Four Week "Wait-No-More" Organizing Challenge! Week 2 - Organized Car Kits

Welcome to Week Two of the "Wait-No-More" Organizing Challenge.  To recap, I am focusing on four main areas of our life that need a lot of organizational help.  Instead of biting off more than I can chew all at once (and subsequently becoming quite overwhelmed), I am tackling one space each week.

• Time Management
• Automobiles
• Master Bathroom
• Master Bedroom Closet

And many of you are joining in and working on a few of your own spaces, which I totally love!  For this week's organizational challenge, I am focusing on our vehicles.  More and more, it feels like our cars are our second homes.  We are always heading to school and sporting events as well as running frequent errands, trips to the park and taking off for a weekend away.  We live in a small town, so we have to take trips to "the city" quite frequently.  All of those miles add up and the interior of our cars have been feeling the traveling pains.

We snack in the car, we sleep in the car, we read and play games in the car.  I am not one to keep strict rules about food, drinks and toys because I want everyone to be happy and comfortable while traveling.  However, my goal is to take back the room on wheels that we spend so much time in, and to find a few ways to better maintain them moving forward.

Above you can see my plans for the cars.  By Friday, I will (fingers crossed) have before and afters of two messy vehicles turned nice, clean and organized vehicles.  Wish me luck!

My first step in the process was to address some areas we have been lacking.  We have umbrellas near our front door, but what happens when we are heading to the grocery store and a rain cloud comes out of nowhere?  We keep our sunglasses in our shoe cabinet, but again, what if we forget them at home and happen to be driving into the sun?  What if our oldest gets hit with motion sickness or I happen to get a headache?  When we head to the park, there is a high probability that our accident prone kiddo will scrape up his elbow, forehead or knee.  And after having three flat tires in the past two years, I can't risk not being prepared for another.  All of these things have happened and have left us feeling frustrated that we didn't have some basics on hand.

So I decided to put together some kits to help us be better prepared on the road (you all know I love a good kit!).  We are still using some of the pouches we put together two years ago here, but since then we have ditched the basket and the rest of the system.  The lidded basket was too bulky and we found we didn't move it from car to car (the basket has been working much better in my closet storing off-season items).  This time around, I decided to create two of each kit, so that we don't have to do any moving between vehicles.

I started by picking up two large fabric bins (similar) from Target.  They are a grey, felt-like material and reminded me of the interior of our cars.  I also picked up two small craft cases and four plastic shoe boxes.

Kit number one is a very simple and basic First-Aid kit.  The small craft case was the perfect size for the bandage boxes and medicine bottles.

Inside each kit I added the following items:

• Pain Reliever
• Digestive Relief
• Motion Sickness Relief
• Itch Relief
• Instant Cold Pack
• Antiseptic/Pain Relieving Spray
• Bandages
• Kleenex
• Athletic Tape
• Gauze
• Scissors
• Tweezers

There is still room to add a few additional items if we find we have missed anything, however, we are pretty covered for accidents at the park or ball field.  I used my Silhouette die-cutting machine to create vinyl labels for each lid.

Next up I created a kit to keep behind the driver's seat in each car.  My goal is to completely clean out the cars and only keep this single bin of items in each.  I used an Avery Office template to create the labels for each kit. 

Inside each of these bins I added the following items:

• Wipes
• Umbrella
• Storage Bags
• Spare Charging Adapter
• Lip Gloss
• Lotion
• Markers
• Notebook
• Pens
• Kleenex
• Sanitizer
• Sunglasses
• Playing Cards

Now, if the kids forget their travel bags, they still have activities to keep them busy.  These items are intended to always stay in the car and never go into our home.  My guess is the contents may evolve or be swapped out, but I already feel much more prepared knowing that we have some basics on hand anywhere we head.  Because you know, hands get sticky and accidents will happen.

The last kit I put together is in case of a roadside emergency:

• Fix-A-Flat 
• Tire Plug Kit
• Headlamp
• Roadside Flare Light
• Tire Gauge
• Glass Breaker/Seatbelt Cutter (which will ultimately live in the glove compartment once the cars are cleaned out and organized)
• Booster Cables

And again, everything went inside one of the small plastic bins.

So to recap, each car will be equipped with the following:

Each container is quite compact, and the shoe box sized bins fit perfectly in the larger canvas bin.

The larger tote will sit in the trunk of each vehicle and the extra space will be used to hold a few reusable grocery bags and a picnic blanket in each (the "Happy Travels" bin will stay behind the driver's seat in the car).

To prevent the bins from sliding around in the trunk, I added a few heavy-duty Velcro strips to the bottom side of each.

No two families are the same, so what you opt to store in your vehicle most likely looks different than the items I selected.  To prepare, I thought about sticky situations where we didn't have what we needed... And just literal sticky situations.  Plus, I am always digging in my purse for chapstick, lotion, pens and sunglasses, so it is nice to know that the basics are always within reach.  

It is a beautiful week for us to get outside and start vacuuming, scrubbing and cleaning out each vehicle, and I can't wait for us to get back that "new car" smell.  In fact, that reminds me, I need a few air fresheners to battle the wonderful aroma of baseball socks. #savemynostrils