It is a bad habit in our house. Whenever we open a package or a letter or a food item, we hold onto the contents and drop the packaging on the counter. In some cases this makes sense, for example while cooking a meal we need to move quickly to get all the steps done. But then we don’t go back and pick up the garbage. Often these little peices of detritus are small. Those plastic things you tear off of milk jugs to open them. Little packets of Splenda. Twist ties from bread. Other times these things are larger. Cheese macaroni boxes. Tortilla bags. Envelopes. All of these things accumulate on our counters creating a feeling of chaos. When I want to clean up the kitchen, the first thing I do is grab a garbage bag and collect all the loose garbage from the counters. By the time I’m done the kitchen looks 50% better.
The puzzling thing is trying to figure out why we do it. I mean the garbage can is right there only three steps away. Is it really that hard to just drop that milk jug ring into the trash instead of on the counter? Apparently so, because we all do it. Howard and I and the kids are all guilty of this. It is a bad habit. Like any bad habit it will take a concerted effort to change it. Most of that effort will have to come from me. I’ll have to add “garbage police” to my roll call of jobs. I know I can do the job of garbage policeman. The problem is being consistent about it. Some days I just don’t feel like picking a fight with my kids over garbage left on the counter. And I really can’t start policing anyone else until I’m no longer guilty. I suppose I could call a family meeting and make a pact with everyone policing each other. That could work. Particularly if there is some kind of motivational chart or prize. Hmm. More thought is required here.
Could you move the garbage can somewhere closer to the counter? If it was just a height difference instead of a couple of steps, it might be easier to police.
A possible solution is to make a chart, posted where the kids will see it and at certain times (say twice a day) clean up, but count how many things you find. You could also set some kind of goal (no more than two loose items for two days running) and then when it is reached, have some kind of celebration.
Yeah this is a “farmer” kind of solution and it makes it so that you have “one more task” to do, but when you do it this way you don’t place blame, and you (and the whole family) get to see visible results in fighting the problem. If you kept it up for a month or so, it would change people’s habits. If everyone benefits from the reduced clutter, people (even kids) sometimes will step out of the “not-my-job” mindset and clean up where others slack (though that can turn into a problem as well).
One other thing along these lines that a friend of mine mailed to me that your family is perfect for is Chore Wars. It’s a new site http://www.chorewars.com that takes gaming and chores and puts them together. I’m still getting things setup to do it with my family, but the concept is cool. And its free!
HTH
Dave
Aaargh! My family drives me crazy with this. Even my mom will eleave an open envelope or paper towel around and she’s the cleanest woman I know (gets up at 3am to vacuum.
For myself, I’m always trying to find ways to head off trouble and make my cleaning easier (am primary cleaner, cook, caretaker at home).
Heh. When I saw Chore Wars I thought of the Tayler family too. (Probably in part because I don’t know anyone else with as many kids of the appropriate age to benefit from such a thing, but there it is.) From what I’ve seen of it, I recommend it too…
Yep. Me too. I don’t want to throw away garbage while I’m in the middle of cooking. And then one thing leads to another… and then I can also clean up garbage and make my kitchen look 50% better.
I looked up Chorewars.com and we made up some quests (chores). You guys would LOVE it. It’s very D&D. Except you have to make sure the chores get done before playing. That’s the hard part.
LightningBoy LOVED it and just played the quests until the game told him that he couldn’t play anymore because he had logged in 8 hours worth of chores… : )
I even made up the quest “Paying the Party’s Bills” so I could play if I sat down and did the bills. : )
We do this as well, but I believe it’s primarily due to the lack of a convenient trash bin. In fact, we don’t HAVE a trash bin at all, all we have are trash bags on the floor. (My trash can keeps getting converted to an outside trash can. 🙁 )
I go through once a week with a trash bag and pick the counter up.
and here i thought
we were the only people this happened to. Many has been the times when dinner is completed, and there’s a stack of wrappers/stems/peels on the counter and the cutting board… and even when we’re busing the dirty dishes and loading the dishwasher, somehow that little stack gets ignored (the wrappers, anyway – peels and stems go to the compost bin). and then it happens again the next night, and the stack gets bigger… until one night we realise that there’s no counter space left next to the store because of the packaging remnants. (Slight hyperbole, but only slight.)
i suspect this may get better this fall when we’re all on the same schedule and having more family dinner nights, instead of my wife and daughter having dinner and then me having whatever when I get home from work an hour or so later.
but i have felt that pain, more than once.
An alternate solution
There’s an alternate solution common in Israel (don’t know how common here) – you buy a (plastic) holder for a small plastic bag.
The bag + holder go in the sink (or even ON the counter).
All the little bits you don’t want to deal with go into the bag.
Every now and then, someone (probably you) throws the bag into the trash can.
I have no idea what this thing is called or even if you can find it here.
Disadvantage – you have a messy/messier sink (than the optimum of keeping it clean)
It takes up space.
Yours,
Uri David Akavia