The Lazy Genius Podcast - #103 - The Lazy Genius Keeps the Car Clean

Starting point is 00:00:01 Hi, you're listening to the lazy genius podcast. I'm Kendra and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 103. The lazy genius keeps the car clean. This episode obviously assumes you have a vehicle and you don't use public transportation. So if that's you, feel free to skip to another episode. Maybe you're feeling the push of spring cleaning. So you can look at episode number 52, scroll,

Starting point is 00:00:31 down a little ways, the lazy genius spring cleans. Otherwise, let's talk about keeping the car clean. Mine isn't clean. Not usually. But that's not super important to me. In fact, I wrote a post a while back called Why I Don't Care that my van is a mobile thrift store. Here's the thing. I choose to be lazy about my car. It doesn't matter a ton for it to be pristine. So I don't try. I don't try. to be a genius about it. What I do care about is making the times I actually do clean it out pretty easy. I don't want to be surprised by like rotten bananas or permission slips I forgot about. So I do have some systems in place in the car to make the mess make sense and like not be a health hazard. Now clearly, I have found a rotten banana in my car before and it was unpleasant.

Starting point is 00:01:27 I'm not saying it never happens. But I don't have to jump. to the extreme of having a spotless van at all times to counteract that. Because let's be honest, isn't that what we do sometimes? One thing goes wrong in the van or in our health or our time management and we try to build it bigger. We go extreme and we vow to never leave any trash in the van again, to never eat sugar again, to eliminate Instagram for our lives forever and never. You know, And then when that motivational momentum wears off, it's kind of sad. And we don't feel great about ourselves or our ability to follow through. Even though the thing we required of ourselves was kind of extreme and impossible in the first place.

Starting point is 00:02:15 So let's find the regular middle. I personally don't need to have a clean car. I just want to make tiny moves that keep things manageable and easier. to clean up when I have the time or the interest. I am not abandoning my van to entropy, but I'm not a dictator about it either. And remember, in anything, whether it's your clean car or something completely different, don't swing big until you're willing to start small. Small is way easier. And if you don't care enough to take small steps, the big ones definitely won't work. Okay. So here are some ways to keep.

Starting point is 00:02:57 your car clean. The first is the biggest. Have a place for trash. At one point, I tried to have a rule where I would always take the trash inside whenever I came home. But what about when you also need to carry in groceries and backpacks and like children? I never wanted to make another trip back to the car just to bring in the trash, right? It's such a waste. At least it felt like that for me. The solution that I have used for years is quite lazy and kind of dumb to even say out loud because you probably already do this. But it's just to have a trash bag in the car. Just put like a grocery bag or like even a bin, like a trash bin, in your car.

Starting point is 00:03:36 Hours is in the middle of the two front seats. I can easily reach it. And my kids think it's like super funny to chuck their applesauce pouches and their granola bar wrappers at the bag. They're so funny. But at least everything ends up in like the general vicinity of the trash bag. And I can put the trash in the bag. The trash bag is just a holding place until it gets too full.

Starting point is 00:04:00 It's the same concept as the holding places for paper in the episode. The Lazy Genius organizes paper. You don't need to tend to a type of item every single time you come in contact with it. Just have a place for it to collect out of the way of everything else and then deal with it when the time is right or the container is full. Easy. and because I use a grocery bag for the car trash, I literally just pick up the whole thing and put it in the trash and then replace it with another bag. Of course, there is trash throughout the van. But on the random day that I say to everybody like, okay, grab a piece of trash on your

Starting point is 00:04:38 way out, there's at least a place to put the trash. And when I do clean out the van, the trash is already there. So I don't have to make annoying like piles of trash in the car and get frustrated. that might be a silly thing to find frustrating or even say out loud, but like, I hate piles that are not contained, like a lot, especially piles of trash. I need piles to be visually restrained. So have a place for trash in your van and you're halfway there, even when it's time to like clean out your van for a big cleanup. Another idea is the same idea as the trash, just not for trash. You likely have stuff that doesn't belong in your car, but that isn't trash. for my van. It's books the kids have brought with them for a car ride. Hair bows, Annie has

Starting point is 00:05:27 ripped out of her hair. Random gloves, stuff like that. Some of those things, they actually serve a decent purpose in the car, like the books when I need to distract the kids when they're fighting or something. So it's great to have a bin or a basket or some kind of holding place for stuff that doesn't really stay in the car. That's not its forever home. But it doesn't urgently need to come in the house right now. Now again, like it just keeps the car visually less cluttered. And then when the container is full, bring it inside and put the step away. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science

Starting point is 00:06:17 of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Because here's the thing. Your car likely feels dirty because there is stuff everywhere. It might not be the amount of stuff. It is the distribution of stuff. The same is true and our homes too. If your living room feels like it's a mess, there is a huge visual difference in a dozen things being scattered all over the floor and those same dozen things being in a pile on the coffee table. visually, there's less clutter. And really, that's all you need. In so many ways, the goal isn't to clean up every single thing. It's to feel like the house is clean or the car is

Starting point is 00:07:13 clean. And the feeling comes when it seems like it's cleaner than it was before. So in your car, having all the stuff in one container feels tidy and relatively clean because it's not spread out everywhere. Doing that with both your trash and then random stuff that isn't trash, it will change the way your car feels because honestly, what else is there? It's like trash and there are stuff that isn't trash. Now, if you have things in your car that oddly don't fit one of those two categories, like stuff that has to stay in your car, like maybe you have a job that has like a lot of equipment that you need to keep in your car or something like that, like paint, like those paint fan decks or something, if you're like a decorator or a painter, you can still apply the same

Starting point is 00:07:54 concept of giving everything a holding place, contain it somehow, and the car will feel cleaner. Remember I said, I wrote a post about my van being a mobile thrift store. That aspect of it isn't my favorite. Like having bags of things that need to be donated or like errands, visual errands in my car. So let's hit a really good tip for all of those bags and boxes of like, you know, the kids' clothes and old lamps and all the things that you want to take to Goodwill. When you put, or like things to return to like a store or something, when you put those kinds of items in your car that have an errand attached to them,

Starting point is 00:08:31 do not under any circumstances put them in the trunk. They will die there. You will forget. Out of sight, out of mind. So to make sure you actually donate the stuff or return the stuff, put it in your front seat and then drive the stuff to where it needs to go. the errand. Having the passenger seat covered in like full garbage bags of like boy pants is an excellent motivator to run the errand. Okay, so let's finish out this episode by talking about like

Starting point is 00:09:01 little ways to put the trash in the bag and the stuff in the box or whatever you need to do to keep your car clean. If you get my, um, my monthly newsletter called the latest lazy letter, a couple of months ago, you heard me talk about a book that you have likely seen on Instagram a bunch called Atomic Habits by James Clear. You guys, this is the best book on habits ever. I was so encouraged because so many of the things that he teaches in the book are concepts I've been sharing with you here in like podcast episodes and blog posts about goals and failing and all that.

Starting point is 00:09:37 He just says them better and with research to back them up. It is a fantastic book. I'll put the link in the show notes so you can grab a copy that you will highlight within an inch of its life, I'm sure. But in that book, he talks about the concept of cues, which isn't like a new concept that he created, but we experience a cue that triggers an action. I have definitely lived with the cue of kids screaming in the afternoon that triggered the action of my opening the fridge to get out of ball of cookie dough out of the freezer, for sure. But we can actually actually.

Starting point is 00:10:17 manufacture cues and triggers to encourage actions that matter. For example, when it comes to your car, you could use getting gas as the cue that triggers the action of throwing away trash. Maybe you just like usually stand there pumping the gas or you put on that little gas pump lock and you check your email or something. Instead of doing that, throw out some trash. Or like put all the stuff in the stuff box. Check the trunk for anything that could be moved to the front seat. And you know, seat so you'll remember to take care of it. Does that make sense? So choose a cue that triggers a small action that can help keep your car a little cleaner. You can use any queue you want to. Pumping gas, loading up the kids at the end of a target run, waiting in the carpool line. Choose a queue that happens

Starting point is 00:11:05 fairly often and then let it be a trigger for a small, simple action like throwing out the Starbucks cups or gathering up like all the discarded school papers or whatever. It is such a huge help. Now, in terms of cleaning the car, like wiping down dashboards and washing the actual car, I'm out. I'm out. My husband does that every few months because I hate it and he likes it fine. Or just go through a gas station car wash or something. I am definitely lazy about that part of keeping a car clean.

Starting point is 00:11:38 So I basically have zero to say about it other than I guess it's good to wash it sometimes. I'm so helpful. But these tips, I believe in, these tips of having holding places for trash and your stuff in combination with some sort of cue that triggers an action to keep things clean, man, you're going to be in such great shape. Keep it so simple, y'all. There's no need to have the expectation of a spotless car unless that just really matters to you. And in that case, you probably already do keep it clean without needing any help for me. We're usually pretty good. at giving priority to things that matter when we name them. So like, name how you feel about your car and then let your actions line up with that. Okay. That is it for today's super quick little episode. If you are interested in checking out atomic habits, check out the show notes.

Starting point is 00:12:30 We'll have a link there. And if you would like to hear about all the books I'm reading every month plus favorite podcast episodes, recipes I've tried, all kinds of news and content I don't share anywhere else, join the mailing list by going to the lazy genius collective.com slash join, or you can click the link in the show notes. The latest lazy letter always goes out on the first Wednesday of every month, and I rarely email otherwise. So if you don't get anything from me for a while, don't sweat it. It's probably because I haven't said anything yet. Okay, guys, thanks so much for listening. I'm Kendra. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy

Starting point is 00:13:06 about the things that don't. See you next time. You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.

The Lazy Genius Podcast - #103 - The Lazy Genius Keeps the Car Clean

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