The establishment of the Saturday bag

Has anyone noticed how hard it is to get children to clean up after themselves?
It's not even that it takes them 2 years to do it. It's just getting them to stay on task.

"Go get that toy, and put it away. Good. Now get that toy.... no, don't play with it." ... just typing that all too familiar conversation makes me crazy!

Well, fortunately, I married a man with very wise parents. One month after my husband turned 3, he had 2 younger brothers (note to anyone doing the math, that's 23 months apart and then 14 months apart), so my Mom and Pop-in-law had their hands full. I have often been known to ask them for advice about my own sweeties, and implemented some of their genius ideas.
So, we have officially established the stolen idea of the Saturday bag (or box, if needed). Here's how it works:
"Ok, kids. You have 10 minutes to pick up toys and put them away. Anything left out will go in the Saturday bag."
Usually this happens when it's time for quiet time or bed.
Then all I do is walk around with the bag and look for toys (shoes, headbands, hairties, anything I can part with for a whole week) left behind. I always make sure to sneak a peek behind the couch, chair and under the table and beds for any stragglers.
The toys are left in the bag until Saturday when the kids can get them back.
I think I'll only let them pick about 70-80% of the toys out of the bag though... and then the toys that are cosistently left in there are obviously not loved enough to earn their keep, and can be snuck to goodwill without anyone noticing.
So, just in case anyone else is in the same boat, or will be eventually, you can add this to your list of genius ideas, and pass it on!