How much time do you spend cleaning out your vehicle before a driving trip to WDW?

[ChloesDaddy]

We leave in 5 days (arrive at WDW in 11; stopping to see family and go to the beach on the way). I just spent 4 hours cleaning out out the van. If they had movie theaters for monkeys, the floor would look like what I found when I started -- pulverized pretzels and goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, used gum, wrappers of all kinds, fossilized McDonald's french fries, long missing Nintendo DS games, etc... The worst was the pool of dark brown ooze that I found in a pull-out cup holder -- obviously a highly concentrated soda spill. I immediately issued a ban on eating and drinking in the van until after vacation, which I'm sure everyone (including me) will ignore. Well, at least it will be clean for a few days.

Now we can get on with the more fun parts of getting ready -- finish packing, rechecking the checklist, buying some last-minute needs, and watching a few Disney movies.

 

[monorailsilver]

When we drove to Florida in April I had recently, think 2 months prior on a warm day with out snow....cleaned out my van.

So while it was mostly clean there was still some stuff floating about, markers, crayons, hair ties, money, happy meal toys that they say they will play with but never do. So it wasn't too bad.

My Dh vacuumed the car before we drove home. We spent a week at my sisters house in ft. Myers so there was some sand in the car.

But since we have been home it is a mess. I need to clean it. It is filled with dirt from the baseball/softball field x's 3 kids.

I need to clean it before the sand goes back in it after they get out if school next month.

 

[Southern Bell]

1 hour at the most! I usually empty everything out of of our vehicle when I get back home from where we have been. So I don't have much of anything to clean out when I go to wash it! I go thru the car wash, Dry my vehicle with a shammy, clean all the inside doors, clean my windows with the windex, clean my tires, use their big Vac! ALL DONE!

 

[Lita]

About 10 minutes for me personally. I picked up the papers, toys and trash and then went to the car wash to have an interior and exterior cleaning.

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[KNJWDW]

My DH always gives the van a deep cleaning before we go. Last time he cleaned it too much. He used some special cleaner on the leather seats and it made the seats very slippery! It was actually hard to sit up, I kept slipping on the seats the entire way to Florida and back. We were just talking about this the other day and I reminded him to leave the seats alone this time!

 

[Disfan454]

I am big on traveling in a clean vehicle. Just makes it feel less cluttered and just better driving when everything is clean and in order.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We leave next week, too. I didn't spend any time cleaning it this time...hit a huge turkey three weeks ago, did a lot of damage to it, and the body shop detailed it before we picked it up. Since then, we've been making a point not to leave anything in it, and we haven't had any food in it, so it is still clean.

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

We leave in 5 days (arrive at WDW in 11; stopping to see family and go to the beach on the way). I just spent 4 hours cleaning out out the van. If they had movie theaters for monkeys, the floor would look like what I found when I started -- pulverized pretzels and goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, used gum, wrappers of all kinds, fossilized McDonald's french fries, long missing Nintendo DS games, etc... The worst was the pool of dark brown ooze that I found in a pull-out cup holder -- obviously a highly concentrated soda spill. I immediately issued a ban on eating and drinking in the van until after vacation, which I'm sure everyone (including me) will ignore. Well, at least it will be clean for a few days.

Now we can get on with the more fun parts of getting ready -- finish packing, rechecking the checklist, buying some last-minute needs, and watching a few Disney movies.

Sounds pretty similar to our Jan trip. We split the cleaning up over a couple of days but probably spent that amount of time all together. Of course by the time the trip was over it looked as thought we had never cleaned it in the first place and then some.

 

[difry]

We are semi-empty-nesters. No little kids and my hubby does a pretty good job of keeping his car (which is the road trip car) cleaned out.

The only issue is he insists on keeping a tote box of stuff in the back of his car and there is always a grumble match over what he is allowed to keep and what has to go in the house when we prepare for a vacation. I mean...seriously...I don't think we need the winter gloves, sock cap, de-icer, and ice scraper between Kentucky and Florida in September : /

 

[ChloesDaddy]

Sounds pretty similar to our Jan trip. We split the cleaning up over a couple of days but probably spent that amount of time all together. Of course by the time the trip was over it looked as thought we had never cleaned it in the first place and then some.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure ours will look as bad or worse. The saving grace is that we'll barely be in the van the entire week we're at WDW.

 

[ChloesDaddy]

We are semi-empty-nesters. No little kids and my hubby does a pretty good job of keeping his car (which is the road trip car) cleaned out.

The only issue is he insists on keeping a tote box of stuff in the back of his car and there is always a grumble match over what he is allowed to keep and what has to go in the house when we prepare for a vacation. I mean...seriously...I don't think we need the winter gloves, sock cap, de-icer, and ice scraper between Kentucky and Florida in September : /

LOL!!! I removed the bin I make DW keep in the back of the van with all that same stuff in it. I did replace it with a smaller bin to keep some things we may need. If we run into ice and snow in FL in June I think we'll have bigger problems to worry about than scraping off the windows.

 

[parlay]

DH spends about 1/2 hour. Usually the kids have stuff stashed in the side compartments in the back. I remember when DH found an entire pack of melted crayons - what a mess.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

We leave in 5 days (arrive at WDW in 11; stopping to see family and go to the beach on the way). I just spent 4 hours cleaning out out the van. If they had movie theaters for monkeys, the floor would look like what I found when I started -- pulverized pretzels and goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, used gum, wrappers of all kinds, fossilized McDonald's french fries, long missing Nintendo DS games, etc... The worst was the pool of dark brown ooze that I found in a pull-out cup holder -- obviously a highly concentrated soda spill. I immediately issued a ban on eating and drinking in the van until after vacation, which I'm sure everyone (including me) will ignore. Well, at least it will be clean for a few days.

Now we can get on with the more fun parts of getting ready -- finish packing, rechecking the checklist, buying some last-minute needs, and watching a few Disney movies.

I couldn't help but laugh when I read this. Sounds exactly like my car! And yes, it takes me a long time to clean all that mess out. And if I can keep it clean until we leave for vacation, once we get all the suitcases, snacks, and "must have" toys and activities (that seldom get touched on the way) and after a day of traveling in the car, it nearly looks like it did before I cleaned it!

 

[CuppieCake04]

its not the clean up BEFORE the drive.. as I keep a tidy vehicle.. (only cause its still new and I love it) but the cleanup AFTER that worries me...lol

 

[difry]

LOL!!! I removed the bin I make DW keep in the back of the van with all that same stuff in it. I did replace it with a smaller bin to keep some things we may need. If we run into ice and snow in FL in June I think we'll have bigger problems to worry about than scraping off the windows.

I'm thinking about getting my hubby a nice bag to keep a few things in. The volume of stuff he insists on carrying is ridiculous. I love his car (a 2011 XB) and although there isn't a lot of space behind the back seat...there should be plenty of room for 2 adults and our stuff.

 

[lauradis]

We leave in 5 days (arrive at WDW in 11; stopping to see family and go to the beach on the way). I just spent 4 hours cleaning out out the van. If they had movie theaters for monkeys, the floor would look like what I found when I started -- pulverized pretzels and goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, used gum, wrappers of all kinds, fossilized McDonald's french fries, long missing Nintendo DS games, etc... The worst was the pool of dark brown ooze that I found in a pull-out cup holder -- obviously a highly concentrated soda spill. I immediately issued a ban on eating and drinking in the van until after vacation, which I'm sure everyone (including me) will ignore. Well, at least it will be clean for a few days.

Now we can get on with the more fun parts of getting ready -- finish packing, rechecking the checklist, buying some last-minute needs, and watching a few Disney movies.

Oh the joys of kids lol what no dog hair,,, thats my van clean except dog hair and the dog slobber all over the back window...

 

[texasroni75]

DH keeps the truck fairly clean - at least twice a month he empties it out and cleans it up. But, that's because he uses it for work and I harass him for his receipts for the business - I have to log his gas and meals and other purchases, which are usually stuffed in places all around the inside of the vehicle.

He went pretty crazy shining the truck up for our last roadtrip (last August to NJ). But, that was because we were visiting family and they'd be in our vehicle at some point during the trip. Plus his sister's husband is in the auto-detailing business and DH had to make sure his truck was shiny and clean for inspection LOL.

This time around, I'm pretty sure he'll get it cleaned the day before we leave, but he probably won't be as picky since he knows the kids will be eating in there and making messes - waiting to do a really thorough job when we get HOME from Disney.

 

[DisMomJill]

We leave in 5 days (arrive at WDW in 11; stopping to see family and go to the beach on the way). I just spent 4 hours cleaning out out the van. If they had movie theaters for monkeys, the floor would look like what I found when I started -- pulverized pretzels and goldfish crackers, cracker jacks, used gum, wrappers of all kinds, fossilized McDonald's french fries, long missing Nintendo DS games, etc... The worst was the pool of dark brown ooze that I found in a pull-out cup holder -- obviously a highly concentrated soda spill. I immediately issued a ban on eating and drinking in the van until after vacation, which I'm sure everyone (including me) will ignore. Well, at least it will be clean for a few days.

That sounds like my car! We actually rent a van for our road trips, so I don't have to worry about cleaning it up before we leave.