This week’s clutter buster tip-of-the-week addresses that arch enemy of tidy homes everywhere, the insidious villain named “Not Me!”
You know the type. You see a dirty, wet towel plopped right in front of the laundry hamper. “Who dumped this towel here?” you naively ask, expecting full disclosure and a subsequent remedy to the clutter. “Not Me!” is the answer you receive from everyone you query. In your kids’ minds, no guilty party = no cleaning up, right?
And since it’s virtually impossible to prove who dropped a towel that looks exactly like everyone else’s towel, they’ve called your bluff. At this point, you are left with two basic choices: play the role of Clutter-Buster detective (with very limited success, I might add!), or pick up the towel yourself in extreme frustration.
That was an all-too-common scenario at my house, until I realized the genius of the color-coding system. It all started when we were buying new bathroom towels with our Kohl’s Cash after Christmas. With a pure stroke of genius, my husband suggested that the kids pick out their own towels.
Of course, everyone picked a different color, and now I know exactly who’s towel is left lying about. No more Clutter-Buster detective work, and no more “Not Me!” Problem solved! Guilty party hangs up the towel.
I liked the new color-coding system so well that the next time I replaced the kids’ bathroom scrunchies, I bought ones that matched their towels. Leave your scrunchie lying about, now you have to fix it. Yea!
Instead of playing the part of grouchy mommy or Clutter-Buster detective, I merely call out the guilty party and supervise the clutter correction. Pretty simple, really. Why didn’t I think of this before? Now if I can just get them to wear the same color clothes as their towels…. 🙂