Spotless. With two kids and a dog. Even when they were babies.
My H has a lot of rules for our cars, which I'm okay with. No food unless the snacks aren't messy and the kids must clean up their trash. Drinks must have lids or caps. We only keep a few items in the center console. Nothing in the trunk unless we are buying things and transport it.
In his defense, you would understand if you saw the HIMYM episode Arrivederci, Fiero . H had this car when we first met in 1999 and it had no storage, no cup holders nothing, it was a two seater with a rear engine, the "trunk" couldn't hold much more than a backpack or two.
My car was totaled last year and having a bunch of firefighters empty the contents of my mom car into bags in the middle of the highway was...embarrassing. Plus, now I worry about projectiles.
I can count on one hand how many times the minivan has been washed. It’s not like I’m trying here lol.
I will say that I do clean out the interior every time I fill the gas tank. Just wrappers and stuff. I rarely vacuum or Armor All it. I mean, DD “made it rain” with her Cheerios today so why even bother.
I don’t leave things in it and DD isn’t big enough yet to snack while we drive. But I don’t vacuum it as often as I should so the floor will have things like bits of dead leaves from my shoes.
mine is not cluttered, I make everyone remove anything they brought into the car once we get home. but there are definitely graham cracker crumbs in my kids’ car seats. H details it every few weeks because he cares and I do not lol.
H is the same way with the car, and I don’t understand it because he never, ever drives! I only use it for work and maybe some errands on the weekend, but we mostly walk or bus. Yet everytime we go to his parents he cleans the entire thing out like it’s favorite fucking way to spend a Saturday. I keep reminding him that Viv is just gonna shove a waffle under her car seat the next morning on the way to daycare, but hey- whatever brings you joy I guess.
Between relatively clean and relatively messy? In my early 20s I think I had most of my life in my car. Definitely most of my shoes at any given time were in my trunk. Last year when I started a new job my husband told me he'd get my car detailed IF I actually cleaned out my car. I tend to have, like, a bad of clothes that needs to be donated in there for 6 months. Currently, the cupholders and other areas are kind of full of crumbs/dust, so it really needs a good interior cleaning.
But I throw trash out in a timely manner, and can usually fit the amount of passengers in my car that the car is supposed to be able to hold. So I don't think its clean by any means, but my FIL and SIL have cars that literally have piles of junk in them and often smell like dog, so by that measure, I'm doing pretty well.
Post by katieinthecity on May 17, 2018 20:12:12 GMT -5
I answered relatively dirty, but in reality it's more messy than dirty. It's quite cluttered with toys and paper and crap. But not like, dirt/filth/rotting food, etc.
mine is not cluttered, I make everyone remove anything they brought into the car once we get home. but there are definitely graham cracker crumbs in my kids’ car seats. H details it every few weeks because he cares and I do not lol.
H is the same way with the car, and I don’t understand it because he never, ever drives! I only use it for work and maybe some errands on the weekend, but we mostly walk or bus. Yet everytime we go to his parents he cleans the entire thing out like it’s favorite fucking way to spend a Saturday. I keep reminding him that Viv is just gonna shove a waffle under her car seat the next morning on the way to daycare, but hey- whatever brings you joy I guess.
This is my H as well. Whatever, I'm not going to stop you from cleaning out my car. I do appreciate being able to see the floor for a few days.
Post by shortcake2675 on May 17, 2018 20:37:56 GMT -5
There are legos, light brite pegs, markers, and other small things that require regular recapture and containment. And then all the paper from catechism and school, plus all the extra clothing for our high desert spring that could mean snow in the morning and 65 in the afternoon. And then there was the poptart I found that slid down between the seat and the console in the back. I got it decluttered yesterday, but it's rare that I get it vacuumed. The nice new carwash has free vacuums if you get your car washed there, but it's a touch wash and I have a giant spider on top of my Suburban, so that's a no go.
Pretty clean. We go to a car wash that also cleans the inside, so it never gets too dusty or dirty. I used to be bad about having a bunch of crap in the car, but I don't really do that anymore.
Even with a 4 year old and a tendency to eat fast food on my lunch break between errands, I manage to keep my car remarkably clean. My husband’s car, however, looks like someone forgot to take their recycling bin to the curb and dumped it all in the backseat. Soda and water bottles, granola bar wrappers, whatever he doesn’t need any more, he tosses behind him. It’s awful!
Pretty clean. Stuff does not stay in the car. In theory anyway, if DH takes my car especially to take SDs back to their mom's, there are lattes and water bottles and shit everywhere it makes me so annoyed. It's cleaner during warm months. We are in Michigan and the snow/slush grossness can't really get rinsed off the weathertech floor mats until it warms up.
Post by RoxMonster on May 17, 2018 22:29:26 GMT -5
I have just resigned myself to the fact I will never be able to keep up with the dog nose prints on my back windows. Windex them/car wash, whatever--the next time I drive her, they are back. We do use DH's SUV to tote her most of the time, but she is still in my back seat regularly. I even try putting down a sheet on my backseat but she manages to crumple it all up.
I am pretty good on not having trash in there, but I could definitely stand to vacuum it out more. I really only vacuum the floor mats when I take it through the car wash.
Front seats are usually tidy, but the backseat becomes a disaster zone fairly quickly due to both kids. It's improved over the last 2 months or so though.
I answered relatively dirty, but in reality it's more messy than dirty. It's quite cluttered with toys and paper and crap. But not like, dirt/filth/rotting food, etc.
This is pretty much my exact answer too. There’s at least three blankets, one being a nearly full sized fleece tied one, in there, stuffed animals, extra shoes, jackets, books, lord knows how many hair ties and ponytail holders that dd2 rips out the second i close the door to get into my seat... FTR: it’s a minivan and I have two toddlers (3.5 & 1.5 yrs old).
Very cluttered with receipts everywhere and there are often wrappers on the floor or stuffed in the door pockets. And then of course there are the extra kid things (matchbox cars, sweaters, etc.) all over the back seat. I cleaned my car the other day because even my 3 and 5 yr old started scolding me :S
On this note, we just got a new Highlander and one of the biggest reasons i was excited for the upgrade was keeping it clean. Now our golden retriever can ride in the back because we have captains chairs in the second row. So she can lay down, but still feel like she isn't separated from us. So that eliminates a lot of her hair. Plus now we have leather.
We used to travel with her and the two boys on a bench seat in our older model highlander. It was insanity. We all were covered in hair by the time we got to our destination. No one had any room. The seats were cloth so they just got dingy really quickly.
I cannot keep it clean, and I am clean in other parts of life. My kids are mess makers and somehow everything ends up in the car. it's disgusting and I hate it, yet here I am.
I'm here with you. The car and the dining room table seem to be my kids favorite places to dump stuff, doesn't matter how much nagging I do to take their crap with them.
I answered relatively dirty, but in reality it's more messy than dirty. It's quite cluttered with toys and paper and crap. But not like, dirt/filth/rotting food, etc.
same. I have garbage (gum wrappers and junk mail) on the front floor off the passenger seat that I toss whenever I get gas. In the back seat there is just stuff. I have cans of formula I need to give a friend. The baby carrier. The car seat. So it just has...stuff.
The trunk (I have an outback) however...that is the war zone. Dog hair (I don't even have a dog!), random shit. Ultrasound pictures from 2016. Tupperware. fleece vests that I keep forgetting to donate, etc.
I would just like to say - the inside of my car is dusty as hell and has crumbs in all the cracks and is covered in random whothefuckknowswhat kinds of trash and assorted random stuff - but it doesn't smell bad.
Occasionally something like a banana peel will get buried, but once I get a whiff of anything beyond a general light mustiness (that happens...I often have a gym bag in there with wet swim stuff hanging from the OhShit Handles...can't be helped) I hunt down the offender and everything gets cleared out.
So I'm not the worst! yay! MH will be so surprised!
We occasionally switch cars for an assortment of reasons, and one of H's coworkers got in my passenger seat on one of those occasions. He (the coworker) has not yet let me forget it. We worked on a project together once (H and I are in the same industry), and he walked into the kickoff meeting and was like, "hey! I knew you were here because I parked next to you and was like, hey I know that FILTHY CAR! I see you haven't cleaned it." In front of everyone. THANKS MAN. Jeez.
Two of our vehicles are spotless (thanks to DH), our third vehicle is my daily commuter and it's trashed. Literally. We have to haul off our recycling and I throw everything in the trunk and then drop it off on Saturdays. Since it's so good on gas we use it for pretty much everything else too. I don't leave food laying around, but it's full of random stuff from weekend hiking trips, weekend remodeling projects, stuff I need to drop off at a donation center, etc. We call it "the turd".
Post by mrs.jacinthe on May 18, 2018 8:15:24 GMT -5
My work/personal car is completely clutter free, but it gets "dirty" fast from people getting in and out (I'm a realtor) and dog/cat hair that statics off of people's clothing. I get a full interior/exterior once a month on it and by the end of that 30 days it's really starting to show the dirt and other yuck. (Turns out black fabric interior was not the best idea I've had.)
My beater car (which is what I use to haul the dog to the dog park, pick up plants at the nursery, whatever) is a hot mess. I have one of those hammocks to keep the dog from sliding onto the floor and keep chucking stuff under there to hide it. I have absolutely no idea what all is in there at this point. I don't think there's any actual trash, but stuff like cleaning supplies, extra dog dishes, I don't even know. I really need to clean it out, but for whatever reason, I just can't get around to it.
I have two kids. Try as I might, I can't keep the car clean. I have a guy that does mobile detailing, so usually at least once a month, he comes to vacuum and wash my car. It's been over a month now, thanks to my workday schedule, and I'm beginning to go stir crazy. Let me text him to see when he can get my car ...
My car is pretty clean, thanks to the local car wash I found. They will hand wash your car's exterior, take out the floor mats and wash them, and vacuum and wipe down the interior for $25.
It's one of the few jobs I "outsource". Totally worth it.
I had to take the backseat out of my car with the fuel pump issue. I'd never seen, much less cleaned, the underside of the backseat. I'd been doing okay keeping the car kind of clean until the flooding issue at my mom's house and then everything went to hell.