Clutter Jail

I'd seen a few ideas regarding "grounding" items left out of place in a Mommy Ransom-type of box on Pinterest. I liked the Clutter Jail decal I'd found, so I went with that. I made up my own "jobs" on the computer and printed them on leftover shimmery cardstock from our wedding. I also used leftover pink shimmery envelopes from our wedding, double-sided taped those onto one side of the box, as well as the decal on the other side. The envelopes kept getting pulled and wouldn't stay shit, so I used velcro that I had for another project, and that worked really well. This bin had been holding toy cars and tracks, which hadn't been touched for at least two years, so those went buh bye in the garage sale. :) I'd actually originally had one envelope on top with the jobs, but some of them can't be repeated right away, so we made one for jobs yet to be done, hence the "All That Remains," for you metal heads out there :), and "Good Riddance" for the ones completed, which I would assume everyone knows that song. :) So far, it's been working really well. We've been using it for a while, now. Our rules with it are: 

• If we have to tell the kids more than three times to put something away, it's in Clutter Jail. 
• If something is left out before they go to bed (including in their rooms and not put where it belongs), it's in Clutter Jail. 
• One "job" per item. If there are three items, three "jobs" must be completed before getting the item out of Clutter Jail. 
• "Jobs" may not be traded. They must complete what THEY pulled. Period. 
• If the item has been in Clutter Jail for more than one week, the item will either be tossed, sold, or donated. With this rule, since the kids go to each house for a week at a time, it would essentially be two weeks, unless it's on our trade-off days, which would be exactly one week. So if it went in on Tuesday, we would wait until the NEXT TUESDAY that they were back here before we pulled it. Get it? :)

I would be happy to share the "jobs" we came up with if asked. Just let me know! I didn't like many of them that I'd found, so we racked our brains to come up with things that the kids don't normally do as "jobs" (we call them jobs instead of chores). Some are physical, some are educational, some are funny, and some really would suck if I had to do it. Bottom line, pick up your shit. :) Problem solved. lol They really do like it, though. 

  

Enjoy!