Trifter

Image by griffhome via Flickr

Since the family car is far and away the preferred way to travel on vacation, most people have experienced the enormous mess that happens inside on a road trip. The shiny clean car that was carefully packed on the first day has become a motorized dumpster by the end of the journey. You are tempted to call in a hazardous material team to perform the cleaning duties. How did this happen? More importantly, can it be prevented next time? Follow a few simple tips and things can improve dramatically on your next road trip.

Finally, a good use for that mountain of flimsy plastic bags that you hate to store and hate to throw away. Pack about 30 or 40 of them into one bag and store them under the front seat. Most cars have more than enough room for this. Keep one out to use for collecting all trash generated within the car immediately.

Do not become emotionally attached to your trash or feel every bag has to filled to maximum capacity. Every time that you stop, throw out all bags with trash in them. You may want one bag for the front and one for the back depending on your family needs. Never store them if they have trash inside. By the next stop, they will overflow and trash will find its way to your seats and floor.

This will come as a blow to those who take their tea or diet soda intravenously. Water does not stain your seats like soft drinks. You can carry it with you in sports bottles that have pull up spouts for convenience. These can be refilled and stored in a cooler to keep them cold. If you really like a car with brown, red, and blue stains on the seats, you can still drink your tea or diet soda.

Because of trying to shorten the duration of the trip, many families pack food or drive through fast food for meals to be eaten on the go. Everyone who has travelled with children battling in the back seat understands this line of thinking. By limiting this to foods that have fewer crumbs, you can reduce the amount of material left in the car from each meal. This generally rules out fried foods with a crust and some types of bread. It really can produce a much more restful trip if you stop every 4 hours and sit down somewhere to eat outside of the car. Even a table at a rest stop can be preferable to eating in the car. It will decompress the group and keep the car cleaner, too.

It is easy to feel like a little trash is not important when compared to having to live with several pillows, two coolers, a box of food, bags of toys, and a pile of other items in the car. The car already has a messy feel before the trip starts. This discourages efforts to attempt to keep it clean. Try to store as much out of the cabin of the vehicle as possible. You can always rotate items during stops for things that people want or need from time to time. If the car feels neat and clean, passengers will be more likely to try and keep it that way.

No matter how diligent you are, some trash will find its way to the floor and seats of you car on an extended trip. Make a habit of unpacking the cabin of the car and cleaning out any trash that has accumulated inside. Doing this before loading up in the morning or right after unloading at night is the most convenient time.

Along with this, at every stop, have the passengers do a quick inspection of their space and remove any trash that they see. Children will insist that it is not theirs. Everyone should be given a piece of the car to inspect and keep clean regardless of how the trash arrived in that spot.