I invariably end up with something to throw away in my car -- a straw wrapper, a tissue, an errant receipt. Sometimes a bag from a fast food drive-through.
There is no place to hang a litter bag in the car, and no place on the console to put a container. I bought a little bag and lined it with plastic bags to hold trash, but it tips over the minute I make a turn.
What do y'all do about trash in the car?
I have a bag similar to this that hangs behind the passenger seat:
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/travel/autoTravel?utm_medium=feed&productId=10000269&utm_source=google_products&sku=671020
we hang a narrow fabric bag (from etsy) off the gear stick.
we don't use it much now that i think about it, but it is handy when it is needed.
I know your problem - my car used to look like a trash bin from time to time. Not only that I had rubbish in the car, but I also used to not immediately clear the car when I got home from shopping, e.g. I left bags with clothes or groceries that didn't need to go in the fridge right away. Every time I needed the car for another trip you could see me rushing back and forth with material. Because there was no time to store the things where they actually belonged, I eventually ended up with heaps of mixed stuff in the hallway....this heap sometimes was so overwhelming that I didn't touch it for days. Result: CLUTTER.
My solution: I forced myself to immediately clear the car when I got home or reached the friends house, shopping centre or what ever. So now a take a quick look around the car and take the used tissue, empty coffee paper cup, the left overs from McDonalds,....right away. Often it's really only one or two small things and trash bins are nearly everywhere and friends don't mind if I ask them if I could use their bin for little trash items.
In the home garage I put a plastic bag nearby the parking space where I collect the trash, so that I do not have to carry the rubbish items long way into the house.
I've been doing this for about 1.5 years and now I have reached the state of behavioral change and the trash collecting goes without thinking about it.
What behejo said.
I had a problem with car clutter in the past. Litter bags never worked for me because it would fill up and I still had the problem of emptying it.
Public trash bins everywhere: gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants. Even many drive through restaurants have cans outside that you can drive up to.
I check for trash every time I get out of the car. It's easy when there isn't much to remove, but it does have to become a habit. Before clearing out the car was a habit for me, I would keep a plastic grocery bag folded flat in the glove compartment. When I was waiting at a red traffic light, I'd start picking up what I could reach and put it in the bag.
Like JuliaJayne, I empty my car every time I leave it. Obviously, someone needs to invent a good system to hang a trash bag in a car, but since that system doesn't exist, I'll just keep cleaning the car of *everything* each time I exit it.
In case you haven't seen these yet, I'm going to play Link Queen again ;o) Be sure to check out all the comments on the posts on the Unclutterer blog, there is great advice.
* Unclutterer Forums: Keeping the car clutter free
* Ask Unclutterer: Processing Car Clutter - there are links to cute auto trash bag holders in the comments!
* Ask Unclutterer: Auto Office
* Unclutterer.com - Cleaning out your cluttered car
:o)
I keep a trash can in the garage right next to the place I park at night. This really helps; as I am driving into the garage, I can see it and remember to toss things. I also try to conolidate the bags of purchases I carry into the house, then use the extra bag to collect trash.
I keep a roll of small trashbags in the door of my car (I think I purchased them at the dollar store- don't buy the scented, they are overwhelming!). I usually do a quick pick up when I am stuck at a train crossing. I also do a five minute clean out when I fill my gas tank.
I keep a plastic bag, I try to use smaller ones, on the automatic gear shift. I can just toss it bag and all when it fills up or earlier if need be. Works good for me.
Somebody just gave me a collapsible trash holder. It's quite a good size for the car, has an elastic loop from which it can hang, and also a strip of velcro on the bottom (with the other half so you can attach it on something if you like) which I know from experience attaches itself just find to the carpeting on the car floor. :) I may try it for that. If it works, great. If not, off to the donation bag.
I pretty much live in my car... I have a sales job that requires me to drive several hundred miles a week in heavy southern california traffic, so I eat, transact business, and generally make quite a mess in my vehicle. Since I don't have passengers very often I take a plastic grocery bag and shut the handle of it in the door of my glove compartment to hold it up. This makes it easy to toss in any mess without having to take my eyes off the road... then I just swap it out when it gets full.
luxcat - same idea as what I do but we hang the bags in different places. Double win in getting rid of clutter/trash.
Take a look in the auto care aisle of Target or a similar store. They sell little trash containers that are specifically made for the car -- narrow enough to fit behind the seat and weighted on the bottom so they don't tip over. Those are good for the wrappers and stray stuff. Mine lives behind the driver's seat, and I empty it on Fridays when I take the groceries out of the car.
On the rare occasions that I get fast food, I find it's better to get that bag out of the car as soon as possible to avoid attracting critters (we live on the edge of the woods, and mice are a problem). It usually ends up being on a day when I'm running all over the place and short on time, and as others have mentioned, public trashcans are everywhere, so it's easy to find a place to dispose of it.
I really try to pick up all car trash when I get out. I have a pocket on the outside of my purse that is the "trash pocket" for gum wrappers, bottle tops, kleenex, completed to do lists.
On a long drive I keep some sort of paper trash bag in the front.
My husband and son know that a messy car ticks Mama off...so, when they are in my car they play by my rules...no mess left. If they want to accumulate water bottles for weeks in their cars...that's their business. LOL
this is where my car trash bag came from: http://www.etsy.com/shop/allysonhill?section_id=5009120
it just hangs off the gear stick into the passenger side and it is handy as can be.
My car trash is mostly of the small variety, such as tissues, wrappers, and other bits of paper. I simply use an empty tissue box, and toss when it's full.
Just don't leave trash in the car! Getting fast food, checking the mail and leaving work materials in the car are just habits you have to break. My car isn't the cleanest in the world but I try to do a quick pick-up every weekend and usually don't have more than a double handful of trash to pick up, if that. Five years ago I had a typical harried young adult's grossmobile but when I got a new ride I made a conscious decision to take better care of it and now it's an ingrained habit. Just work on things one at a time, maybe starting with the fast food bags.
In my opinion if you're hanging a trash bag off the gear shifter, you're putting a bandaid on a bad habit.
luxcat, you have my sincere sympathy. My work commute is 16 miles round trip, which takes about 90 minutes a day total (on a good day), which is about as much time as I can stand in SoCal traffic. At least I don't have to get on the freeway.
When I was commuting to a class two nights a week after work, I was stopping for snacks or fast food a lot. The only way to cope with it (being a neat freak when it comes to my car) was to empty out all trash daily - preferably, as soon as I got out of the car; I'd find a trash can and just be done with it. I don't like to leave anything visible in the car because I've heard stories of people having their cars broken into because they left a fast-food bag on the floor in the back. Some people think hey, fast food = change in the car.
Anybody who leaves the house in their car has at least two opportunities to keep up with trash: when they reach their initial destination, and when they get back home. If a plastic bag helps you cope, use it! If it's just another piece of trash, lose it! :-)
parsifal, the bag is merely somewhere temporary to herd litter until we get to our destination or back home again.
it is not a long term garbage holder.
we just don't want to look at the litter or hold it in our hands until we arrive.
where does your "double handful" of trash reside until the weekends when you pick it up?
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