should charge EACH OF THEM for each item that GOES IN the box instead of when an item is retrieved. That way they would have peer pressure from each other to clean up after themselves.
2nd Article of Faith.
haha!
Touché
my sister had the “Butler Box” her kids had to pay or do a chore to get the item out of the box! worked wonderfully!
I love the chore idea!
What do I do with my husband who is the worst offender and of course, the boys follow his example?
Get a bigger bin?
This is something my parents did and I can’t wait to enforce on my children. My 22 month old won’t get it, and my four year old is almost there. 🙂 Muahaha!
Yeah my mom made us pay her a $1 an item to retrieve stuff out of her holding bin…which didn’t have to happen often. Money talks 🙂
For my older kids that actually have an income, that might work. But none of my kids will ever give me a dollar so they can fish their dirty socks out of the bin.
will they when they have no more socks to wear?
No. They’ll steal my or go sockless.
I wondered if that would be the case.
This is Brilliance x 2! I am getting my own BBB right away! I’m sure my family will thank you… or maybe not! 😉
I’ve tried to adopt this, but I’ve discovered that until my children reach at least the age of accountability, it doesn’t work. The 2 year old just doesn’t get it! 😉
But, personally, I think it’s a brilliant idea. And I especially applaud the love you have for your wife to do it, too (“picking up” every morning!).
2 year-olds would rather play in the bin. Yeah, they’ve gotta be older.
You are still doing all the clean-up though. They need to learn not to leave their stuff lying around for YOU to put in the bin. I think they should pay you to get their items back. Pay for your time and it will hit them where it hurts most (wallet) and they will think twice about leaving something out.
Olivia: True – I am still picking up. My goal here is for them to stop leaving messes. And if you could have seen my son’s face when he realized his precious laptop was in the bin with dirty socks and shoes, you would know that he will never leave his laptop laying out again.