Friday, January 19, 2018

Friday Favorites #42. {Car Organizing}

Hey guys!  It's Friday already and I feel like this week has completely gotten away from me! This is only my 2nd blog post this week.  #totalslacker

Hopefully, next week I'll be better.  :)



But today is Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika and Narci and during the time I haven't been blogging, I've been scouring Amazon and Pinterest for stuff to help me organize my CAR!  So that's going to be the focus of today's post.

Does anyone else feel like you just know your entire life would be so much better if only your entire life was organized? 


Yeah, me too.

(By the way, is the girl in the above meme topless? I just noticed it. ???)

But organizing is such a time suck.  So I've learned to break it down when I don't have all day and work with the things I can actually do in a short span of time instead of say, trying to organize my attic in one afternoon.

I think we all know that can't end well.  

But speaking of attic organization, we are in the process of giving our entire 10-year-old house a little facelift and doing some 10-year maintenance type things as well.  And one of those things is adding some sort of fancy insulation to our attic.  Craig explained it all to me.  What it does.  Why we need it.  And why we need to spend a crapload of money on it.  Apparently, "It'll pay for itself in 3 years."

#we'llsee

But in order to do that, we are going to have to do some attic junk shuffling so they can get it all done which might actually lead to some attic organization.  Ahhhh.  A silver lining.  If we could just get an attic purge done, I'd be happy.  My husband is the worst at throwing away broken stuff. When our glider for the nursery broke after the first few months, Pottery Barn was sweet enough to send us a replacement.  But instead of throwing away the old chair, my husband lugged this giant, heavy BROKEN glider up the ladder to the attic and it has been sitting there ever since.  

Why?!!!

He also does this with TVs.  We have an old and large flat-screen TV that broke, probably 5 years ago, and it is still sitting in Matthew's closet for some reason.  Instead of moving it out of the house and getting rid of it (however you dispose of TVs) he hauled it upstairs, across the house and into Matthew's closet where it still remains. #madnessItellya

I have been much better at tossing old stuff lately and trying to simplify and organize when and where I can.  (See last post when my foot became a casualty of the closet overhaul.)  But one thing in my life that tends to get overlooked is my car.

My car is a total mom-mobile.  There are always half-drunk bottles of water, old french fries, Cheez-It crumbs, dirty socks and shoes, small toys, random sports equipment and so much more littering the back seats.  And I know that's gross.  And I try to stay on top of it.  I tell the boys to "Get all your junk out of my car!" when we pull into the garage.  But somehow, not everything gets taken out each time and after awhile, things start to accumulate.  

So my goal is to organize my car.  And I'm slowly getting there.  Here is my game plan.


1.  Trash.

Trash is the #1 destroyer of my car.  Whether it's those water bottles, the snack wrappers, french fries that have been spilled and half cleaned up or just random paper/fliers/receipts etc...we need a way to wrangle the trash.

I actually bought this cute thing off of Etsy awhile back and LOVE it!  It's so pretty and it's really convenient for me as well.  This little bag can be hung from your gear shift or hung from the headrest for those backseat peeps.



I laid it out so you could see the whole thing.


It's also got a lining in it that that is waterproof and it can be thrown in the washing machine when it gets dirty.

I got mine here but it looks like she's only got one for sale right now.  Amazon has several though.  We will be getting one for the backseat.  Here are some of my contenders.  All around $15 or under.

I love this one.  It's big and my kid could throw up in it if he needs to. ;)  #score


And this one too! But it's got a cute little pattern if you're into that.  (I am!)


This one is great because it has a place for tissues and pockets on the sides! (We may have a winner.)


2. Tackling the Trunk

My SUV has a third row but we usually have it folded down so we have room for all the boys' sports equipment, groceries etc.  There is always random stuff floating around back there and I'm going to get it organized.  I love these trunk organizers.  

I just ordered this one and can't wait for it to arrive.  I may decide to order another one because I have big plans for this.

I love that it has some outside mesh pockets and it's collapsible so if I only need one side, I can fold up the other one.  Plus it's cheap.  ;)

The only thing I wish it had was velcro on the bottom so it won't slide around.  BUT, that is an easy fix.  I can just grab some velcro at Walmart or wherever and attach it myself.

I plan on filling it with some essentials which is why I may end up getting one more.  One to organize the random mess and one to store some essentials.

Here's what will go in:

1.  A spare blanket
2.  A towel
3.  Plastic grocery bags
4.  A few ziplock bags
5.  Sunscreen
6.  First Aid Kit
7.  A few snacks and bottles of water
8.  Toilet Paper
9.  An extra umbrella (I'll keep another one in the front)
10.  Hand warmers


Find it here for under $11.

3.  The Backseat

My boys are a hot mess, as I've said, on the daily.  But on road trips, it's even worse.  Last summer, before our beach trip, I got this 2 pack of seat organizers for $13 to help them stay organized on that long road trip and we've kept them up since then.  They really do help keep the mess tamed.




I always keep Matthew's Dramamine in one of the mesh pockets.  He gets crazy car sick.  And I do too so it's really there for us both. ;)

This is a great place for them to store their earbuds/headphones, their ipads, chargers, water bottles, snacks, extra wet wipes, books and it would be nice if they would put their socks in there when they strip them off in the backseat.  (Why do they always need to take their socks and shoes off as soon as we get in the car?!)

4.  The Front Seat

I am constantly losing things (like my phone!) down that little space between the console and my seat.  I've also dropped my debit card down there when I went to get it out of my purse to pay at a drive-thru and held up the line for a few minutes while I was digging for it.  Y'all, I was sweating trying to dig that thing out before people started honking at me.  It never occurred to me to just use a different card really quick and find it later!  My hand was practically bruised after that search too.

So I NEED these!!



These are also great too.  They give you a little more room to do some organizing and free up your cupholders.


Or these that curve slightly on top to match the curves of your car.  (These are the ones-below-that I ended up ordering.)



I will be sure to post to the FB page once I get them in and let you know what I think!

And if you want to get a lot more organized, these are more expensive but look really cool.


I love that they have a little easy coin slot for your change and spare cupholders that you can flip up or down as you need them!  Find them here!

And if you are in my Facebook group, I posted these awesome little hooks the other day.  I got 4 of them for less than $6.  I have 3 of them facing the backseat so I could hook umbrellas, grocery bags or whatever back there but I flipped one around to keep my purse from flying off the front seat all the time!  (That makes me sound like a bad driver.  haha.  I'm not, I promise!)  Plus, it's so much easier to find my wallet or sunglasses or whatever else I may need.  Great purchase.  You can find those here.


5.  The Emergency Kit

I plan on having a little emergency kit.  You can do this in conjunction with a first aid kit or just lump all of these things together. However you want to do it. I have a real first aid kit that came with my car so I'll add all these little extras to a separate pouch.

I just added these cute gold confetti zipper pouches to my shop and I think they'll be great for my emergency kit.  


Here's what I plan to put in mine.

1.  Tissues
2.  Dramamine
3. Tylenol
4.  Travel size sunscreen
5.  Travel size bug spray
6.  Hair ties
7.  Bandaids
8.  Chapstick
9.  Tampons
10.  Pepto
11.  A couple of pens
12.  Post Its
13.  Baby Wipes
14.  Antibacterial
15.  Mints/Gum

What am I missing?  Let me know!

(UPDATE:  Check out Part 2 with the finished product  HERE.  Love my new little organizers!!)


If you're looking for more lifehacks or fun ways to organize your life, be sure to check out my Pinterest Board {Clean, Organize, Store, Fix}.  There are lots of great things pinned there!

And remember, you can find me on Instagram @amandanall and @thatinspiredchick (Etsy shop).
My Etsy shop is here.
And I'd love for you to join my Facebook group here.  As I get myself organized, I'll be posting updates there.

Hope this has helped inspire you to get a little more organized too!  Unless you're one of those lucky ones who is naturally always organized.  I envy you if you are.

Have a fantastic weekend, friends!

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11 comments

  1. If you saw my car right now, we couldn’t be friends. It’s an awful mess!!

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    Replies
    1. Maybe this is why we ARE friends. hahaha. Mine is always a disaster which is why I need to organize the heck out of it!

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  2. Totally ordering a few of these NOW! Oh and one of my goals this year is to organize the attic. EEK! But I gotta wait till it warms up! HA

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    Replies
    1. Yes! Our attic is freezing too. I'm not looking forward to it!

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  3. I just ordered two of these things!! Thanks!!

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  4. Yes to this post! I plan to come back to this post over the weekend to check out some of these links more. Thanks!

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  5. I ordered 2 of those in between seat organizers....the first ones you posted. They do NOT stay in between in my car. They slide down. So just beware on them! I was so hoping they would work. My husband saw them somewhere and ordered them for me 2 years ago. I wanted them to work SO BAD!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no! That stinks! I read reviews on them that said they work better with some cars than they do others. 😕 I ended up ordering the third option so I've got fingers crossed they work ok! 🤞🏻

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    2. Looks like they worked out for you with what you purchased! Good decision!

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  6. OMG those in between the seat and center console organizers are GENIUS! Whenever I drop my phone down there I want to cry. It's always a struggle getting it. Seriously this post is super helpful, I'm getting that trunk organizer too!!

    ReplyDelete

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