Kids keeping entryway clean

[Anonymous]

my kids throw their bags onto the floor. We have a new area with hooks in a faux mudroom that is somewhat helping but I can't take it. Besides making them hang their stuff up, what are strategies people have used. Is a closet better or a mudroom with cabinet doors so even if they throw it I can't see it. Any ideas on 1. how to incentivize them to hang their crap up and 2. cover the mess is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

I would use a bin for each kid for their stuff if the hook isn’t enough. If you are home when the kids come home, you stand there as they come in the door and tell them to hang up their bag. They will be annoyed and start to do it so you leave them alone. If they drop it before you get home, you walk them right back to hang it up every single time. If they keep not doing it, you have them stand there and hang it up, unhook it, hang it up, unhook it five times in a row for practice. If they keep not hanging it up, you take the bag and all the stuff in it. If they want something out of it, you decide if you want to let them have it, but you don’t give the bag back for two days the first time. Give them a plastic grocery bag to carry their stuff in.

If you have to keep dealing with this, you charge them cash for each offense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would use a bin for each kid for their stuff if the hook isn’t enough. If you are home when the kids come home, you stand there as they come in the door and tell them to hang up their bag. They will be annoyed and start to do it so you leave them alone. If they drop it before you get home, you walk them right back to hang it up every single time. If they keep not doing it, you have them stand there and hang it up, unhook it, hang it up, unhook it five times in a row for practice. If they keep not hanging it up, you take the bag and all the stuff in it. If they want something out of it, you decide if you want to let them have it, but you don’t give the bag back for two days the first time. Give them a plastic grocery bag to carry their stuff in.

If you have to keep dealing with this, you charge them cash for each offense.

As a parent working through the same issues, this is the tack we are taking. Though I did a shelf for shoes instead of bins. Honestly bins might have been easier but I didn't have space - if I did we'd have bins for shoes.

[Anonymous]

Fine them $1 and no screens each day they dont' hang their bags. Each week it doubles. So second week they don't put their bag away on Monday they owe $2 and lose screens for two days. Third week $3 and three days.

[Anonymous]

I know I will miss lots of things about my kids when they leave the nest, but this is not one of them. We even have a mudroom with a door that can close, and I can’t even get them to contain the mess to there.

[Anonymous]

I physically stop them in the mudroom when they get home. No one is allowed out until everything is put away neatly in its spot.

[Anonymous]

i am in the same boat and thinking of building cabinet doors on my mud room lockers but then on another thread i heard it makes things worse. Let me know what you think

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I physically stop them in the mudroom when they get home. No one is allowed out until everything is put away neatly in its spot.

I think I am too lazy to do this but I think it’s about the only thing that would work in my house. Maybe I will try it just to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fine them $1 and no screens each day they dont' hang their bags. Each week it doubles. So second week they don't put their bag away on Monday they owe $2 and lose screens for two days. Third week $3 and three days.

Kid snickers because the parents don’t understand what doubling means.

[Anonymous]

I'm 35 and this is still hard for me! Knowing that helps me have grace for my kids.

Identifying what the exact problem is will help you to solve it. Is it that the correct location to put things is difficult to access, do they forget where it is, do they know where it is? Is another option just easier? Is it timing?

Figure out the root problem.

Others suggested fining them and having consequences. That seems extreme, however could be effective if used short term (though id lean a reward instead) as its hard to set new norms without having some additional external incentive.
"It can be hard to create new habits, in addition to the changes XYZ that I made to the environment, we are going to have a week long challenge where everyone in the family who keeps the hallway perfect gets to have a special movie night" (or whatever incentive)

I would lean away from adding doors, that's putting more of a barrier between the desired action.

[Anonymous]

How old are the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I physically stop them in the mudroom when they get home. No one is allowed out until everything is put away neatly in its spot.

We just did a renovation and I designed the mudroom like an airlock - you have to go through it to enter the house from the garage. I enter first and block the exit until everything is put away. I put the washing machine in there as well and dirty clothes/sports uniforms go straight into the machine. When I’m not there, they mostly throw stuff on the ground and I have to ask them to put their stuff away before they go to bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kids throw their bags onto the floor. We have a new area with hooks in a faux mudroom that is somewhat helping but I can't take it. Besides making them hang their stuff up, what are strategies people have used. Is a closet better or a mudroom with cabinet doors so even if they throw it I can't see it. Any ideas on 1. how to incentivize them to hang their crap up and 2. cover the mess is appreciated.

If they don’t hang their crap up they are grounded for 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would use a bin for each kid for their stuff if the hook isn’t enough. If you are home when the kids come home, you stand there as they come in the door and tell them to hang up their bag. They will be annoyed and start to do it so you leave them alone. If they drop it before you get home, you walk them right back to hang it up every single time. If they keep not doing it, you have them stand there and hang it up, unhook it, hang it up, unhook it five times in a row for practice. If they keep not hanging it up, you take the bag and all the stuff in it. If they want something out of it, you decide if you want to let them have it, but you don’t give the bag back for two days the first time. Give them a plastic grocery bag to carry their stuff in.

If you have to keep dealing with this, you charge them cash for each offense.

Basically this. The Montessori preschool is spotless because they greet each child coming in, bring them to their cubby, show them where the shoes go, help them hang up their coat etc. Every. Single. Time. Until they get it.

You have to do something similar at home.

[Anonymous]

I’ve given up. I have coat hooks but they throw their coats on the nearest couch.