How to keep your car clean consistently even when you have young kids!
I have 3 young kids and at times, I have thought to myself, “What’s the point? I can’t keep my car clean. We practically live in it half the time!” But I didn’t like this answer and I didn’t want to resign to the fact that my car was going to messy for the next 16 or so years. My baby is 15-months-old and I like it when my car is clean! I knew there had to be a better solution, so I set out to find it.
Often when I’m struggling with something, I call the Queen herself (she loves it when I call her the Queen – ha!), my mom. I told her I was struggling with keeping my car clean and she gave me some great tips. I have included her tips as well as the things I have come up with on my own through trial and error. I hope these help give you hope that you don’t have to have a messy car that feels like chaos all of the time!
how to keep your car clean
- Make a Quick Clean Up Routine Every Day: When I pick up my kids from school, that’s when my clean car turns into a hot mess. We live in it for a few hours as they have their after school snack, change into their after-school activities clothes, and often do their homework in the car as we sit parked outside of their activities before they start. Of course it’s going to be a bit messy; there’s a lot happening! I consider my car an extension of my house in times like this. My house is messy when we are doing certain activities, and then we clean it up after. I accept the mess during this time because this is our space that we are intentional about doing the things we want to do. When we get home, however, we don’t wait to empty out the car. I used to just leave all of the mess in there, and then even after one day it would be an absolute disaster. My number one rule is to have my kids and myself make several trips in and out of the house until we have everything that we added to the car cleaned out and back into the house so we can put the items where they need to be to be used next. This includes their backpacks, water bottles, school clothes if they changed into their after-school activity clothes, empty snack containers, homework and pencils. I’m talking everything. This takes work, but my kids now understand it’s non-negotionable. We have all gotten into a habit of this!
- Clean Up After Snacks: Because I let my kids eat in the car, there will inevitably be crumbs. When I got my car new a few years ago, I told myself that we wouldn’t eat it in, but that’s just simply not sustainable. Often we are going from school directly to an activity, and they need to drink a protein shake (see our favorite snacks here!) or something else. I bought this small vacuum from Amazon HERE and it has been great for the times when I can’t run to the car wash. It helps keeps things tidy and it very easy to store in the back of my car.
- Regularly Wash Your Car: I have a membership to a car wash place called Quick Quack car wash and I love it because I drive by many of their locations on my normal routes and routines, so it makes running through the car wash and vacuuming it out very simple. If you get a membership to a car wash place, make sure you don’t have to go out of your way to get there or it will never happen. You have to make things as simple as possible for yourself. I promise this is going to be huge for you! Even if there is a car wash place that you like more, you most likely won’t go to it very often unless you are going by it often in your regular routine. I run my car through the car wash and vacuum it out really once a week.
- Sanitize Your Car: I spray hypochlorous all over my car and use it to clean and disinfect my car. If you haven’t heard me preach about how this has changed our lives, you are in for a treat. Click here to get my cart I recommend and HERE to read about all of the uses. It feels like a miracle to me and we are all sick less often because I use it on our hands, in my car and in my home.
- Keep Snacks Contained: I keep my snack bags filled and ready to go in the center console of my car. Since we are in our car so much, it’s really to have access to my healthy snacks. These ones are our favorites! I love this darling bag – it makes me happy when I use it. All my snacks are neatly stored in these bags instead of shoved into places in my car that I could easily forget about and clutter up my car. It’s important to know where you can find everything.
I hope this blog post on how to keep your clean was helpful to you! Doing these things consistently make all the difference for me, and my brain loves a nice clean car where I know where everything is at. It reduces chaos and stress in my life!
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