Organization Within Your Car
Even if your car is small, you can find clever spaces to store the items you need on the road. Many car manufacturers offer add-on accessories to make storing and transporting various items easier. Check with your car dealer for a list of accessories available for the make and model of your vehicle.
Organize your car.
Some of the most useful organization items you may want to add to your vehicle include a coin sorter (for toll money and parking meters), a holder for sunglasses, a cellular-phone holder/hands-free kit, and a CD holder. You may also want to purchase a plastic container to store car-cleaning products, to be kept in your garage or in your trunk.
To keep your glove compartment organized, purchase a vinyl portfolio for storing maps and papers (such as your registration and vehicle owner's manual). At least once per month, sort through your glove compartment and throw away garbage and other useless items.
If you have small children, the task of keeping the car clean can be a daunting task. Because you'll often be carrying children, diaper bags, and other items when you exit the car, you can expect to often have a bit of clutter in your car. Go easy on yourself with this — you have a lot to balance! Still, it might be wise to set aside fifteen minutes (ideally, the same time each week) when you're alone to sneak out to the car and clear out old french fries, plastic cups, wrappers and any other items that have accumulated.
The garage can be a dangerous place for kids, especially if you store chemicals there. Keep all chemicals out of reach or in a locked cabinet, and never let your children play in the garage unattended. Also, have your garage door inspected annually to make sure that it is working properly and will not close on a small child or pet.
As soon as your kids are old enough to help carry items to the house, train them to be your helpers in this task. Also, you may have to vacuum out your car more frequently than your kid-free neighbors. Consider setting aside a regular time each month for car care — if you need to, take it to the gas station and vacuum it out, or delegate this task to your spouse. Although it can be costly, you might also want to have an annual “detail clean.” If you can pay somebody else to attend to the deep cleaning, you'll have a far easier time managing the more mundane work of keeping the car orderly. Keep in mind, however, that this detailed cleaning can be expensive. Depending on where you live, it can cost several hundred dollars. Still, some people do feel that the long-term benefits of having the detail clean outweigh the costs.
