The car challenge

I got a new car recently (I should say we as Mr PTC and I are a single car household). Its shiny, blue and nearly new! I couldn't be happier. However, it has got me thinking that I want to change a few things from the previous car.

Firstly, the old car was never cleaned enough. We loved the old car - it only got ditched in favour of a new one because it broke down and given where we live and our work we cannot afford to have unexpected car-free days! However, I digress. We loved the old car, but we didn't clean it anywhere near enough. Well no more - from now on it will be part of a regular cleaning schedule. I'm no clean freak, so I don't think I have the stomach to do it weekly, but maybe fortnightly or monthly. Watch this space.

Car organisation Martha style? Yes please!

Secondly; mess. Yes our car got messier and messier. We don't even have children to blame it on! We would just leave rubbish and paperwork lying around until one of us got annoyed enough to remove it from the car. This isn't going to happen anymore.

Thirdly; important documents. The manual and service history were kept in the car, but that was it! Service details and receipts were either shoved in the glove compartment or my handbag (at which point they eventually ended up lying around in the study). Again this is not good. When we sold the car I had to go through so much stuff trying to find all the important documents. So with the new car we will have a policy of keeping relevant documents in the car and others in a file in the filing cabinet at home.

Martha Stewart has a lovely idea of using an accordian file to keep all sorts of useful information in (though she isn't specific about what might go in there aside from maps, directions, insurance information etc.). So I need to come up with my own list. Also my glove compartment isn't exactly the perfect shape so I might have to dream up a better storage solution to fit the space.

So watch this space. I'm going to sort the car:

1. No more mess - put car cleaning into the cleaning schedule). 

2. No more waste - get a bin for the car, preferably without spending any money (did I mention I'm super frugal?).

3. No more paperwork lying around - get it sorted into the glove compartment.

I'm not going to put this into a 'challenge' yet until I iron-out the details. But watch this space!

The challenge: 1. Clean the car, inside and out, at least once a month (more as required). 2. Get a bin for the car. 3. Create a document holder for the car.

What I haven't told you about the new car is how exciting it is. We stuck with the trusty Volvo's because my husband and I just love them so much. However, it feels a little bad to be encouraging staff at work to be more environmentally conscious at work only to drive a big huge saloon gas guzzler (not to mention our pockets hurt with petrol prices going through the roof). So we bought a Volvo V50 DRIVe - the eco-Volvo car. We are currently getting about 60 mpg (double the old saloon), and we can actually use the boot space! Plus being smaller and having parking sensors I can actually park it.

I'll shut up now - just thought you all might like to know! Oh and its shiny too!