Your car is your home on wheels. You can disagree, but a six-hour road trip just might change your mind. Just like your house, you cannot function properly if you are surrounded by clutter. How much more if you are inside a vehicle where space is substantially reduced. Organizing your car might seem time and energy consuming at first but it’s a great investment for your wellbeing as a driver or passenger. To help you out in your quest to organize things in your car, here are nine clever ways.
1. Bungee cord for things in your trunk
You think you have nothing to worry about after you get out of Walmart and stuff your grocery bags in your car’s trunk. But every now and then, you hear a thud in the back–especially when you stop or when you are traversing a rocky road and anxiously pray that the milk carton has not spilled or the lettuce has not been smushed. A simple hack is to tie a bungee cord in your trunk and hang your grocery bags from it. This is a sure fire way to ensure the “safety” of your groceries.
2. Cereal container as a garbage can
Don’t you just hate it when there’s unnecessary mess on the seats and floor of your car that you painstakingly cleaned over the weekend? Maybe the problem isn’t with the people but the absence of a trash bin inside your vehicle where they can properly stow away their candy wrappers, dirty tissues, or orange peels. If you have an extra cereal container in your kitchen, you can use that as a garbage can. It is just the right size that you do not need to sacrifice any leg room.
And if Nissan Rogue is the kind of car that you have, you can keep your car mats from dreadful mess without taking time and often considerable expense to clean them.
3. Zip bags and popsicle mold in the front seat
The center console and glove compartment are great for small items that you might need on-the-go, because of its strategic location in your car. Here you can put your sunglasses, medicine, electronic cords and chargers, travel-size toiletries, and pertinent documents. To optimize that small space, make use of a popsicle mold for your center console and varying sizes of zip bags for the glove compartment. With these, you will be able to separate the different items from each other making it easier on your part to get hold of them.
4. Shower caddy for your kids
Having kids in your car can be both fun and distressing. Sure, they are a bundle of joy, but you don’t want them to be distracting you while you drive so you have to keep them busy with something. Fill a shower caddy with children’s books, small toys, handheld computer games, or coloring pens, and place it in between seats for your kids to enjoy with. It will be within their hand’s reach and keeps all their stuff neatly organized in one area. The caddy can also double as a take-out food holder.
5. Tissues in cup holders
Tissues are essential to have inside your car for sanitary purposes. When you accidentally spill your beverage or feel the need to sneeze, you will have something to clean up the mess or blow your nose into. But it can be quite pesky to rummage through your glove compartment or center console especially when you are driving alone. The solution is to repurpose a clean coffee cup as a tissue holder, just cut a big hole in the lid. Insert the cup into your car’s cup holder, wherever it may be, for easy access.
6. Shoe organizer as backseat organizer
Kids, if you have them, seem to think that the floor is an infinite abyss where they can just drop anything and expect you to pick it up for them. No more! Keep small or important items within hand’s reach by hanging a shoe organizer on the back of the front car seat. Because of its transparent pockets, a shoe organizer is perfect for toiletries, small toys or any travel essential. If you are in the back seat, it is so much easier to get anything that you need, because it is just in front of you.
7. Muffin liners on cup holders
You may not notice it but the crevices of your cup holders are accumulating dust and crumbs if you have been eating inside your car. To make cleaning quicker, stick on muffin liners on your cup holders so they will do the job for you. Choose the silicone kind as they tend to be sturdier and are reusable and waterproof. Just put them in the dishwater for easy cleaning. But the regular papers ones also work okay.
8. Carabiner clips on handles
Have you ever noticed that it is perpetually hard to hang anything inside your car? If you are planning on bringing a polo shirt, for example, or want to keep your handbag upright, so that its contents don’t get spilled but you have nowhere to hang them. Make use of carabiner clips that you can get in your local supplies store. Simply place it in your car’s overhead handles or at the back of a seat and voila, you have an instant hook. A scarf is also an alternative for this hack.
9. Gum container for spare change
Sometimes, you just need spare change and you have absolutely no time to rifle through your wallet or coin purse. Maybe you just need a couple of quarters for a parking meter or scurrying away in a McDonald’s drive-thru for your weekly fix of burger and fries. No matter the case, the best way to organize your loose change in one place is to put them in an empty gum container. Have this by your side in the door compartment for safe keeping
That is nine simple ways to keep things in your car organized. The materials that you need to pull off our suggested hacks are easy to find or already inside your house. You never have to worry about spills and mess ever again. Just give your kids and carpooling friends the lowdown about the mechanisms you have put into place. Happy riding!
