Is your car a mess? :) Don’t worry; a lot of us are walking the same mile. We spend a lot of time in the car: to and from work, visits to friends and family, running errands and so forth. In fact, many Americans spend more time in their cars than in most rooms of their homes. ABC News reported that 220 million Americans average an hour and a half each day in their cars. And according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about 3.3 million people travel at least 50 miles to work, one way. That’s a lot of time we spend in our cars every day. A lot of us do the unthinkable too. We eat, drink, and put make up on, ladies? Bottom line is this: in between taco wrappers, shriveled month-old French fries, napkins, lost pens, half empty water bottles, crumbs and such, our cars are in need of some TLC. Why should we care? Why wouldn’t we? Why spend a lot of our time in a hot mess? We wouldn’t want that for our home, so why our vehicle? Besides... how many times have we had to turn down giving rides because of potential automobile embarrassment? So let’s get this show on the road! For more tips and tons of valuable information, LIKE us on Facebook. It’s that simple. What You’ll Need: One or two large garbage bags. You’ll use these for collecting the trash. Two plastic crates or laundry baskets. For the trunk. A shoebox can also be great for keeping loose items in the trunk, all in one place. Small cargo containers, organizers or over-the-seat pocket organizers (depending on what you’ll need to keep inside the car). An envelope for car-related expenses and receipts. You can take this envelope out on a weekly or monthly basis. For daily use however, you’ll at least have all the receipts gathering in one spot rather than getting tossed all over the place. Two or three resealable bags. Wet wipes (preferably car-cleaning-wipes, but even baby wipes will do the trick when in need of cleaning up a spill). Step One: Sort and Clean Up: Go through the entire car. That means floor,s glove box, side pockets, trunk, etc. Go through all the nooks and crannies and separate the stuff lying around into two piles: trash (bag) or keep (basket). Trash is for the items you no longer need, while in the “keep basket” you’ll place the items you still need. Don’t keep things for the sake of keeping them. You either need and can use them, or not. If not, it’s time to say goodbye. Once all the floating items have been entirely removed from the car, use the opportunity to vacuum and clean out the interior. Step Two: Analyzing and Prioritizing: Now that you have removed everything you had inside and separated it according to need, it’s time to take the basket of items you need to keep in the car and prioritize it. For example: If you’re more likely to need a pen and paper than your soccer ball, you’ll keep the pen and paper closer at hand, while the ball can go in the trunk, to free up space inside the car. So ask yourself: On a scale of one to five, how important is this for me on a daily basis? Fours and fives can be in near proximity to your driver seat, while ones, twos and threes and go either in the seat pockets behind the front seats, or the trunk. During this process, ask yourself once again if the items you’re trying to fit are absolutely necessary. You might realize you actually don’t need half the stuff you originally wanted to keep. Step Three: Organizing: In your glove box, you should keep the important items such as: owner’s manual, registration, insurance papers, medical information and emergency numbers. Then, you can start thinking of item placement. There you are, with the pile of items you’ll keep in the car, and the items that will go inside the trunk. We’ll address the trunk in a few. For now, take a look at the items that will stay inside, and split them up according to the storage items you have at hand, keeping the most important items within very easy reach. Use your small containers and organizers. Any small, rarely used or loose items (I.e.: change) can be placed in the small resealable bags. Keep the box of wet wipes part of the handy items too. You never know when you’ll need to clean up a spill. In the trunk, use the laundry basket & shoe box, to store any sports equipment, jumper cables, as well as all the items that got assigened with a trunk-value. Remember This: Keep a first aid kit in your trunk. Keep an extra tote or plastic grocery bag in your trunk, for the times when you need to carry items from the car to the house. Use an air freshener. Take out the trash out of your car daily. If not, weekly at most. Make a rule: if kids or passengers bring something into the car, they have to take everything back with them when they get out. Have other tips you’d like to share with us? Leave them in a comment here, we’d love to hear from you! To junk-free vehicles, US Storage Centers
