We all get in a hurry and are on the run daily in the Bay Area, as well as anywhere else. It’s easy to look back at your car after a couple weeks of craziness and find your house or office somehow has moved into your car! Kids especially have a huge impact on the cleanliness of your car. From food crumbs, to toys, bags and diapers, they can easily accumulate into piles behind the driver’s seat. It is often a challenge to keep the car nice and clean. It doesn’t have to be an impossible task if you put some or all of these ideas into practice. 

Keep it Clean 



1. Don’t allow any messy, greasy food in your car and only eat fruit that won’t be messy. It’s also distracting to eat in your car and some states will fine you.
2. Don’t allow smoking in your car unless you’re ok with it. Smoking yellows the lighter interiors and tends to soak into the fabric, along with, messy ashes and burn marks that can consume your floor boards and console.
3. Put wet wipes in your cubby-hole or glove compartment to wipe hands from messy foods or any other substance. You can also use the same wet wipe to clean the steering wheel, dashboard, gear lever, etc. It’s called repurposing.
4. To keep your car smelling nice, leave a plastic refill bag of fabric softener under your car seat. The smell permeates the whole car and makes it smell great!

Stay Tidy & Organized

1. Keep some plastic bags in the cubby-hole so that you can throw away apple cores, bits of paper, etc. This bag leaves your car every weekend or once it’s full, whichever comes first.
2. Put a plastic bag in the car for your umbrella. There is nothing worse than wet-car smell from dripping, wet umbrellas.
3. Keep bags available in the back for children to throw their suckers, gum or anything else, away. You would hate to find a stick mess from an old piece of gum caked on your car’s floor on a hot day!.
4. In the trunk of your car or the cab of your truck, keep a box so that shopping bags don’t move around. Inside the box keep a couple of fabric shopping bags or anything you want to store out of the way that could be hazardous when the wind is blowing things around while driving with the windows down. Using bungee cords helps too when tying things down to keep them from moving around.