Car Essentials for Families: Because Your Car Is Basically a Second Home
Once you have kids, your car stops being just a car.
It becomes a snack bar, changing station, storage unit, lost-and-found department, mobile command center, and—somehow—a place where approximately 47 crushed Goldfish crackers can exist at any given moment.
Before kids, I could leave the house with my purse and keys. Now? Leaving the driveway feels like I'm preparing for a three-day expedition into the wilderness.
Do we have snacks? Wipes? Water bottles? An extra outfit?
And while I can't promise these products will prevent someone from announcing they need to pee exactly three minutes after you leave the house, they do make family car life a whole lot easier.
Here are six car essentials I think are absolutely worth having when you're hauling kids around.
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This is one of those ridiculously simple products that makes you wonder why you spent years living without it.
A car purse hook attaches to the headrest and gives you a designated place to hang your purse, diaper bag, backpack, or reusable shopping bags.
The hook keeps my bag upright, accessible, and—most importantly—away from little hands searching for gum.
Why I love it: It's cheap, takes approximately three seconds to install, and instantly gives your car a little more organization.
If you've ever turned around and seen books, crayons, snacks, toys, water bottles, and one mysterious sock scattered across the backseat, you need a seat back organizer.
These hang on the back of the front seats and give kids little pockets for all their stuff.
And kids have SO. MUCH. STUFF.
I especially love these for longer drives because I can load them up with activities and snacks before we leave. The kids can reach what they need without asking me to hand them something every 45 seconds.
Why I love it: Everything has a place, and the kids can actually reach their own things. Independence for them, fewer requests for me. Everybody wins.
I used to think keeping a grocery bag in the car was basically the same thing as having a car trash can.
It is not.
The grocery bag rolls around. It gets stepped on. It leaks. It mysteriously disappears right when someone hands you a half-eaten banana.
A small car trash can gives wrappers, tissues, snack bags, receipts, and all the other random crap a home.
Will your children actually put their trash inside it every single time?
Absolutely not.
Let's keep our expectations reasonable.
But at least there's somewhere to put everything when you do the inevitable backseat cleanout.
Why I love it: It keeps garbage from taking over the cupholders, door pockets, and floorboards.
My trunk has two personalities.
Without an organizer: complete chaos.
With an organizer: Look at me. I have my life together.
A trunk organizer is perfect for keeping all those just-in-case family essentials contained. I like having a place for things like reusable grocery bags, wipes, extra clothes, blankets, emergency supplies, sports gear, and whatever else I'm currently hauling around.
It's especially helpful when you have groceries because apparently a jar of pasta sauce will roll into the deepest corner of the trunk if given even the slightest opportunity.
Why I love it: You can actually find what you need without unloading half the trunk in a Target parking lot. Bonus because this one comes with a cooler!
If you have kids and don't currently own a handheld car vacuum, allow me to introduce you to your new best friend.
Children produce crumbs at a rate that genuinely doesn't seem scientifically possible.
They can eat one cracker and somehow create enough debris to feed a flock of birds.
A cordless handheld vacuum makes it easy to quickly clean up car seats, floor mats, cupholders, and all those weird little crevices where crumbs go to retire.
I love being able to grab it for a quick five-minute cleanup instead of dragging the full-size vacuum outside and pretending I'm going to deep clean the entire car.
I'm not.
We're vacuuming the visible crumbs and moving on with our day.
Why I love it: Quick, easy, and oddly satisfying when you hear all those crumbs getting sucked up.
Finally, after removing the trash, vacuuming the crumbs, and discovering an old chicken nugget under the seat, we need to address the smell.
Enter the vent clip diffuser.
I love having a subtle scent in the car because family vehicles can develop some...interesting smells.
Sports equipment. Old snacks. Wet shoes. French fries someone dropped six days ago. That weird smell you're afraid to investigate.
A vent clip diffuser makes the car smell fresh without taking up cupholder space or having something dangling from the rearview mirror.
Why I love it: It's a tiny thing that makes getting into the car feel just a little nicer—even when the backseat looks like a small tornado recently passed through, without taking up a cup holder like a lot of car diffusers do!
The Family Car Essentials Survival Kit
I'm not trying to have a perfectly clean car.
I have four children. I've accepted reality.
My goal is simply to be able to open the door without three water bottles, a soccer cleat, and an applesauce pouch falling into the parking lot.
These little car essentials help keep the chaos somewhat contained:
Purse hook for keeping bags off the floor
Seat back organizer for corralling kid stuff
Car trash can for wrappers and random garbage
Trunk organizer for all the things we apparently need to bring everywhere
Handheld vacuum for the never-ending crumb situation
Vent clip diffuser for making the car smell like something other than children
None of these things are revolutionary. But together, they make everyday errands, school drop-offs, road trips, grocery runs, and the approximately 9,000 other places moms drive every week feel a little more manageable.
And if my car can look slightly less like we live in it?
I'll call that a win.
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