Car Keeping

I’m a terrible house-keeper, and even worse at keeping up appearances/cleanliness in my vehicle. I drive a no-frills Ford Ranger which is sufficient to transport 2 cat carriers, or one large dog, or one adult and one child, or a large stack of school papers and a guitar inside its cab-but not at the same time. Laundry, groceries and other items of lesser importance travel in the bed under a cargo net to prevent things from flying out going down the road.

Busy days, a few meals eaten on the highway traveling between jobs (no, a teaching salary will not keep up a student loan, a mortgage, and allow me to have electronic toys-so I have a second job.), and poor Baby Truck turns into something resembling a rolling junk heap-with no room for anyone but me.

So…when the McDonalds bags have filled up the floor-board on the passenger side of the truck, important papers seem to have gone missing, and I’m not sure any more what is residing behind the seat or on the passenger seat, it becomes time to clean out the vehicle.

Here are my steps to a clean truck:

1. Clear out all the school papers and other important stuff and bring them into the study to sort/save/pack to take back/pitch
2. Armed with a plastic trash bag, clean out the fast food wrappers and other obvious junk
3. Use a whisk broom (I don’t own a vacuum cleaner) to get loose dirt off the floor boards
4. Wipe down the seats, dash and other surfaces with a damp cloth; it helps to keep a bucket of warm sudsy water at hand to clean the cloth periodically
5. Put the jack back where it belongs (don’t ask me why-it always seems to be loose)
6. Clean the windows inside and out with paper towels and window cleaner
7. Lean the spare up against one side of the bed; sort the stuff that seems to accumulate in the back. Take the good stuff that doesn’t belong in the truck inside; put the good stuff that does belong in the truck over with the spare.
8. Sweep the bed with a straw broom (the bristles are stiff, but not likely to scratch-well, not anymore that the stuff I’ve carried in the truck anyway.) I have trees in my drive, and truck lives out-of-doors, so leaves, sticks and other debris collects in the bed.
9. If the weather is nice, pull truck to the side of the house and using a pail of water and clothes scrub down the body. If the weather is icky, or it has been a while, take the truck to the car wash and run it through the all-over washer-especially using the belly washer. This gets the salt and yuck from the road off the under-carriage.
10. Check for rust spots and other problems that may need further maintenance

There! Ten steps to having a vehicle in which you wouldn’t be ashamed to offer the boss a ride!