Why can't they find my box?

So with the start of a new semester I have a question. It is something I struggle with year after year and it defies explanation: Why can't students find my mailbox?

Inevitably during the course of the semester someone will have something to turn in and forget to do it during class. I always tell people that in that case they should put their work in my faculty mailbox at the front of the building. For some reason this instruction never seems to sink in.

First choice for people that can't find the box is to put work under the door. This of course means it is on the floor of my office and the cleaning guy from CPS is fairly likely to throw it away.

Next they either roll the thing up and tuck it into the door handle or lean it up against the door in the hallway. Inevitably this means the work winds up on the floor in the hallway and then we have the garbage problem again. Additionally this particular method leaves the work available for anyone who comes along to take it, or change it, or copy it.

Often in these cases students email me the work. This seems like a good alternative as it isn't vulnerable and it even comes timestamped. Unfortunately the creating of the output is part of the assignment, and if it is submitted electronically then they've never had to actually get the printer to do what I assigned. Also, this has a lovely tendency of maxing out my inbox so I can't get any email at all.

Sometimes, if they can't find me students turn in their work to another faculty member and ask them to give it to me. I guess this is better than some of the other ways - but they ought to know that sometimes its weeks before I actually get the thing.

Is it so hard to walk up to the lobby and use the mailbox? That's what its there for. I just don't understand.