Note: I’ll be on vacation next week, so no new posts until Oct 20^th. It might be a good time to read some posts that you missed. Now, on with the post.

So, I’m driving to work today and I notice a grape stem in the change part of my car’s console. You know what I’m talking about, that open area in your car that holds sunglasses, change, or trash. Anyway, looking at it, I realize that it had been a couple of weeks since I ate grapes in the car. Ah ha! I’ve found a clutter point in my car!

Looking around the car, I found quite a few other clutter points. Now one thing that Amy and I try to do is keep the interior of cars from getting too junky. As a rule, we don’t eat in our cars, we keep our trunks as empty as possible, and we rarely leave anything important in the car overnight. However, we do have two kids and we often have notes, CDs, or maps in the car that just don’t always make it out.

Usually around once a quarter, I’ll pull the kids car seats out and clean the interior of the car as thoroughly as I can. What amazes me is that I pull out a Wal-Mart bag full of trash and another one of stuff that is in the car and needs to go back into the house and be put away. How do we accumulate so much stuff in the car?

The answer is simple. When we are getting out of the car and heading inside, we are done with whatever we were doing. We’ve gathered whatever we brought and simply don’t think about the other stuff we leave in the car. All it takes is just a quick glance around the car and swift grab of whatever we see that doesn’t belong and the interior of the car would be much nicer. Considering how much time we spend in the car, it only makes sense to keep it better organized.

So, I’ve vowed to do better about letting clutter rest in my car. When I get home tonight, the grape stem is going where it belongs, the garbage. How about your car? Do you have clutter in it? Actually, I should ask where are the clutter points in it? How’s that trunk of yours? If you have a flat, would you spend 15 minutes getting to the spare? This weekend, take the opportunity to clean out your car and see if you don’t feel more relaxed in it.