Easy Car Organization Tips

Affiliate links noted in italics are provided for your convenience. For more info, see my full disclosure here.

If my father in law were here today, he would be howling laughing that I am writing a post about car organization. Like, doubled over, tears falling, stomach cramping kind of laughing. You see, car organization has not exactly been my specialty. It’s an out of sight, out of mind thing for me. I go in the house and immediately forget anything that needs to be done in the car.

Back when Jeremy and I were dating, there was a big construction boom and tons of homes were being built all around town. This resulted in countless flat tires for me that Jeremy and his dad would repair. The first time they repaired a flat for me, they opened up my trunk and were met with a ton of stuff they had to remove in order to get to my spare tire. Jeremy and his dad teased me for years about “that time we opened your trunk and it looked like we were setting up a garage sale in the street”. Ha!

I’ve gotten better over the years, but having kids sure does present new challenges to keeping the car clean. One word for you– Cheerios. Am I right?! I’ve made countless attempts to organize my car and keep it clean, but in the matter of a week or two, it would start to fill up with jackets, cups, hand wipes, you name it. So frustrating!

Well, the other night when I couldn’t sleep all.night.long (thank you surgery), I watched this car organizing video and got inspired to up my car organization game. I ordered a couple things online to help my quest…at 3am. Jeremy and I had a good laugh the next day about my insomnia induced shopping. Thankfully, it was exactly what we needed and has been working out super well!

Here’s what is working for us!

1.) Trunk Organizer– I purchased this trunk organizer to corral the items that tend to roll around my trunk. It’s the perfect place to put any store returns, library books to take back, dry cleaning to drop off, or things I need to give to a friend the next time I see them. I love that it has a removable divider, so I can customize it to fit my current needs. When it’s our turn to take food to our community group, I can remove the little divider and two casserole dishes can fit side by side inside instead of sliding around the trunk. It also has lots of pockets which are the perfect place to keep a little first aid kit or extra diaper.

2.) Trash Can- I was using a plastic bag as a trash can, but it just floated around the front seat and looked junky. I was going to put it on a hook, but I was inspired by the video and decided making a little trash can out of a gift bag would look nicer. I simply cut one handle off my gift bag to make it easy to line, then lined the gift bag with a plastic bag and hung it on a Command hook on the side of my center console. It looks so much nicer than just a plastic bag hanging there! Even if I used a bright purple Command hook. Why, Samantha?! #usewhatyouhaveonhand

3.) Car Seat Organizer– My kids love to have a toy in the car and their cups and jackets multiply like rabbits. I found this car seat organizer on Amazon and it fits perfectly between their seats! I found a couple toys at the Target Dollar Spot that were perfect to keep in the car. They stay exciting because they only use them in the car and they store perfectly in the front compartment of the organizer. I also keep Little Girlie’s ballet shoes and tutu in the back compartment of the organizer so I never forget them on ballet day. There is still tons of room left over for their jackets! I love that the organizer has lots of pockets and cup holders. It is going to be a life saver when we take trips! We can just load it up with snacks, books, and games for the road! It holds a ton!

 

4.) “When you get out, everything comes out” Rule– Or course, all of the organizers in the world won’t help unless you have a good system in place for maintaining your car organization. We have worked really hard to train the kids (and myself!) to empty all of their things out of the car every time we get home. All jackets, cups, snacks, backpacks, etc must be taken back into the house with them when they get out and put away. It makes such a huge difference! My kids are old enough to carry their own things inside, but when they were smaller, I had a tote bag (I used it as my diaper bag) with lots of pockets that I loaded up with all of their cups and things and took inside with me. Similar bag here.

5.) Have a designated spot for your commonly used things. I got really tired of searching for my phone when it was ringing or looking for my sunglasses in my purse, so over the years, I trained myself to put them in a specific spot. Now, it is a well established habit. I get in the car and immediately put on my sunglasses or put them on the center console if it’s cloudy, then put my phone on my center console. No more searching at every stop light for those things!

Hope this inspires you to get your car organized and gave you some helpful tips! What are your best car organization tips? Anyone have a good tip for removing stains from car upholstery?