The Housekeeping Diaries: My Car, the Rolling Junk Drawer

Last week, our guest columnist She’sWrite wrote about how her Jeep SUV is a “mobile home,” in which she serves meals, nurses her baby, changes diapers, taken conference calls and edited stories. She also said that she tries to clean it out once a week, to keep the stray receipts, crumbs, etc. from taking over.

I don't want the interior of my car to look like this, but it does.That made me start thinking about my own car. And how I really needed to clean it up. In fact, if She’sWrite’s SUV is a mobile home, my car is more like a rolling junk drawer.

I’ve written previously about how I have an issue with being overprepared. How that has led me to carryingridiculously huge bags around for much of my adult life. Well, I’m sure you’re not surprised that tendency has trickled down to my car, as well, especially now that I have a preschooler along most of the time.

The upside to this, of course, is that I am hardly ever caught without a spare outfit when my daughter gets her clothes a. dirty b. wet c. both. If she’s bored in a restaurant, I can usually run to the car and return with toys, books or games to keep her busy. And if she takes her nap in the car, I always have pen, paper and sometimes even a magazine to occupy myself.

Still, there is just way too much stuff in my car. I took it to the car wash Sunday night and here is a nearly complete list of what I found inside the cabin and the trunk:

• Dress shoes from a wedding I was in three weeks ago
• 2 pairs of socks (one hers, one mine, good for indoor play places)
• Daughter’s crocs (too big for her currently) and her brown shoes (she’s outgrowing them even as I write)
• Three sippy cups, all empty, thankfully
• Numerous coloring books
• Nine children’s books
• A stuffed bear
• An Easter bonnet
• A baby blanket
• A gift bag I wanted to re-use but got torn in the car
• Walgreen’s receipt from January
• Old lottery ticket (need to check if it's a winner)
• One wrapped Starburst candy (stale; yes, I tried it)
• Toy phone receiver
• A dozen pens
• A small notebook
• Picnic blanket
• A pair of my daughter’s  pants
• My hairbrush
• Her hairbrush
• Two umbrellas
• A charger for a phone I don’t have anymore
• Two bottles of bubbles
• Two of her “groceries” from her toy kitchen
• A hard-case for glasses. The case needs to be returned to Walgreens
• A toy camera
• Six re-usable bags for the grocery store
• A first-aid kit
• My sun hat
• My daughter's "purse"
• A huge "Melissa & Doug" sticker book, with a few pages floating around individually
• A paperback of “The Best Short Stories of Edith Wharton”

At the car wash, I took every single thing out of the car and vacuumed it out. (There were also a whole lot of crumbs, but I'm pretty good at throwing out or recycling the trash every day.) I placed everything else in a box I brought along for the trip.

Over the next few days, I want to reorganize the car and only put back in what I might really needand then commit to cleaning it out about once a week.

Given my nature, what I “need” is always going to be a big category, but I’d love to get some input from you.

Note: This story prompted lots of responses and advice on the Facebook page and on the blog when it was originally posted on the home page. Click here to read some of the comments. 

Tara Burghart is the editor and founder of Go West Young Mom. Occasionally she writes a column called "The Housekeeping Diaries," which is an effort to publicly shame herself into becoming a better housekeeper, or in this case, being kinder to her car.