Car Organization

I am an incredibly messy person.  I'll be the first to admit it. When I lived in North Bay, I was the cleaning lady.  I remember when my roommates were all at school and I went on an intense cleaning spree that lead me to the cupboard under the sink.  Of course one of my roommates came home and asked me what I was doing, stating that the cupboard under the sink didn't need to be cleaned because "no one sees under there anyways!"  It was grungy!  The people who lived there before us probably hadn't ever cleaned it.  That being said, I don't know why, but my car and my bedroom just can't stay clean.  My room is covered with my clothes, and my car has everything from clothes to bottles to movies.  It's a mess.

Seeing as my car was getting seriously out of hand, I did what any sane person would do - I logged into Pinterest and typed "car organization" into the search box!  From the pins that popped up, I gathered a couple ideas I liked, and now present you with my totally clean, totally awesome, organized car!

But first!  A couple "before" pictures.

Yup, that's my passenger seat.  Good luck bumming a ride with me.

The back seat.  Yes, those are car mats, why I didn't put them on the floor where they belong, I'll never know.

The glove compartment, everyone's messiest cranny.

And the trunk.

There's really not much hope for organizing that trunk.  I consider having my tent, pillow, and sleeping bag with me to be an essential.  That fish tank, however?  It's about time I bring that into the house.  It's been going on rides with me since I got it from a friend last February.  And the booze?  Should probably take that out too.

So, in cleaning my car, I first took everything out and piled like things together.  Movies in one pile, clothes in another, garbage in the trash.  Looking at all this, we can see where the trouble lies and what I'll need solutions for.  Clearly, I need a garbage can.  And something for recycling.  And something to hold all my... things.  And that glove compartment... something needs to be done about that.  I need a hamper too, but I should probably just bring my clothes inside more often ;)  Anyone else feeling overwhelmed?!

This is everything that was in my car, excluding the trunk.  Yes, that is apple sauce.

And this is everything from my trunk.

So, the first solution I found, was for all of my knick knacks.  There's a couple versions floating around the internet of this handy organizer by Sew4Home, and I thought I'd try to make one myself.  This didn't work.  It was a disaster.  I cannot sew anything.  So, I went off to the big box store and got myself an over the door shoe hanger.  If you go to the car section, they have different types to fit your car, but they are much more expensive.  The only con to getting a door one is that it's too long.  I just cut it though, problem solved.

Now my hairspray, toothpaste, pencils, utensils, tampons, bandaids, and electronics all have a home!

Next I needed something for my garbage.  I had seen this idea of using an old plastic cereal container with a plastic bag in it, and, seeing as I had an unused one of those lying around I figured I'd give it a shot!  

I'm not really a big fan of it in the front seat though, it moves around too much.

And, lastly, the glove compartment storage.  Mine's not nearly as cute as Elementary Organization's is, but it's still the right idea.

Insurance papers, loyalty and gift cards that don't fit in my wallet, canadian tire money, take out menus.

It's a beautiful thing.

And for the finished product!  Drum roll please!

I hope this doesn't mean people are going to start asking me for rides...

So there was a floor!

Like I said, there wasn't much I could do here, but at least now everything I might ever need is at easy access.

Remember when I said earlier that I had felt overwhelmed?  It's really not that difficult to keep things clean, but I find myself in this situation far too often, as I'm sure many of you do.  Instead of putting things away as we go, or spending five minutes a day to tidy things up, we let things get out of hand.  The lesson here is to clean as you go, so you don't end up in stressful and overwhelming situations!  I'm just not sure I've learnt that lesson yet.