The Hungry Bag

Awhile ago I was complaining to a good friend about constantly battling my kids to pick up their things.  She said that when she was little, whenever there were things left out - her mom would bring out "The Gunny Sack"!  It was complete with a scary song and all.  I think her exact words were, "That song invoked the fear of hell in all of us."  Love it.

So we adapted the idea a little....and now we have The Hungry Bag!  And believe me, at the sight of this bag, my kids start runnin!

Every night we put on loud dance music, set a timer, and do "5-Minute Pick Up" and put away everything as fast as we can. There are nights where their cooperation is lacking, to say the least.  They always have the option of not cleaning up - but everything left after the timer goes in The Hungry Bag.

The Hungry Bag is always excited to eat toys, shoes, markers, or whatever.  It is not picky.  And the only way to get them out of the bag is to do a job to earn them back.

This little bag also comes in handy during the day when the girls don't want to clean up their coloring supplies or barbies.  When Kaden doesn't want to pick up legos, etc etc. Usually the mere threat mention of The Hungry Bag does the trick.  They have tested it a few times.....for some reason they didn't like the result too much.

Thank you, Jen, for the idea.  I'm sure no one else's kids have such a hard time cleaning up after themselves, but I thought I'd share....just in case!