Jessica's Blog

There are the smaller signs it's time to clean out the minivan.

The slight smell it had after sitting out in the sun for too long.  Maybe that was the grocery bag of garbage I needed to get rid of at the next stop?  Afterall, there were a couple diapers in that tightly tied shut bag.  Just a couple pee diapers, and the bag was tied. 

What is that smell?  Are there dirty socks somewhere in here?  the dog isn't in here...and he wouldn't be wet or sweaty.... hmmm.. Honey Girl?  Was that you?

Then there's witnessing the children's egress from the vehicle.  Honey Girl seemed to be having trouble getting out of the car.  When hopping out of her car seat I was hearing crunching sounds.  But... there was no bag of chips in the car.  What was that crunching?  I guess it would have been easier to see what was crunching if the layer of outerwear wasn't on the floor.  She also seemed to have trouble getting out on the driver's side (she sits behind the passenger) because she had to climb through all Little Lady's gear that was stashed in the foot well of her rear-facing car seat.  The diaper bag is rarely ever closed, and therefore it's contents are more a pile of diapers, wipes, bibs, onesies and such loosely stacked on the rumpled bag.  Now, given that Honey Girl has trampled it a few times, these things were then spreading under the driver seat, under Little Lady's seat and all about.

Yes, I have blogged about being impeccable with my car hygiene,  but.... that was before my third child's infancy!

I knew something had to be done when I had to come to a quick stop at a light.  The vehicle stopped just fine, no problem there... but all of the accumulated debris within the vehicle kept moving!  The lunchboxes, backpack, file folders, Bay Area Parent magazine, school directories, sling and ergo carrier slid from the passenger seat into it's foot well.  Juices boxes Honey Girl had stashed between her seat and Little Lady's tumbled to the floor along with ziploc bags of goldfish crackers and half emptied raisin boxes.  I could even hear the sound of hot wheels cars, maple leaves and a pine cone or two rolling off the way-back seat and down the side aisle and passenger sliding door.

I sighed.

This was BAD.

I spent some time in the garage this evening when I got the kids home.  Big Boy and Honey Girl ran upstairs and Little Lady cooed and cajoled me while I did the cleaning deed.  It was comedy.  What did I find in there?  Oh my.  Dare I confess?  Bags of dirty clothes from Hoeny Girl's play at her preschool.  Countless art projects.  Two sweatershirts and a sweater  for Big Boy's school, two hoodies, one grocery bag full of "trash": rumpled destroyed school art, receipts, coffee cups, juice box straw wrappers, ziploc bags, flyers.  Toys, and bits of nature.  All the dried up and dead foliage my kids give me when we go on walks, rocks from the street, nearly sprouted seed pods from trees. 

I whipped out the dustbuster, and the smell of coffee filled the van as I vacuumed.  See, Hubby had a massive coffee grounds spill this weekend while making me some coffee because Little Lady flipped back while in his arms and he knew it best to let the pound of coffee fly and fall than let Little Lady fall back.  He cleaned up the mess with the dustbuster.  So the "what is that smell?" smell was replaced with the fresh smell of Gold Coast Blend grounds.  I liked it, but knew the kids would wonder aloud.

In the end, all floors and carseats were vacuumed and doused with a good spritz of febreeze.  Doors left open to "air".

The diaper bag was re-assembled.  The bibs and blankies folded and stashed.  Same with the sling and ergo carrier.  The stairs up to the house were stacked with all things that were to be returned to the house.  It took a couple trips to do this, but it was done.  The car was clean!

But you know what the kicker is about this????  It got detailed all of two or maybe three weeks ago!!!

Ah yes.  Life in a minivan with three busy kids aged  five and under.