I’m not known for my domestic abilities. I freely admit to needing help in many areas of which that is just one, and I’m altogether remiss at caring all that much about my lack of ‘The Nigella Gene’. It would seem that the virus is spreading though, leaving the sanctity of the cobweb-clad house and venturing out of the front door and into the family car.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you ‘The Playroom on Wheels’:
We have a seven seater car, but most of the time I ferry my children around with only 3 seats in the back. This serves the dual purpose of maintaining sibling harmony and leaving room for ‘stuff’. Sadly it also means that ‘stuff’ collects, dies and occasionally regenerates itself in the time periods between cleaning it all out. I took this picture today, there’s a lot more that you can’t see but I felt it was getting a little gratuitous and there’s no watershed on this blog.
For no apparent reason, we have:-
- A pair of ‘just in case’ wellies that don’t fit any members of our family
- Pull cord Woody, who has been separated from his hat (although amazingly that’s within reach too). Pull cord Jessie is around the back somewhere
- A lightsaber – because obviously it’s an essential weapon to have to hand at all times
- A drinks holder and various toys from *ahem* Macca Ds – I have NO idea how they got there
- One My Little Pony, possibly a little chewed
- Two Barbies, one of them has only one leg -she lost the other in a horrible dancing incident
- A ‘magic milk’ baby’s bottle
- A pack of Panini World Cup Stickers – only 300million more to go then
- A neck protector thingummy, despite the fact that we no longer have any babies in the household, and;
- An array of leaflets from Gullivers Land, Milton Keynes – what it is about Children and leaflets? There should be a law stating they must be placed a minimum of 1.5 m from the ground
This is the tip of the proverbial iceberg, there are bags and bags of stuff in the boot and in every door. I’ve tried different strategies to keep it tidy but nothing works. My next plan is simply to pull up next to the wheely bin every day and empty the contents into it, regardless of the screams…
I would never let my car get like that, shocking *cough*
OMG. I am going to print that photo out and stick in inside my sun visor as a reminder to keep mine tidy, lest THAT happens…
My car is new to me and at the moment I’m a) still driving it like it is someone else’s and b) making passengers wipe their feet before they get it. It can’t last.
If you go with the wheelie bin idea, remember to filter your children out first. 😀
OMG! Perhaps my car and your car were separated at birth! Although yours appears to be missing a few apple cores….
hahahahaha looks like my car used to!! My husband HATES my car-mess. I took a photo of a switch in my car yesterday (so we’d know which one to buy on ebay) and recoiled at the crap in between all the ridges!! http://twitpic.com/1vi4ql
And, I almost took a picture of the over-flowing bin under my colleagues desk yesterday too. Blerk!!
Wow. I thought my car was bad, but it is “just” dirt off the bottom of shoes and dust. I clearly have some way to go until I reach your dizzying heights of untidiness. I bow down in awe.
Oh wow, for a minute there I thought it was our car! After a week away in the Lake District with four kids – you can imagine the mess! It is like a skip on wheels ; )
We also have a seven seater and take one of the chairs out so we can fit more stuff in!
Well you have done one good deed today m’dear because now I don’t feel so bad about mine 😀 All our crap is in the boot, I can’t even fit groceries in!! We have a seven seater too but haven’t had to seperate the children (yet) so plenty of room in our boot to ‘store’ things 😀 Jen.
I didn’t have a car until my children were learning to drive. We had to walk everywhere, or wait till the weekend to borrow my husband’s company car – and because of that – we weren’t allowed to get it dirty. Now that my children have all left home, I have a two seater convertible, which means that I can only fit in one other person and only if they’re tidy and don’t expect to eat, drink or smoke in my car!!
Crikey I thought you’d been to MD Manor & photographed our people shifter! I did have an immaculate car for 2.5 years. When I had a maid in Singapore who cleaned it every saturday morning whilst me & the male had a lay in. I know, I know don’t even go there. Am beginning to wonder if I imagined that period of my life now as it sounds so outlandishly far fetched for anyone to live like that!
MD xx
If it makes you feel better my mother is the most OCD clean freak and her car is worse than yours.
Now that’s why I only had one child & when we didn’t have a car! 🙂
ha ha ha, i just cleared mine out yesterday. i emptied 1 shopping bag full of rubbish – real throw in the bin rubbish like sweety wrappers, lots of pages ripped from books and magazines, some unidentifiable things that may have been edible at some point (best not to think about it too much. oh and wear gloves when clearing) and then another shopping bag full of empty pop bottles. the car is still a mess but at least it’s a less cluttered one.
Ha love it! I am definitely going to show my hubby this. He is forever moaning about the state of my car. As far as I am concerned no car is complete without the obligatory mcyd’s wrappers & a few unidentifiable rotten food objects. Love your descriptions. Brings it all too well to life.
Aah I see what you’ve done.
You know we feel bad. Like most of the time for being slovenly (Is that even a word – has it got something to do with coming from Slovakia. No)…..*back to the point*… So you’ve shown us yours. And we’d like, no way let our wagons get that like.
So now we’re having a tall day. And you’re in the short line.
It’s good. It’s kind. Thank You. You Rock. Really. x
And I thought mine was bad! 😉 LOL! xx
The state of my car is a constant nip between me and the boy, he is disgusted with it and can’t understand why I let the kids eat raisins in it anyway. Cause it makes them quiet? I just showed him your photo and he reckons yours ‘Looks clean underneath the toys. It’s just a bit untidy’. Grrr.
All looks perfectly normal to me.
Totally with you on the leaflets – our car is full of them
Now why didn’t I think to stash Mr’s light sabre in the car… obvious place to put it
Mine looks just like that! Some of my kids are, however, now old enough to clear it out for me and it’s on the chores list! Ha…revenge is sweet!I give them a bag for toys, one for clothes, one for rubbish, one for recycling and one for things beyond identification!
I like a messy car, it would be just as messy without children tbh but I could live without the sticky boiled sweet which has taken up residence in a side pocket. We all forget about it until someone puts their hand in and has to spend the journey complaining with a hairy sticky hand.
Actually…”BOYS…yoo hoo time to clean the car out and don’t forget that boiled sweet this time.’ !
i have no doubt of that fact – i’m sure your car is pristine, all the time *cough*
Oh good point – although if they’re particularly filthy they might just have to go 😉
ah no – they are in the door pockets, along with the banana skins and half a dozen ‘fries’. Maybe we should reunite them?!
Ew at your ridges – despicable! Luckily you can’t see mine in that much detail… I hate car mess, but I also hate being the only one who ever cleans it up – s’far as I’m concerned now it can stay like that! x
*curtsies* thank you maam… We all have our talents, looks like I just found mine 😉
Skip on wheels is a very apt description – sadly I can’t get anyone to come and tow it away! 🙂
my dear, only boring women have tidy houses (i’m sure this applies to cars too)
that having been said, my OH is OCD about his car – we’re allowed nothing at all. and when i got my car, i was purposely the opposite. however, i’m obsessive about tidiness in the house while my OH can live for weeks in his own filth. i deduce from this, that your house is showroom-pristine!
nice post. x
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Weep…my car is the same. it’s actually embarrassing. i would rather run over a friend than stop and give them an impromptu lift somewhere.
I had a dreadful stink in the car last week. I thought it was just the usual rotting apple. I just opened the windows for a few days hoping the smell would go. Turned out to be a bag of WEE in the boot. Dear God, such slatternly behaviour…
x
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