Mobile trashcan

December 8, 2019 5:42 PM

How do you keep your car tidy and organized? Please tell me your habits and products for keeping the car neatly stocked with necessities, and free of trash and child mess.

What's your trash storage and when do you empty the trash? Where do you keep all the things that live in the car, like tissues, snacks, hand lotion, snow/ice removal items, and child extras like diapers and a spare outfit?

I have an old hatchback with very few storage cubbies. I'm often out in my car for hours at a time doing multiple things in one long trip, so I accumulate a lot of items for each of those tasks. My kid is a crumb factory, and my car is a cluttered mess. Halp!

posted by nouvelle-personne to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

I have a bucket as a trashcan. It is a little too big, but smaller ones kept tipping over. I dump it when I get gas. It sits between the two child seats. When we have a long car ride it has a lid which doubles as a place to sit the portable DVD player.
posted by aetg at 6:08 PM on December 8, 2019

Throw away trash any time you get out. Don’t let it accumulate.
Have a box or bag in the trunk for travel kid stuff - something that won’t roll over and spill contents.
But mainly... just keep tossing trash. Once it accumulates critical apathy sets in and you don’t care any more.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 6:16 PM on December 8, 2019 [21 favorites]

I had a cloth cover that went over the car seat with holes for the straps to fit through, so that I could periodically take it off and wash it. I think I bought it on amazon.

ALWAYS take everything out of the car when you get home. Don't leave a bag in there to get later, because you never will. Establish that habit in your kids. Mine are teens now and do it automatically but you have to establish the habit.

Clean out your car every Friday but don't obsess. Buy a hand vac and have a place to plug it in where it can reach the car. Vacuum out 80% of the crud and move on. Keep wipes in the car to get messes right away.

And lower your standards. Nobody really cares, and everybody who has kids has a car full of crud and crumbs. Anyone who judges isn't worth your time.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:20 PM on December 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

We had a rule of no eating or drinking in the car. Our kids are 6 and 8 now and it really helped keep the car a bit tidier. Even on longer journeys we would stop to eat.
posted by biggreenplant at 6:22 PM on December 8, 2019 [8 favorites]

A back seat cover that one can just straight up hose down. Originally it was for the dog, but invaluable once the child came along. They make plenty for lots of car styles that allow for the belts and buckles to go through. I just shake it out once every wee- six months or so.

I also stash a couple fabric grocery bags in the door pockets; usually shit accumulates if I can't carry everything into the house in one go (groceries excluded). I'll just throw everything in those, garbage or not, and sort through it in the house.

If you're of the same mind, I find it easier to keep something clean than to get it clean (especially cars, jesus sideways shitting christ why is it so hard to just vacuum dirt out of the interior fabric of a car?) so getting the car detailed every couple years helps a ton. Starting with a fresh slate can be pretty dope.
posted by furnace.heart at 6:27 PM on December 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

I hang a plastic bag on the hook on the back of the front passenger seat. It's not pretty but it gets the job done. I empty the bag if the car starts to smell.

Each car has a small duffel bag with emergency gear in it; in one car it's crammed under the driver's seat, and in the minivan it's shoved where the removable 8th seat would be stored if it weren't in the garage.

Kleenex boxes wander, unfortunately. Ice scrapers go in the potato glove compartment. More serious snow gear (chains, a shovel, etc) goes in a plastic tub in the back of the minivan; the smaller car does without, as the car can stay home on snow days.

There's a lot of eating and drinking in my car, because I have school-age kids and also drive other people's kids around a lot. Just about my only rules are that they're supposed to take their leftovers with them, and no popcorn or tuna in the car (lessons learned the hard way).

I vacuum the cars as the spirit moves me. They're not spotless but eh, they're working cars, they're okay.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:33 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

There was a thread earlier this year on car organization that touches on a lot of these same issues:

Tell me the cool way you organize your car
posted by kovacs at 6:38 PM on December 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

I have a pickup so no trunk. I have two big sturdy, heavy-duty containers, one for the bed of the truck and one for inside. The inside one is smaller (natch). In the inside one I keep the tissues, wipes, hats, gloves, and assorted bric-a-brac. When my children were younger, I made a rule that the truck is like a national park. What you bring in, you bring out. I have a box that had 1,000 t-shirt plastic bags. I keep about 10 or so in the truck. The kids know where they are and can collect up their garbage when we arrive home. Whenever I gas up, I collect all the trash too. I go to the car wash about 1 or 2x per month for the outside and a vacuuming of the inside. I also keep a few small white terry cloth towels for spills and to wipe up whatever needs wiping up.

Now that my kids are grown, the car is cleaner, but like a poster said up thread, no one who has kids or knows you have kids, cares about crumbs and such in your car. The only time I really worried about it was when the in-laws came to visit.
posted by AugustWest at 7:25 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Small plastic bag (like what you get from Target/Walmart) hooked to the shifter, which is in-between the two front seats, so the bag hangs on the left side of the passenger seat. Usually emptied when I refuel. I'm a decade out of diapers, etc. but when I was dealing with that, those things were in the diaper bag; they didn't live in the car.
posted by cinnamonduff at 7:50 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Every time you get gas, you're standing beside a garbage can with 90-120 seconds to kill. Throw your trash out then.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:12 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a fabric trash bag that I happened to find at an auto-parts store, with straps at the top for hanging it from the side of the the center console on the passenger's side (not exactly like this but it gives a rough idea), or you could hang it off the back of the front seat or something similar. It doesn't hold a lot, but it also doesn't take up too much room. I put a small plastic bag inside, like the kind they have in the grocery store produce or bulk-food section, so when it gets full I can toss that in garbage bin and insert a fresh one.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:30 PM on December 8, 2019

Velcro strap stroller hooks to hang stuff off of the seats, like my purse and laptop bag (also keeps them from sliding off the front of the seat during a sudden stop.

Travel versions of common meds.

Water in aluminum bottles.

Coins in a silicone bitty earphone slipcase.

Power inverter to power my laptop or charge my portable battery banks.

Small duffel with a change of clothes (for me now, for me and kids earlier)

Gloves for picking up debris or turtles.

Moving blanket lines the trunk, and I have a few microfiber towels.

Ditched the scissor jack and carry a 2ton floor jack.
posted by tilde at 3:17 AM on December 9, 2019

I use the organizer linked below in my front passenger seat. I love that It has a handle so can easily move it if I have a passenger. For trash I keep one of those large plastic drink cups in one of the spots in the organizer and tuck used tissues and other trash in there. I need to empty it about once a week into a larger trash can. I often do that when I'm out and about but if not I'll do it at home.

Here's the organizerhttps://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077ZWLTFS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 5:19 AM on December 9, 2019

I keep stuff in my car - basket on passenger front floor has bottled water, granola bars, spoons and forks for fast food (reject plastic), spare gloves & hat (Maine), ice scraper, wet wipes.
Tote bags in back for car stuff - bungee cords, rope, oil, spare scraper, tools, paper towels, whisk broom, folding shovel, blanket, rain jacket.
Small useful items - can opener, multitool, spare charger, coins in an altoids tin, gum, ziplock bag of takeout napkins, etc., are in the armrest bin.
Maps, registration, insurance, maintenance records, cds, etc., are in glove box with tire gauge.
I save large takeout cups to use as a trash container. Microtrash - gum wrapper, straw paper, etc., is insidious, and needs to be dealt with promptly.
Coupons are in a ziplock bag between the seats.

If I am in my car waiting for something, I wipe the dash and steering wheel, maybe use the whisk broom on seats/ floor. Whisk brooms are not so popular these day, but they are quite effective. Sometimes I keep glass cleaner in the car, but it usually breaks and spills. I had a flat last summer, and while waiting for road service, cleaned and organized the vehicle pretty thoroughly. And ate the mini-candy bars stashed for emergencies. With kids, maybe have a regular car cleanout every weekend.
posted by theora55 at 8:06 AM on December 9, 2019

I got a small cloth bag with handles for under a buck at a thrift store, which I hand on the shifter. Everything except food goes in that; food gets taken to real trash ASAP. The bag can be washed over and over, and is sturdy. Small is better so you’ll be compelled to empty it regularly.
posted by Riverine at 5:21 PM on December 9, 2019

The older I get, the more my favored method of getting things clean consists of never letting things get dirty to start with. I am horribly lazy and when faced with a big existing mess, 9 out of 10 times, I'll just walk away from it. Knowing this about myself, I have tried to take the "clean as you go" lesson my dad taught me about cooking and implement it in every other area of my life - everything from cooking to pet care to house cleaning to email in-box maintenance.

So - anything that goes into my car while I'm driving comes out of my car when I get home and gets put where it should go - trash into trash, jackets onto hangers, travel mugs into the dishwasher, bottles and cans into the recycle bin, etc.

The rest - the random crumbs and crud that naturally accumulate in a vehicle in use - I have chosen not to worry about. Nobody ever cares, and if anybody ever asks I figure "Sorry, I have a dog" should cover it.
posted by invincible summer at 5:25 PM on December 9, 2019