So maybe it's time to clean out the minivan?

So, in fulfilling my duties as the principal driver for a non-profit transportation services company, I am on my way to drop off my client. Taking a right-hand corner perhaps a little too fast, I am suddenly nearly buried as a tide of stuff slides over into my area. Baseballs, water bottles--full, empty, and in-between--baseball hats, baseball gloves, empty take-out boxes, a power inverter for charging laptops, stuff that needs to be returned, library books, junk mail, GPS, and a couple pairs of my son's smelly socks. It occurs to me that there is too much stuff in this vehicle. The baseballs and water bottles are especially insidious because of their tendency to gravitate to the underfoot area, where they might interfere with gas and brake pedals.

So today I'm cleaning it out. You might check yours too.

Keep at least one glove in there--otherwise it looks suspicious why you have a baseball bat in your car.

I just removed a mouse from ours.

I know someone who was in a significant crash because one of her daughters toys slid under the brake pedal while she was slowing down in traffic, preventing her from being able to use the brakes normally.

While I generally manage to keep the clutter to a minimum, mine is in desperately in need of a good vacuuming. Two solid months of weekend mountain biking trips followed by over a month of hauling shed construction materials has left the interior more than a little dingy.

My wife's car will get that way. She doesn't clean her own stuff out, let alone all the kids' junk and trash.

My car is a different story. OCD does not allow the accumulation of stuff in my vehicle. May need some vacuuming, but clutter drives me nuts.

My interior is OK. My trunk is another story altogether. Tons and tons of hardware everywhere plus the ripped plastic packets where the hardware used to reside. I gotta get this stuff organized.

I know it's getting bad when I can't go around a corner without hearing a quarter of a metric E36 M3-ton of rubble slide from one side of the car to the other.

I'm sure you all will be relieved to learn that I have fixed the problem. For now.

My rx8 is totally clutter free, my van is so large any clutter just gets lost in the back, but my wifes focus

It's the family hauler so it has a lot of kids stuff to be sure, but I often cant find a free cup holder...

I once observed to my wife, "You know this is a van, not a dumpster, right?"

And that's how the fight started. . .

My wife has a lead foot. I once referred to her car as "The flying dumpster of death"

A customer once brought in a Astro that needed a tuneup. It was the most disgusting vehicle I was ever in. We called and told them we wouldnt work on it until it was cleaned out and parked it by the dumpster to make it a little easier. When I came back to work the next day 9 (NINE!!!) large garbage bags in the dumpster from there van. And this wasn't junk mail and the typical trash that accumulates in normal people cars. THis was half eaten food and stuff that rots. It was awful.

Did this last week. 2 trash bags of stuff to keep(Coats,lots of kids coats).. one trash bag of stuff to chuck(mostly food wrappers)...

The Hoff wrote: My wife's car will get that way. She doesn't clean her own stuff out, let alone all the kids' junk and trash. My car is a different story. OCD does not allow the accumulation of stuff in my vehicle. May need some vacuuming, but clutter drives me nuts.

Oh, I’ve got the OCD’s bad.

The engine on my RX-8 started to grenade three weeks ago so I quickly traded it in on a new Explorer for my wife while it still had enough life left in it to pass a casual inspection.

I brought two bankers boxes home from the office on Friday the 11th in anticipation of transitioning into my wife’s old Explorer over the weekend.

On Sunday morning, my wife said something along the lines of “I’ll need to start thinking about moving some of my stuff out of the old car”.

Bhahaha, 30 minutes later, I had absolutely every single thing that didn’t originally roll out of Ford’s assembly plant boxed, labeled, and lovingly dumped at her feet…here’s your E36 M3.

Her new Explorer came with twelve cup holders and I’m running a mental count down on how many remain serviceable as they fill up with gum wrappers, hair fastening do-hickeys, etc…I believe we’re already down to nine.

Added later…

Along with two bankers boxes stuffed with junk, I removed a trailer hitch that had been riding around in a storage compartment for years so, all up, I’m about 24 pounds lighter.

BTW, I’ve now gone through two tanks of gas in the old Explorer and I’ve averaged 18.65 and 18.85 mpg’s…that’s right, I’m hypermilen' an Explorer

All of my vehicles could pass an SCCA autocross tech inspection at any time. I don't like anything in my car!

My moms van is like that. But she house/pet sits for people so she always has a E36 M3ton of stuff for that in it.

Two seater minivan, at all times. We did totally throw a standup freezer in it a couple of days ago, so it's handy as hell.

Our minivan can get to rolling disaster status within a day or so. Cleaning it out has become a weekend ritual. The worst is when we take it on a vacation. It took me about 2 hours to clean it out from the last one, and I had already purged several times during the week.

gearheadmb wrote: A customer once brought in a Astro that needed a tuneup. It was the most disgusting vehicle I was ever in. We called and told them we wouldnt work on it until it was cleaned out and parked it by the dumpster to make it a little easier. When I came back to work the next day 9 (NINE!!!) large garbage bags in the dumpster from there van. And this wasn't junk mail and the typical trash that accumulates in normal people cars. THis was half eaten food and stuff that rots. It was awful.

We had a customer that drove an old 244 that had the back seat and trunk full of trash/paper. When it came in for a fuel pump replacement the tech said he needs another hour labor to dig it out or she needs to clean it out herself. The customer decided to do it herself in the bay. While meticulously clearing it out she found an envelope with $1500 cash in it. The tech would have indiscriminately thrown every last piece of trash in the garbage and never known better.

I cleaned out our SUV a little too well last week, now I can't find half the crap I'm used to having on hand.

The Hoff wrote: My car is a different story. OCD does not allow the accumulation of stuff in my vehicle. May need some vacuuming, but clutter drives me nuts.

This. I'm that guy who will apologize to people for my car being dirty when I have a few crumpled receipts in the door pockets.

Javelin wrote: All of my vehicles could pass an SCCA autocross tech inspection at any time. I don't like anything in my car!

I'm with this guy.

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote:

Javelin wrote: All of my vehicles could pass an SCCA autocross tech inspection at any time. I don't like anything in my car!

I'm with this guy.

Much as a clean desk in the workplace is a sure sign of a sick mind, so to (I would argue) is a clean car the hallmark of an individual with issues.

My wife has put one of those collapsible trash can on the hump between the seats in all our cars. I think it is a good idea. We don't have kids or even that many passengers but we can still fill it up every month with gum wrappers, etc.

My car used to look like it was part of a liquor distributors warehouse. Lots of posters, mostly not current, table tents, glassware, signs, and other POS, sell sheets, tape, zip ties, staplers, and more. Plus a draft cleaning kit. I hated it, my wife hated more.

Now I just have a briefcase and an extra jacket, so much nicer.

1988RedT2 wrote:

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote:

Javelin wrote: All of my vehicles could pass an SCCA autocross tech inspection at any time. I don't like anything in my car!

I'm with this guy.

Much as a clean desk in the workplace is a sure sign of a sick mind, so to (I would argue) is a clean car the hallmark of an individual with issues.

I wish I could keep my work areas as clean as I keep my cars (when I had them). I just can't deal with anything at all in the interior that doesn't belong there. My interiors were cleaned daily, I kept a microfiber cloth to wipe off the steering wheel, and dash every time I got out of it. The exterior was cleaned once a week at a minimum, usually twice a week and wiped with a California duster daily. Until I moved to a place with a gravel parking lot, then it became too much of a chore.

I seriously can't understand how people can just let their cars go, yes I judge you on the cleanliness of your car.