The Sunday Box technique: The solution to messy kids

The Sunday Box is a flat-out game-changer for getting your kids to pick up their stuff. I know, I know, you read this kind of thing all the time and yet, there you are, still with a house that looks like a rubbish tip thanks to the kids.

Please, just give the Sunday Box a try. I promise you, this is a technique that really will make a difference. If you’re tired of picking up after grown-ass kids all day every day, you need a Sunday Box. If your kids are the kind of kids (like mine) who leave traces of themselves all over the house, you need a Sunday Box. It works on small kids, it works on older kids, it works on teens.

I’ve totally got my ‘mean mum’ voice going on there, haven’t I? But, let’s face it, messy kids is a very frustrating topic.

Try this too: A quick guide to raising tidy kids

Simple and effective

So, here’s how the technique works. It’s so simple, but so effective.

• Get a box (at first, you will definitely need one bigger than the box I’ve used in the video ).
• New rule at home: every evening before bed, the kids are responsible for picking up after themselves.
• After they go to bed, do a quick whip-around. Anything that belongs to the kids that they’ve failed to pick up, you pick up and put into the Sunday Box.
• If it’s in the box, it means it’s confiscated until… yep, Sunday. And that means school stuff too, including homework and assignments (a lesson learned just once!).
• On Sunday, you put the box out with all the riff raff and gear that you’ve collected during the week.
• If the kids fail to empty the box on Sunday, anything left inside is donated to charity.
• Let me tell you, that box gets cleaned out quick-smart.
• It also hardly ever gets full after the first couple of weeks – the kids learn the pick-up lesson pretty quick after you introduce the magic box.

It really does work

So, there you have it: my clean house technique that really does work. It’s been an ominous presence at our place for years and years and it works so well. It’s the one routine I’m happy to do every single day and it keeps home so much tidier. It also helps the kids get into a routine to keep on top of their own things.

I hope it works just as well at yours.