What’s in My Minivan?
Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you what I keep in my minivan.
I love my minivan. It’s super practical and convenient for a family with active kids and numerous carpools. I have friends who distain the very concept of a minivan — but I have news for them, just because you are driving an SUV instead of a minivan does NOT prevent you somehow from still being a suburban soccer mom. Anyway — I’m assuming I’m preaching to the choir here.
Other than my house, my minivan is where I spend most of my time. That makes it a highly personal space — and as such, the contents are based entirely on what is currently going on in my life. The things in my minivan looked a lot different when I had little kids, but now it is the van for a family with sports-oriented teenagers. So, keep this in mind as I talk about the contents.
I have a 2015 Honda Odyssey. A little while ago, I went on YouTube to find out how people used the different organizational spaces in a similar van, but didn’t find much, so I’ll show you what I do. I’ll start at the front and work my way to the back.
Front row:
- Driver’s side door — these have to be things I use all the time, since this is the most accessible storage for me. We have gum, mints, pens, nail implements for pesky hang nails, a tiny umbrella, and tissues. Down here I keep: disinfect wipes, hand lotion, face and spray sunscreen, bug spray, shopping bags bound by a rubber band, and a grocery bag for wine bottles.
- Passengers side door - on the passenger’s door I keep an extra faux leather bag, some dog stuff (a dog leash, bags, and a collapsible bowl), hand sanitizer, and thousands of Bed Bath and Beyond coupons — you know these never expire, right? I use rubber bands to bind things together so that they take up less room.
- Middle - I have 2 different phone holders: one that is magnetic that fits into my CD player and one that is spring-loaded and mounted to the windshield. Why do I have 2? This one I use immediately when I get into the car to put my phone down. But it’s not super convenient if I’m following it for directions since it’s positioned kind of low. When I need to use my phone for directions, I use the windshield mounted one, which is too hard to get my phone into one-handed for every day use. My van has this odd cooler drawer here in the middle also. I never use it for cooling things. Instead, I put a collapsible trash bin in there and use it to store trash. Then every time I get gas, I empty this little bin and stuff it back in here.
- Center console - okay, like all center consoles, this is a big cavernous space that I need to break up to make more useful. I use these store-brand food containers because they are the perfect size to make 3 compartments, plus I have some extra room on the sides. Here’s what I put in here — in the compartment in the very back, which is hard to get to, I keep extra small tissue packs. That way I can easily replenish my supply up in the driver’s door. The second one contains gum and mints for the same reason — we go through a ton of these, so I need the extras to be easily accessible. The third container is like a junk drawer. I keep miscellaneous things like Tums, Advil, hair bands, windex wipes, plastic silverware, a bug bite stick, a stain stick, a collapsible cup, a knife, a pair of scissors - a bunch of stuff basically. I like at all possible to store things standing up so that I can see immediately what’s available rather than having to dig through a bunch of things. On the sides I keep writing implements, a notebook, extra napkins, windex for the windshield, cough drops and sunflower seeds. If you don’t know how good sunflower seeds are at keeping you awake while driving, you should watch my video on that!
- Glove compartment - I don’t keep as much in the glove box since it is a little hard for me to reach. The manuals Honda provided, an extra auxiliary cord, a tiny umbrella, tire pressure gauges and a white glove since I don’t like the black grime that I get on my fingers when I check the tires, two Swiss Army knives — I have a bit of an obsession with useful tools, and a variety of things for motion sickness — wrist bands, ginger hard candies, and some Dramamine tablets.
So, that accounts for the storage areas in the front seat of my car. In the body of the car, I only store a full sized umbrella in the drink holder just behind the driver seat, so let’s move to the trunk. There are these two compartments on the left hand side.
- Upper side - In the top compartment I just have a ziplock bag of Kind bars, which don't melt in the heat and seem to last longer than other granola bars.
- Lower side - In this one, I have an ice scraper, a first aid kit (which also contains a compass), 2 pairs of binoculars for sporting events and bird watching, and 2 water bottles (just in case).
- Trunk container - I got this great collapsible crate at Costco, which fits perfectly in the well of my trunk, even with two of the second row seats down. Again, I like to store things standing straight up when possible, so in here I keep 2 camp chairs, a yoga mat, 2 folded blankets, some grocery bags -- including some that insulate for freezer storage, a set of jumper cables, and a bag with a bunch of card games and activities to do at restaurants with my kids.
- Side - On the side, I have 2 stadium seats, and another collapsible container -- which I also got at Costco. This one is great for carrying things and storing things for projects and trips. For example, I just helped out with Senior night for boys tennis at the high school and this was perfect for hauling hot dog buns, signs, chips and other sundries to the courts.
Not very exciting, but I'll try to find links for each of the products that I use for organization. Let me know what you think! Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!
Organizational Products:
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