what’s in my car?

it’s time to play an exciting round of…

WHAT’S

IN

MY

CAR?????

(applause)

yes, that’s right, this morning, I was incredibly irritated by all the crap that was in my car. SO irritated, in fact, that it was making me a little twitchy. (and I may have yelled at my kids once or twice for less than reasonable things.) it was so bad, in fact, that I decided to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

dun dun DUNNNNNN…

and so, after dropping my 3rd (and final) kid off at the 3rd (and final) institute of learning (aka: preschool), I came home and cleaned out my car (instead of taking a nap and/or brewing another pot of coffee, which was what I really wanted to do).

when I get bees in my bonnet like this, I’m really bad at remembering to take a “before” picture. although, in this case, it’s probably better that I didn’t. it was BAD.

so, we’ll have to have the “after” pictures suffice.

and, of course, I have to account for what was actually IN my car before this. keep in mind, this does not include the countless shredded tissues, cheerios, nuts, raisins, tree needles, dog hair, pebbles, ticket stubs, parking passes, sunday school papers, crayon wrappers, straws, plastic baggies, and other such stuff that got recycled, thrown away, or sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. I seriously pulled both my outdoor recycle and garbage cans into the garage, so I could just toss stuff as I hauled it out.

drumroll please………………………

so, I know you’re dying to know what all that stuff is, right? well, lucky for you, I took an inventory and wrote it all down on a piece of paper torn out of the singing kitty notebook on the top of that pile! aren’t you lucky?

so, we have:

• 2 lawn chairs
• picnic blanket
• little potty
• jumper cables
• atlas
• ice scraper
• 2 buckets
• 1 shovel
• stuffed dog
• blanket
• boys size 3T pants
• shane’s sweatshirt
• random MOMS Club stuff
• 4 library books
• 2 other books
• 1.25 gallons of distilled water
• 2 packs of cone coffee filters (does anybody use these? trying to get rid of them! FREE!!! just let me know!)
• hairbrush
• 1 spray bottle of detangler
• 1 spray bottle of water
• box of markers
• 1 straw cup (had milk in it, but it’s only from this morning!)
• 2 bowls
• non-working cordless phone
• chip clip
• bank statement
• headband
• singing kitty notebook
• assorted hangers
• plastic spoon
• sigg water bottle
• air pump
• screws
• nails
• bag of layla’s clothes
• elmo music player
• umbrella
• plastic grocery bag
• baggy of curious george paper dolls
• pens, pencils, markers, crayons
• comcast bill
• discharge instructions from layla’s ER visit dated 3/1/12
• paperwork from when we bought our house
• box of wipes
• kleenex box
• 3 new composition books
• layla’s library card
• weed whacker string
• bottle of bubbles
• pugg goal tie-down pack
• sharpie
• cardboard pirate sword
• almost empty bottle of hand sanitizer
• first aid kit
• 3 pairs of sunglasses
• calculator
• 2 pairs of layla’s shoes
• staple gun + staples
• yoga mat
• butterfly net
• thank you note
• bible
• pool diving ring
• dog hair remover
• 1 duplo
• assorted lego pieces

that’s it! of course, some of those things went right back into the car, but in a (hopefully) more orderly fashion.

I still have about half that pile to deal with, plus two curbside garbage cans to remove from my garage… BUT, I’m breathing a big sigh of relief.

I vacuumed the car, but still need to go out with a rag and some windex and clean the windows and dust the dash and all that. what it really needs is a good detailing, but I’m not that thorough.

given that I practically live in this van, there are a few things I want. at least 2 of those back-of-the-seat organizer things would be awesome for putting books and crayons and stuff like that for the kids to do while we’re waiting (which we do a lot of) and some sort of somewhat permanent garbage receptacle (as in, not just a plastic grocery bag strung between the two front seats that gets stepped on and torn apart, strewing garbage all over the car…). I’m also wondering if command hooks would stick to the seat backs. the kids never wear their coats in the car, and they always get stepped on and nasty when they just throw them on the floor (which you know they do), so I’m thinking if there was a hook on the back of each of the front seats, they could hang their coats there until they get out of the car… anyone ever tried this before?

we spend a LOT of time in the car. it just seems like it would be more pleasant if it were a little bit more organized.

oh, and I made a whopping 29 cents for this job… (in change I found on the floor.) … which micah just fed to his hungry pig (ie: he put it in his piggy bank).