It’s been 8 years since we purchased our new-to-us minivan… and what a blessing it has been for our growing family.
We’ve spent hours driving to and from various activities around town, carting friends, relatives, and neighbors, and successfully navigating a handful of longer road trips.
We’ve vacuumed up thousands of snack crumbs, taken hundreds of naps, watched dozens of movies, and arranged and rearranged car seats too many times to count (for several years, we had some combination of 4 different car seats and boosters).
We Love Our Minivan!
Our trusty Chrysler Town & Country is the only minivan I wanted — specifically because of the patented Stow ‘n Go seating that allows you to quickly and easily “stow” the bucket seats and the back bench for maximum carting ability (you would not believe how much stuff I’ve moved with this van!)
Our van is now almost 14 years old, and (for the most part) it’s still going strong — thanks to proper maintenance, significant money spent at our favorite local mechanic… and some strategically placed black duct tape! 🤪
Truthfully though, this van has served us well over the years, and we hope to get a few more years out of her — especially since Chrysler no longer makes the Town & Country.
Also, we’re completely DONE with car seats and almost out of boosters, so we can really maximize our interior space with the Stow ‘n Go seating!
Our Current Seating Arrangements:
We’ve utilized dozens of different seating arrangements over the years.
However, for the last 8 months or so, we’ve had the driver’s side bucket seat “stowed” under the floor to allow for considerably more moving space within the van.
It’s amazing how spacious it feels inside!
For everyday driving around town, Nora usually sits in the passenger seat, the boys on the back bench, and Clara in the bucket seat with her booster.
If our entire family is in the car, all 3 older kids squish in the back (and love it). And if we’re carting friends, we just pop the other bucket seat back up.
Believe it or not, we actually drove to Tennessee and back with the bucket seat stowed. Every couple of hours, we rotated who got the bucket seat because they all wanted to sit together in the back!
RELATED READING: How we rearranged car seats over the years.
How I Organize Our Van:
I planned to write an update on our minivan organization (ironically, it’s a topic request I receive quite often) and this seemed like the perfect time to share as we’ve recently entered the season of (almost) no car seats or boosters! Can you tell I’m excited about this!?!?
Life looks quite different now with 4 middle-aged children versus infants and toddlers — so it’s no surprise that our vehicle organization has changed a bit too.
RELATED READING: How I organized our van with 4 very little children.
Currently, we don’t store all that much in our van. The kids are self-sufficient enough that they bring whatever they need or want along in the car AND cart it back inside again when we arrive home.
But of course, I keep a few essentials stocked — just in case.
I realize the list below might look long, but everything is easily stored in the center console, glove compartment, under the bucket seat, or in the organizer we have hung on the back of the driver’s seat.
FOR THE KIDS:
- Baby Wipes and Hand Sanitizer
- Tissues and napkins
- Small notebooks + pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers, etc.
- Bug spray
- Small disposable cups (perfect for snacks on the go)
- Bandages
- An extra towel in case something needs to be dried off (great for wet park slides and benches)
FOR ME:
- Sunglasses
- Coupons + gift cards
- Nail clippers (I use these often)
- Hand cream
- Chapstick (this kind won’t melt)
- Gum that won’t melt
- Sticky notes and pens
- Tiny tape measure
- USB Car Charger (for our phones and AirPods)
- A super thin raincoat/windbreaker that folds up into its own pocket (this has been so handy).
OTHER:
- Heavy Duty Scissors
- Car Safety Multi-Tool (for breaking windows, cutting seatbelts, etc.)
- Golf Umbrella
- Snow Scraper
- Jumper Cables
- Reusable grocery bags — I keep a pile in the trunk, they are so useful.
- Disposable plastic bags — perfect for trash on the go (or you could buy one of these).
- 2 Large outdoor blankets (great for sporting events)
NOTE: The jumper cables, outdoor blankets, and snow scraper are all “stowed” under the bucket seat so I forgot to get a picture of them.
How We Maintain Organization:
Just as with any other space, a vehicle requires consistant maintainance in order to STAY neat and organized.
The biggest “must do” for me is that everyone brings everything back inside when we get home — no water bottles, sports gear, homework, shopping bag, fast food wrapper, or library books stick around in my vehicle!
A few years ago, I shared a more-detailed post about How we keep our vehicles clean almost all the time.
The general idea = T.L.C.
T = Trash – have a spot for it.
L = Leave the vehicle better than you found it.
C = Create a space for items you keep in the vehicle.
NOTE -> Read the full post if you’d like all the details.
A Few More Practical Tips:
- Have “assigned seating” so there’s no fighting. Also, if one area is messy, you know who caused it!
- Give each child a “car bag” that they take in and out of the car with them (we keep ours in the mudroom) so nothing gets left in the car.
- Get in the habit of emptying everything out after each trip.
- Practice what you preach (you’ve got to do this too!)
- Always have a trash bag available.
- Always have wet wipes (no matter how old your kids are).
- Use paper boxes for packing (they fit perfectly in minivan trunks).
- Limit the types of food/drink you eat in the car (nothing too messy that could stain or stink).
- Go through your vehicles every quarter to keep things organized and stocked.
- If you have several smaller items, use zippered pouches (or bags) to organize like items within the glove box or center console.
- Let your kids use a shop vac to vacuum out the vehicles (all our kids think this is the best job ever!) 😉
Products We Love:
- Back Seat Organizer (it’s actually a “cooler” but it works so well for us.)
- Trunki Travel Neck Pillows (or these are great too)
- Britax Marathon Convertible Carseat (we had 2 and used them for years)
- Cup holders for the Britax car seat
- Graco High-Back Booster (we had 3 of these)
- Outdoor blankets
- Wet-Dry Shop Vac
I love how our van has morphed and changed (literally) as our family has grown in number and size.
I also love that throughout all the changes, we’ve been able to enjoy driving around in a relatively neat, clean, and organized vehicle without all that much extra effort.
We hope our van gives us a few more years (and that used vehicle prices go down a bit) before it bites the dust!
I’d love to know…
What are your best tips for maintaining a neat and organized vehicle?
Kristina R says
I am revisiting this post because I’m switching to summer gear stored in the van & needed some inspo.
We have the same van as you do & I ordered an organizer that hangs on the back of the third row of seats. I plan to put extra swimsuits, towels, sunscreen, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, wipes and diapers, and some non-perishable snacks (goldfish crackers, nutri grain bars, etc) in it. I live pretty close to you – do you think the sunscreen and food will be ok in the van in the heat? I’ll keep my shopping bags in the trunk area like you do. Thanks!
Andrea says
so good that you are getting organized for summer! You will love the shoe organizer hanging over the back seat — it holds SO much stuff without getting in the way of groceries or other things you need to haul around.
I think the crackers will be fine in the heat — the Nutrigrain bars might be a little “soft” but still edible (I don’t think they would go bad in the heat).
I’m not totally sure about the sunscreen though, you might want to look into that. Maybe a spray sunscreen would be best (not the lotion) but I don’t know, it does get really hot in our van if it’s sitting out in the heat all day.
So smart to keep extra suits, diapers, etc. (maybe a few extra pairs of sunglasses too!)
Carol says
I use a “purse organizer” in my center console ( it’s designed for women who change purses to lift out and place in a different purse). Think I saw it on pinterest several years ago. Mine is rectangular when open and fits perfectly in the console with lots of little pockets which keeps everything organized and separated. I can also lift the whole thing out to bring inside to restock!
Andrea says
this is a great idea — thanks for sharing!
Rhonda says
I have an 8 year old Pathfinder with 195000 miles. It’s nice to have leather seats – easy to keep clean. I keep a bread bag or other small plastic bag on the bottom of each door – that way no one has an excuse to leave garbage strewn about. We either empty those out, or throw the entire bag out and replace. My kids also love to vacuum out the car periodically – my 13 year old always says how “satisfying” it is, lol. I keep some disposable rain coats from dollar tree in my rear storage compartment.
Andrea, what do you use a tiny tape measure for? I never thought to keep that in the car, but maybe I will. Just curious.
Andrea says
Yes, the leather seats are great for easy clean up!
As for the tape measure, I use it all the time for measuring furniture at thrift stores (I keep measurements of items I’m looking for so I know they will fit in the spaces I have for them). I also use it to measure kid’s clothing (like boots and shoes and pants) if my kids aren’t with me. I know their rough measurements and then can better know if the items are the right size.
Rhonda says
Ah! Good idea on the measurements and thrift stores.
Alissa says
We drive a lot. Costco and the zoo are 45-50 minutes away. Meijer is 25 minutes, my son’s speech therapy is 30. Grandparents are 4.5 and 5.5 hours away. The up side is my kids are great at riding in the van. The downside is some times I feel like I live in it 🙂
We currently have all three (still in 5 point harness car seats) in the middle row with the back row folded down. We can fit so much back there. We also have a little potty that has a fold down lid on it. The kids use it as a step stool to climb into their seats, but should the need arise, I don’t have to haul all three kids into a public restroom.
I read a long time ago on your blog how you clean out everything from your van after every use. We do this 90% of the time and the 10% of the time, I don’t, I am shocked by how quickly things get messy so quickly.
I can’t believe Nora is big enough to ride in the front seat! How fun!
Erin says
Honestly i dont worry too much about having a clean car. It is always picked up with no trash laying around but it only gets vaccummed about 4x/year. We get wipes at my gym to wipe down our equipment. I don’t throw mine away, i take it with me to the car to wipe down my car interior too. Its not dusty but it probably could use a vacuum more often. I figure its good enough and don’t worry about it.
JJ says
Our biggest goal lately is after getting the kids to bring in everything making sure they put everything away in its spot right away. My island was the dumping ground. Sometimes I set a timer to motivate.
In one of your other posts you mentioned the pump hand sanitizer in the cup holders. That was a huge help to implement!
We love our minivan! I hauled 3 parts to a large sectional in my minivan as well as a recliner. I never wanted a minivan but now couldn’t imagine not having it.
I need to get the car safety multi-tool. Thank you for sharing links!
Andrea says
I also didn’t think I’d want a minivan until I rode in the back of someone’s big SUV down to Florida 12 years ago. I decided then that I wouldn’t shove my kids in the back of an SUV when a minivan was so much more spacious (and cheaper and better gas mileage!)
Kate says
Where do you put the duct tape?
Andrea says
haha — our van is black so we have duct tape holding up one part of the front bumper! LOL!
Melissa Shirley says
This may seem like a no-brainer but it’s a little tip that has helped keep the trash controlled! I keep a plastic grocery bag in my car door and empty it each time I get gas. I also look through the back seats and floors for trash because my kids are not the best at throwing their trash away. An easy task to do while the gas is pumping! I also have a small Dustbuster that plugs into the car and will use that to tidy up when I’m waiting to pick up kids from activities. Or if I’m not vacuuming, I’ll dust off the dashboards etc with a rag I keep in the glove compartment.
Andrea says
This is a great idea (emptying the trash bag at the gas station!)
And yes, I’ve thought about buying a little dustbuster for the car — for now, I just keep using the shopvac.
Ann says
I don’t know how families survive without stow and go seating! Our minivan has over 200,000 miles on it and is on its last legs but I am not willing to give up this option!
I just wish more mini vans/vehicles offered something similar!
Andrea says
Yes — it’s so handy. We know people who are constantly taking seats in and out of their vehicals and storing them in their garage or basement. Such a pain — I can just flip mine up and down in a minute!
Ann says
Not to mention the fact that once you realize something doesn’t fit it is too late to remove AND STORE the seats someplace else without going home to do it and then returning!