Cleaning Up My Ride

Our truck has been feeling a bit neglected. All this cleaning and decluttering but no love has been given to poor Little Red. Double bad since I had planned on cleaning him up last month!


So I gave him a good wash and wax. From grubby… to grand!


Next project was to organize the stuff we need to haul around. I found these storage containers that fit across the bed in front of the wheel wells. They hold:

*Tools and jack

*My shopping bags (going “green” means you have to keep your shopping bags close)

*Hobby – things I use when collecting bonsai specimens or rock hounding.

*Misc – change of clothes and our emergency med kit.

Wedged in behind the containers is the coolest little fold-up hand dolly you’ve ever seen. Found it at Lowes.

If the containers slide (which I don’t think they will as my bed has Rhino Liner on it), I’ll put up an extension shower rod to hold them in place. A second shower rod in behind the wheel wells keeps bags from sliding towards the cab.

I have tossed on top of the containers our sling chairs.

Inside the truck behind the passenger seat I have 2 of those indestructible inexpensive Mexican blankets stored in a bag some linens came in. Caps for each of us. Fire extinguisher. Trash can. A tote to hold my home info (notebook, samples, and such). And a tote to organize misc things we like to keep on hand – wet wipes, paper towel roll, emergency spot light and so on. Behind the driver seat stays clear to hold important things like full shopping bags.

In the ‘pouches’ behind each seat I have a road atlas and some detail maps plus my “read while waiting” book. In the other I have a couple folded up large tote bags from Home Goods and a couple of flashlights.

The arm rest console has change, nail clippers, a little Swiss Army knife, and a few packs of chewing gum.

Glove box has the truck info book, a small notebook, scissors, pocket knife and a small accordion organizer for misc papers.

To further my storage I bought a couple organizers at Wal-Mart. One is a console that sits on the ‘hump’ on the floor. It holds my GPS, charging cables for GPS and phones, sunglasses in case, a bottle of hand lotion, a pocket pack of kleenix, some individual wrapped hard candy and a purse pack wet wipes.

Visor organizers hold auto info, garage door opener and pens (driver side) and the passenger side has 2 cases; on for CDs and the other holds napkins, a Wal-Mart gas card, some small dollars for spur-of-the-moment yard sales and a few Band-Aids. Oh… and a card magnifier so I can read the maps with these old eyes!

Happy sighs! Little Red is about as organized as he can be.

Just need to scrub off that truck bed… :-P