Shoe Demerits

Just inside our door we have a large pine cupboard, full of shoes. There are only four of us (well, four that wear shoes, as the dog and cat haven't got that civilised yet) but there always seems to be lots of shoes!

What really gets me though, is that everyone comes in the door, takes off their shoes by the cupboard......but doesn't put them inside! Every time I tidy up the kitchen (ok, I'm not the tidiest of people so it doesn't happen all that often!) I end up picking up pairs of shoes from all over the house, returning them to the cupboard, putting them away, and just doing that makes the whole place look so much tidier - although vacuuming up the dog hair helps too.....

Well, I've had enough of clearing up after everyone. I have drawn up a chart on our whiteboard, and for every pair of shoes I find not put away, the responsible person gets a demerit point on the board! At the end of the week, the person with least demerit points gets a bar of chocolate.

And guess what? It's working! OH was most put out to get back from a trip out somewhere today to find he'd been given a demerit point. Kids thought it was hilarious and OH even tried erasing his point, but for the rest of the day, everyone has put their shoes away!! Yippee..... will it last? Time will tell.....