Introducing back to basics tips (BTB). Ideas, suggestions, and hints to help you with everything and anything. Hoping it will help in making our lives simple. Resulting in more efficient use of our time. Leading to more time to enjoy or do the things we love.
Back to basics tip #1: I often receive comments from others about the cleanliness of my car with two children passengers. I learned it all from my father. The trick to having a clean car is to keep the trash out. Even if it’s not vacuumed or haven’t been dusted or polished, the car will be noticeably cleaner if you just get rid of the garbage and put away things that do not belong in the car (shoes, food containers, blankets, toys, books).
Reuse plastic grocery bags and keep a few somewhere accessible, but not too noticeable such as the pockets on the back of the driver or passenger seat. Any time you have trash in the car, grab a bag and collect all the pieces of garbage. Do a routine check every few days. I do a quick scan over of the interior of my car whenever I park the car in the garage. Collect the trash, grab the things that needed to go back in the house, then come back for the kids. It only takes seconds.
I’ve also found that picking a certain time each week to de-junk is helpful. My son goes to speech therapy once each week for 45 minutes, which doesn’t give me much time to do anything … except clean out the car. You can also put things in separately organized bags to bring back in the house where they belong (bag for clothes, bag for shoes, etc.) Still–more often would be better, but we do what we can, right?