How to Get Your Kids to Help Keep Your Vehicle Clean!

My house is really clean right now. I have the laundry under control. I decluttered every tiny corner last month. I’ve even started making my bed most days!

But my van? Oh, it was sad. Junk everywhere. Toys. Clothes. Old food remnants. It was so bad that when we went somewhere I’d tell my kids to, “Hurry up, get out, and close the door before anyone sees inside!”

And it recently occurred to me that people who only see the inside of my van and not the inside of my house probably think I am a complete slob. Embarrassing.

With the weather warming up, there were no more excuses. It wasn’t too cold to bring everything in that we’d been storing all winter. And honestly, if things can live in our van for two months without anyone missing them in the house, the items can really just go straight into a trash or donation bag.

Once I decided to clean out my van, I tackled this job with such gusto and urgency that I didn’t even bother taking before photos. So just imagine a photo of a messy van.

Here’s how I cleaned out my van:

To easily fit vehicle clean-up into my schedule, I broke this project into three small chunks.

Day One: My kids and I took all of the stuff out of the van. We had three bags: one for trash, one for donation items, and one for things to put away inside. We put the items away immediately instead of leaving them on the floor.

Day Two: I vacuumed the inside of the van while Lily and Grace washed the outside of Nathan’s car.

Day Three: Lily and Grace washed the outside of our van while I mowed the grass and cleaned up leaves that were left-over from the fall. (Yes, from the fall. Yard clean-up is another area I’m working to improve!)

So far we’ve kept the van clean for over two weeks. Possibly a record!

Here are our new rules:

• The girls are each allowed to take one small bag of activities when we leave the house. That’s it. If it doesn’t fit in the bag it has to stay home.
• Everything has to be carried inside as soon as we get home. If something is left in the car after a gentle reminder to bring it in, the item becomes mine for a week.
• Food crumbs must be picked up and thrown away as soon as we get home.

And since I have smart kids who decided they could get around the new system by taking their favorite toys inside and leaving the trash for Nathan and me, we made a fourth rule that goes like this:

• If rules 1-3 aren’t followed cheerfully, mommy and daddy get the toys anyways.

We know that we may not always keep our van in perfect shape and that we’ll still need to clean it out on occasion (particularly vacuuming), but so far this system has helped significantly in keeping our van clean enough!

What about you? Do you have any tips for my family as we learn to improve our vehicle cleanliness?

{Linking up at All Kinds of Things}