Gobble Bag Got It

Yesterday I was running a little late (ok, ok, I'm often running a little late) and I couldn't find my purse. I asked one of the little buddies (the triplets) if he had seen my purse. He looked at me very seriously and asked,

Do you think the Gobble Bag got it?

For a second I didn't know what he was talking about, and then I laughed.

About two years ago I was fed up with all the stuff that never seemed to get put away. I was always removing piles of paper from my kitchen counter, stacks of books from my stairway, backpacks from the entryway, toys from the living room, you get the picture. Anyway, I created a Gobble Bag (a pillowcase with an angry face painted on it) and presented it to my family.

I no longer had to be the bad guy! Instead of me telling the kids to come get their junk, the Gobble Bag would simply gobble it up. The item would be gone until the lesson was learned. If the Gobble Bag took something repeatedly, that item might disappear all together. The Gobble Bag worked for a while, but after a few months I realized that the same stash was still in the bottom of the bag and had not been reclaimed. It was easy to see which items wouldn't be missed and those items were donated to charity or tossed. It was nice, though, to be able to remind someone that things needed to be picked up so the Gobble Bag wouldn't get them. Kind reminder--no nagging.

Anyway--we haven't seen the Gobble Bag in nearly two years. I can't belive that my little buddy even remembered that little blip in our family life. As I get ready to start dinner, I see lots of stuff in the kitchen. Maybe it's time for the Gobble Bag to schedule a reappearance . At least it makes the Gobble Bag the bad guy instead of me!