The Black Hole that Teaches Kids to Clean Up

The Black Hole that Teaches Kids to Clean Up

I’ve always struggled to get my kids to clean up their toys. It’s not a fun task and I’m generally too tired to push it at bedtime. Which means I have to clean up, which it’s fun either. Then we started the Black Hole.
The black hole is actually just the space under my bed. The name makes it sound pretty amazing, though. The basic idea is that toys go there to disappear.

Reasons Toys go to the Black Hole

• They aren’t picked up at night
• Inside toys are left outside when we go in
• They are thrown or used to hurt others
• They are fought over to the point where the kids physically fight or refuse to share
• They are the source of any problem (like refusing to stop playing with them with it’s time to leave)
• They are close by during an illogical tantrum. For example, if Micah is melting down because he doesn’t want to go to bed. He may choose to scream or kick. Then a toy goes into the black hole. The first time, this only worsened the tantrum. A couple times over. The next night, he remembered losing toys the night before and didn’t scream or kick.

How to Get Toys Back

This can vary based on your routine. My preschooler gets one toy back for quiet time each afternoon. This is basically bribery to get him to go into quiet time nicely.  Or he can get one instead of a prize when he completes a line on his sticker chart. 
You could also choose to give toys back for extra-nice acts of kindness. Or for sitting nicely during a meeting. Maybe for sharing well, or for proving they can play nicely. They can be a reward (or bribery) for just about anything as you feel.

The black hole has been a huge help for getting my preschooler to clean up. It’s also been phenomenal for a form of punishment both as a natural consequence (when the punishment directly relates to the action) and when there aren’t any logical consequences.