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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Monday, March 15, 2010

Clutter in Your Car = Danger

      
Hope you had a nice weekend! We took three of our foster daughters to the zoo, one of whom had never been. So hopefully, we're broadening her experiences and making memories at the same time. 

With four teenage foster daughters, it's a constant struggle to keep our cars clutter-free. This eye-opening article is by Chuck Mai, Vice President of public affairs for AAA in Oklahoma, gives a serious perspective on car clutter.

"Think you’re driving your car to work? Nope. For more and more of us, we’re driving our dining room, our entertainment center, our home office and maybe even the kids’ playroom, all rolled into one.

Such multifunctionalism creates clutter. It not only can drive you crazy, it can affect your safety.

Anything loose in your car can become an unguided missile in the event of a crash. When you hit the brakes at 45 mph, for example, the G.I. Joe in the back seat continues to travel at 45 mph until some other force acts upon it, like the back of your skull.

De-clutter now.

Take out everything from inside your car or pickup and divide it into two groups: essential and nonessential.

Then take the essentials and divide that stuff into two groups: seasonal and everyday.

Leave the nonessentials and off-season items in the garage or house.

Fill up the rear first. This means the trunk or the extreme rear of a sport utility vehicle or minivan. For other things, consider hanging backseat organizers or putting kids’ stuff in a backpack and fastening it into a seat belt.

Finally, encourage your family to keep the vehicle clutter-free.

No one leaves the vehicle empty-handed."


More on car clutter:
Spring Cleaning the Car
Getting Organized for School - Cleaning out the Car
Decluttering Your Car