Clean everything or I’ll throw it in the trash! Okay, this was decades ago but I just remembered it. 

One weekend our family was going to go to the beach with some family friends. My mother told my sisters and me that we had to clean our room before we could go. Of course, we moaned and delayed forever and our family friend got angry. He eventually threatened us by saying we had 30 minutes to clean and anything left on the floor after 30 minutes was going into the trash. 

My sisters and I cleaned up everything except the trash, which we left on the floor. Not bad thinking for two 5 year olds and a 7 year old, right?  It’s become a family legend.