About six months ago I decided that one of the areas I could cut household costs is by washing the minivan myself. When the weather is warm enough the boys love to help. It turns a chore into a party. There is fun, frolic and bubbles…lots and lots of bubbles. My plan was working brilliantly until the minivan door slides open.
Yep. The interior of the car has been neglected for exactly six months.
ewww.
Sticky cupholders have overflown into rivers of soda, juice and unidentified liquid of questionable smellage. Door compartments errupt with wrappers, tissues and trash-pies baked fully in the hot Texas sun. The seats are embedded with crumbs of unknown origins.
The floor.
The floor.
The floor is the recipient of all things affected by gravity.
The dirty little secret is that I never expected to clean the interior myself. I figured that when the inside got intolerable I would drive it to the car wash, shell out some of my six month savings and have it detailed. Good plan.
Poor execution since my second dirty little secret is that I suffer from procrastination tendencies in work-related areas.
When we decided to take a road trip I planned to take the car in…planned.
Planned turned into next week.
Planned turned into tomorrow.
Planned turned into holy crap I have to do it today and it is raining so the car wash is CLOSED.
And that is why when I should have been packing suitcases for 3 little boys and myself, I was in the garage with the garage door up drowning out the pitter-pat of rainfall with the relentless hum of the vacuum.
The relentless hum of the vacuum which still rings through my head several days later in coordination with the scrubbing muscle soreness and the mental exhaustion caused by working car washes back into the household budget.
That reminds me, my own car needs a bit of TLC. Okay, a lot of TLC, who am I kidding?!
Sticky cup holders are the worst. Maybe the spilled fingernail polish is the worst. Nah, the used tissues and gum stuck in the arm rest are the worst.
Ick.
The worst is when I have to unexpectedly move the car seat – YUCK! But then the car is clean – for a little while.
My car is awful – the fast food wrappers from food on the go.. sticky cup holders, smelly socks, shoes, and you name it!
Enjoyed visiting you blog today.
Love,
Kelly
At least once a season, we clean out the van, vacuum with the shop vac and rent a rug doctor and steam clean it. The same goes for the other 2 vehicles and the upholsterred furniture. It still gets disgusting before the next cleaning. 🙂
LOL oh my …. amazing what you can find buried in my car. HA! I love it when I get my car cleaned with the pina colata air freshener spray. 🙂
If only there were a magic wand for this. I could SO use one! And it gets bad so fast. Ugh.
The carwash near our house cleans the whole thing; including vacuuming and windows for just $17.00 (plus a few dollar tip)! I still need to work on the gushy cup holders, etc. but the bulk of the mess is gone and I’m happy…until the next road trip.
Suggestion? I keep wipies in the car and hand them to the boys. Keeps them busy and *maybe* cleans the backseat just a little.
we actually avoided driving the suburban for two months ‘cuz it was so nasty inside….
Thanks alot. I was doing just fine blocking out how nasty my car is inside and out. Now I gotta go deal with that…
see, you aren’t doing this right. i leave it all messy until my husband has to drive the car.
and next thing i know? it’s vacuumed, cleared out, washed and waxed.
in my very own driveway.
SCORE!!!!!