If you are like many Americans who spend on average an hour-and-a-half per day driving, you are probably constantly on the lookout for ways to make your road trips more enjoyable. Possible ways to do so include creative ways to occupy your kids, eating meals while on the go, or making sure your ride looks the best it can.
These hacks offer some handy ideas to use the next time you go somewhere in your car.
Clean Air
Believe it or not, there is a button among your AC controls that allows you to recycle the air currently in your car. This allows you to block out polluted air from outside and is especially handy when driving in heavy traffic. This function also works great when keeping weird smells outside of your car.
Space Saver
Space is a commodity in smaller vehicles. To save space in your car, consider hanging your purse and other bags from a carabineer clipped to the front headrests of your car. Other items that you can stow this way include umbrellas and other items with loops that allow you to hang them up.
Easily Accessible Change
Ever need change and have to dig through your purse or pocket? You can use the small tubes that M&M Minis come in to keep spare quarters. In this way they, are easily accessible if you need some change while driving, such as when passing through the tollbooth, filling a low tire with air, or washing your car at the carwash.
Shine Your Car Exterior
To really make your car shine, add some hair conditioner to your soap and water when washing your car. Many conditioners on the market contain a substance called lanolin, a wax secreted by wool-bearing animals. The lanolin helps to keep water spots off of your car’s exterior and can really make it shine.
Easily Clean Your Cup Holders
Over time, the cup holders in your car can get gunked up from spills. To remove the gunk, take a sock and fit it over a regular sized cup. Place the cup in the cup holder and twist it to absorb the gunk, making it easier to remove it. Spray some glass cleaner on the sock for even more cleaning power.
Jazz Up Your Dashboard
The soft glow of your dashboard can often look mundane, especially if you have plain white bulbs. To give your dashboard a unique look, apply some colored post-it notes or colored duct tape to the backside of the dashboard. Then, when the light shines through, watch the dashboard come alive with a rainbow of colors.
Degrease Your Wiper Blades
To clean your wiper blades, use rubbing alcohol. The alcohol helps to remove grease from the blades, allowing them to clear any moisture from your windshield without streaking. To apply the rubbing alcohol to your wiper blades, pour some on a clean rag and rub it down the length of the wiper.
Great Car Ride Activity Holders
When out driving with the kids, they often get easily bored and can become impatient. To provide your kids with plenty of activities while you drive, hang plastic shower caddies that use suction cups to the window beside them. Fill the caddies with toys and other items so that they have something to play with.
Coffee Filter Dusting Idea
A cheap and easy way to dust the surfaces in your car is to use a coffee filter. Coffee filters are durable, allowing you to get a good amount of use out of the one you’re using before you need to throw it away. To really make your dashboard and other surfaces shine, add a couple of drops of vegetable oil before using.
Hide Your Stereo
You can use an old DVD case to hide your car stereo system in plain sight and deter thieves. Simply cut the case so that you can take section of the plastic and fit it over the stereo on your dash. Once cut to the proper size, fit the piece of plastic in place. As far as thieves are concerned, you have no stereo.
Keep Your Kids Occupied
If you have artistic children, you might find yourself hard-pressed to keep them occupied on a long drive. To combat this boredom, give them dry- or wet-erase markers to write directly on the glass of the window beside them. Once they are finished, erase their artwork using a clean rag.
Easy Snack Idea
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To make snack time easy while driving, use a shower caddy with a handle to keep food items organized and easily accessible. This helps to cut down on any mess and gives you or your kids somewhere to place your food or drink when finished with it.
