3 Ways to Organize a Car (2024)

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Co-authored byRobert Rybarskiand Danielle Blinka, MA, MPA

Last Updated: November 12, 2021References

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   Pull all of your larger items from the vehicle. Start by removing items like work or sporting equipment. Depending on your activities, you may have gear that you use on the weekends, toys that belong to your children, or your gym bag. Place these items off to the side until you are ready to arrange them in your vehicle.

   • As you pull stuff out of the car, ask yourself if you really need to have it in your car at all times. In the case of your child’s sports equipment, your gym bag, or the tools you use for work, you may decide that you do need it. On the other hand, you might not need the large toy that your child no longer plays with or the summertime beach toys if it’s December.
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   Remove the trash from your car. Throw away or recycle items like old water bottles, food packaging, food bits, napkins, broken items, or other debris. You may want to use a trash bag or can for this step, depending on how much trash you have in your car.

   • Remember to look under the seats for trash that may have gotten pushed underneath.
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   Look for smaller items that you need to save. Go through your car and remove the smaller items, such as sunglasses, travel tissues, kids’ books, and CDs. Place these items near your larger items that you plan to return to the car.

   • As you remove the items from your car, see if any of the items can be placed inside your home rather than inside the car.
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   Wipe down surfaces. Use a soapy rag or a product that is made to clean car interiors to wash the dirt and debris from the dashboard, console, steering wheel, doors, and especially the cup holders. Since cup holders often gather grime, do a second pass with a clean rag to make sure that you get all of the crumbs.

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   Vacuum your floorboards and seats. While this step is optional, if you have kids, pets, or eat in your car a lot, it’s a good idea to vacuum it out. Crumbs can attract bugs and can start to smell over time. It will be easier to get yourself to maintain an organized vehicle if it is also clean.

   • Try using an attachment hose on your vacuum cleaner.
   • If you have a handheld vacuum, that can be a good option as well.
   • If you don’t own a vacuum cleaner and cannot borrow one, consider visiting a car wash. Most car washes have vacuums that are made just for cars, and oftentimes you don’t even have to get your car washed to use it.

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   See Also

   15 Clever Car Organization Ideas- Frugal Ways to Organize Your Car!15 Genius Ideas for How to Organize a Car for a Road Trip - Road Trip WanderersHow to Organize Your Car (And Keep it Clean for Good)Travel Tips to Organize Your Car for a Road Trip

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   Use color-coded bags in your console. Use zipper bags such as cosmetic or pencil pouches to store items in your console. For example, you can put your sunglasses into one bag, reusable shopping bags into one, change for toll booths or meters in one bag, and your wet wipes, hand sanitizer, and cough drops into another. What you store will depend on what you carry.^[1]

   • Look for bags around your home, but if you don’t have any, you can find them at your local department store or online.
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   Place your important documents in a special folder or bag. Go through your glove compartment and organize your paperwork such as your vehicle registration into a folder or plastic sleeve. This way you can easily access it when you need it.^[2]

   • Look in the office supply section for the right sized product to meet your needs.
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   Use your cup holders for storage. If you have extra cupholders, then they could be used to store items. To make it look neat, place items in cups. Cups work great for smaller items that you keep in your car, such as tissue, hand sanitizer, pens, or cords for your phone charger or audio hook-up. You can also store snacks in the cup holders.^[3]

   • Try using a recycled cup that you’ve washed and repurposed.
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   Try a collapsible shelf. If you have a hatchback on your vehicle, you may want to use a collapsible shelf to organize the back of your car. This can make it easier to carry groceries, equipment, tools, and other items all in one trip without the items getting mixed up, damaged, or lost. Since the shelf is collapsible, you can easily break it down so that you’ll have the use of your entire trunk space if you need it.^[4]

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   Carry a container for trash. While it’s tempting to just use a plastic grocery store bag, many people who spend a lot of time in their vehicle create trash everyday. Whether it’s from a quick fast food breakfast on your commute or from your child’s post-practice snacks, you will have trash in your car most days. Plan to either carry multiple bags in your car so that you can take in the trash each day, or carry a reusable bag that you can empty and carry with you everyday.

   • You can try small trash liners, like those for bathroom trash cans.
   • You could also leave several plastic grocery bags in your console or glove compartment. For example, you could bring out seven bags each Monday morning, refilling weekly to meet your needs.
   • If you don’t want to use plastic bags, try a reusable bag that you can empty each day or at the end of the week, depending on the size of your bag and how much trash you create.
   • You can also try a plastic cereal container.^[5]
   • Depending on size, store your bag in the floorboard or behind the passenger seat.
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   Listen to your music electronically. If you’re still carrying CDs, consider switching to digital music so that you can declutter the extra cases and CDs. Alternatively, try carrying just a few CDs at a time. Make a habit of switching them on a designated day.

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   Hang pockets from the back of your front seats. If you have kids, then you will likely need to store their toys, snacks, and other items in places they can easily access. One great way to accomplish this is to use closet organizers such as shoe pockets. To use shoe pockets in your car, attach it to the back of your front seats and let it hang down. Place your child’s items into the pockets for easy organization.^[6]

   • You can find hanging shoe organizers with small pockets in most department stores and online.
   • You may need to trim the shoe organizer to make it fit into your car. Depending on the size of your shoe organizer, you may be able to cut one in half and use one half on each of the car seats.
   • Secure your shoe organizer to the seat by attaching adhesive velcro to the back of it. The velcro should stick to the fabric on your seat. If it doesn’t, consider attaching the other side of the velcro to the back of the seat.
   • Teach your child how to use the pockets. Say, “This is where your books go. When you finish looking at one, put it back in the pocket.”
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   Attach hanging pockets on the sides of seats. If your car has back seats that are separated, such as in a van or SUV, take advantage of the space between the seat and the floor by adding a storage solution for your kids. Similar to the shoe pockets, you can find smaller pocket organizers that fit on the sides of seats. A remote control holder is perfect because it’s already made to fit under a chair cushion and then hang down to just above the floor.^[7]

   • Place the items that your child uses most frequently next to them in their seat. For example, you could reserve one pocket to hold your child's snacks so that when they get hungry they can get the snack themselves.
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   Designate bins for each child’s equipment or toys. Use storage bins to organize toys, school supplies, and sports equipment.^[8] Depending on what you need to store inside your vehicle, storage bins can be a big help. You may try them in your trunk or hatchback, or you can designate one bin for each of your children.^[9]

   • Try organizing sports equipment into bins. Not only can it make stacking your items easier and more convenient, but you’ll be able to easily find all of the equipment in one place.
   • Consider getting a special bin for each of your kids to use for their items. Tell them that they can only carry in the car what will fit into their bin, and then let them decide what to put in the bin. Put the kids in charge of keeping their items in the bins. If they fail to put an item away, remove it yourself and make them earn back the item.

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