Keeping the car clean...help

amother

Amethyst

Thu, Oct 22 2015, 11:49 pm

If youre a Mom of a young family, do you let your kids eat in the car? Or are you the kind that has a stern ''no eating'' rule?

I do let my kids eat, actually not just let, sometimes I am the one encouraging them to eat because we can be out many hours on errands and stuff with no time to go home for official lunch. So I bring starchy food for them such as pretzels, rice cakes, crackers... and they all munch on it and pass the package around and basically cause my van to have crumbs and peices of food all over. looks like a pigsty, even if there's no other mess on the floor just the crumbs.

I don't know what to do because I hate that it's so dirty, but I can't afford getting it vacuumed out at a car cleaining place too often. Too complicated to bring my vacuum outside and do the whole extension cord thing. And I really don't see how I can have a no eating rule...

So if you have a no eating rule, how do you do it?
Are you not in the car often? Do you never have days like I described with running around and no meals? Or picked them up straight from school to do errands and they're starving but you're not having dinner for a while? Or long road trip, etc...

What do you suggest? I thought of getting a dustbuster,. but don't see the best reviews. Seems they always die.

thoughts?

amother

Green

Thu, Oct 22 2015, 11:54 pm

Some gas stations have a vacuum you can use, for a small fee, with a big garbage can next to it!
Or, I go to the car wash for $5-6 and then use their vacuums. We have places like that around here (I'm out of town) don't know if you have any where you live.

sneakermom

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 12:18 am

We used to eat in the car. Don't ask what it looked like. Luckily we cleaned it for Pesach!

Then at some point we made a new rule no food in the car. It requires some more self discipline. (Making official lunch time before an outing)

But the car is clean. It feels really good.

Rosemarie

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 2:22 am

We keep talking about buying a mini vacuum cleaner of some sort for the car. We just never got around to even looking into which ones are good or would suit the purpose. But in theory that's the only way to keep it under control if you want to continue allowing food in the car. Another thing we started lately is that we god a car organizer type of thing. It hangs over the back of the front seat, has a slot to put in a tissue box on bottom, which we were ways looking for in the car, and a place on top to put garbage, like a super mini garbage can. This way we at least have the kids put the wrappers and big garbage there instead of on the floor.

momx6

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 7:00 am

Rosemarie wrote:

Can you please post a link to this car organizer?

mha3484

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 7:31 am

We used to eat in the car and it was disaster central. When we got a new car, we cracked down on the eating. We only allow non crumby foods. I learned from my father to put a towel on your lap to catch crumbs so I have DS do that also. To be totally honest I think snacks get out of hand. There are filling meals and as much as you want to drink but sometimes you will have to wait between meals and the world won't end.

amother

Coral

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 7:41 am

We have a no eating rule - nothing but water. I think many of the times eating in the car is just a habit rather than a necessity. We have gone on long car trips 4/5 hours and the kids are fine.

I have friends who as soon as the car moves must eat and give their kids nosh. The kids then expect it. They nosh even when we are going twenty minutes.

Rosemarie

Fri, Oct 23 2015, 8:12 am

momx6 wrote:

Can you please post a link to this car organizer?

We got something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/.....psc=1
There are many other options, such as one without the tissue box holder, allowing for more space for the garbage... We were constantly looking for tissues in the car, so this works for us.

SingALong

Sat, Oct 24 2015, 9:38 pm

Most local self serve car washes near me have a vacuum stand. You insert quarters and they have a loooong hose to vaccum. Usually $1 for 4 minutes, something like that. For only $2-3 I can get my whole car done, trunk included, and I have a mini van. I bring the kids and they can get into the hard to reach spaces better than I can. It's a major treat for them they love doing it.