It can’t just be me can it? Gee I hope not! The family car, our means of how we get from A to B. Ours is better known as an extension of the house or an extra bedroom. Including everything from soft toys, food and or food wrappers, lots of crumbs, the odd hat and jacket, bottle of water, shoes, a few coins, other weird and wonderful objects and if you’re lucky enough to find it, a lolly. The Pants often says to me that ‘there is no excuse for the car to look like this’ and you know what, he’s probably right, in a perfect world scenario.
However life is busy, we sometimes eat on the run, over pack for outings, accommodating for unexpected weather conditions. The children take what ever it is that they are playing with at the time as it would be a crime to have to part with it and we head off into the day! When the ‘Spare bedroom’ gets all too much, that is when we open the doors to get out and ‘stuff’ falls out, we venture to the car wash. As we pull into the foam and bubbles, each child is given a plastic bag and delegated an area to tidy up. The princess is usually on clothes that will need to be washed when we get home. The free range child collects the ‘things that must go back into the house’ this includes Tupperware containers, sunglasses, movies that were a must see on the last trip and anything else that does not need to be tossed. The informer, my little worker! cleans up any wrappers and rubbish.
As we come out the other side we are half way there and things are taking shape! The Pants will be very happy indeed with our efforts! Next step is the vacuuming, its feet up in the back seat and I give Sadie the cleaning lady a run for her money as I have very limited time before my allocated $2 runs out. I don’t bother with the chamois, that’s what the drive home does or so I tell myself.
I announce that we must start to take better care of the car and that no one will be eating in it anymore. Toys clothes etc will be taken into the house and nothing will be left where it shouldn’t be. Everyone nods enthusiastically and for a brief second I think we all believe that it’s possible. I invest in yet another little smelly tree. They make it look like the car is cared for and not the last thing on one’s agenda. That little tree will have it’s work cut out for it, until it gives up it’s will to live and takes on the ‘smell’ of the car.
My favourite is the ‘New Car Smell’ and even though the illusion is short lived, I enjoy it just the same.
Jane Doe
