Rachel R. says

1. How do you stay motivated when the junk you box up to send away never seems to get gone? (I don’t drive, nobody comes out this far) and I’m the only one who seems to care whether or not it leaves, or that something as bad or worse takes its place.

2. Also, ideas for keeping a flighty teen on task – she’s got to learn to do it for herself in her rapidly approaching adult days.

My answers

1. What works for us is as soon as I have a packet or box of something ready, I take it to our cars and put it in the boot there and then.

We donate the kids clothes to an orphanage our church supports and as soon as a bag is ready (big or small) I take it to my husband’s car boot (we always use his car on Sundays.

For things that are miscellaneous (I had a box of old books recently that a friend wanted), I give a deadline and say “if it’s not fetched by such-and-such date (I’m not unreasonable – I give a few weeks), I’m dropping it off at the church”. I think people know I’m serious so they come fetch when they say they will.

An idea for Rachel – keep a post-it note on your door so if anybody comes out your way, you have a visual reminder to ask them to drop your stuff off at the nearest collection place.

2. I am a strong believer in natural consequences. It’s worked for me (when I would sleep longer than I was supposed to in my youth…) and I just believe that the quickest way to get “flighty teens” to stay on task is to let the laws of natural consequences take effect.

When no-one bails you out, you get responsible very quickly!

What do you think? How would you answer Rachel?

PS what do you think of my button?