Oh yeah, I cleaned out my car

The market by our office has the parking lot if death. It's so poorly organized. It turns everyone into a terrible driver. They even have to have a parking attendant to show people where to go some days because traffic is so awful.

My dad semi-recently bought himself a fancy car - fancy fancy pants. He prefers not to take said car anywhere near the parking lot of death. So on days he takes fancy car to work, we take my totally awesome 10-year-old car to get lunch... which means I need to move all the crap in the front seat if my car into the backseat or the trunk - from where they will never return.

This creates a bit of a cycle in my car. Things that go into the backseat or trunk of my car have a tough time leaving. Top it all off with bi-weekly Panda chauffeuring and you've got a dog hair coated mess of junk in my car.

I've been meaning to do something about it for weeks, but this weekend I finally got around to it.

Here's a peak at what the inside of my car looked like on Saturday...

The front seat is where "stuff gets left" - coffee cups that never get returned to the kitchen, bobby pins and hairbands get thrown onto the seats after yoga classes, things I need to drop off at the post office but keep forgetting about, and trash (because I really need to keep a bag in the car for discarded wrappers and such but still haven't gotten around to it)

In my dream world, you can see this better.


My little center niche is full of discarded jewelry, bobby pins, gum, notes on scraps of paper, and dog hair... lots of dog hair.

Like I mentioned before, the backseat is where stuff gets thrown. Also, you can't see it, but you can swim in the dog hair that's collected back there. It's that bad.

Oh, that's where my yoga strap went!

Some of the last few times I've been to my parents' place, I've left with bags of stuff from the closet in my old room. It takes me a while to get it out of the trunk, but that's where the sleeping bag came from - and those old printouts of essays I wrote in college. I thought they were good papers at the time, so I'm not ready to trash them, especially since I lost everything on my hard drive in 2008. The hard copies are all I have. There's also a shower present in there. I've been carrying it around because I know once I get it out of my car it will never make it back in, and then my friend will never get her shower gift!

This was after I'd pulled everything out and vacuumed - Thank you, in-laws, for the shop vac - but nothing had been wiped down yet, and I still had to get into the crevices and stuff. Gross.

Everything removed from trunk and only a little put back in. I thought it couldn't hurt to keep a sleeping bag in my car. So what if it has a broken zipper? What if I get stranded somewhere cold? (unlikely) I'm more likely to need it when away from my house.
Also, the shower gift stays, and I thought Big Al could keep it company. He makes everything cuter.

This was my "aaaahh" moment. Look how shiny the dash is!

And dog hair free back seats! (prior to returning the flour mats)

I SCRUBBED the inside of the cupholders. I don't even know what was in there, but it was icky. No more bobby pins and dog hair in the center console - only a couple pens, post-its, and a flashlight. I don't know why I left the post-its. Seemed like a good idea. I might have to write something down.

And a better view of the passengers side, dash, and cupholders - no longer where trash, mail, and coffee cups go to die.

So that's it for my car cleaning adventure. The outside is still covered in dirt, but that's a whole other day.

Thank you, Tracy, for cleaning out your car and inspiring me to follow suit.