Tag Archives: clean

It’s All Trash


Ok, that is just nasty...

I am what you would call a grown up, educated slob. I have a hard time keeping things clean and orderly on a daily basis. I am not as bad as some. Not like I have a mental disorder or anything (when it comes to cleaning anyway). I just have a hard time with tossing garbage. I feel like I shouldn’t. Like putting my garbage in someone else’s garbage can is an imposition. Like I am totally taking advantage of them. Ok, maybe it is a metal disorder….

When I was a kid I was supposed to keep my room clean, just like every other kid in the world. So, I learned to toss everything either in my closet or in the dirty laundry. Great solution, right? Except then, eventually, all of my clothes would either be in the dirty laundry or piled high in my closet and I had “nothing to wear”.Slob-ola. It carried over into my car. When I lived in Texas, I would get Arby’s everyday for lunch. They had the French Dip with the container of au jus….ok, that sounds really gross now….anyway, I would wrap the au jus container up in the tin foil from the sandwich and toss it in the back seat. My friends who road in the back seat LOVED it. Especially as my car had no AC and it was Texas in the middle of the summer. At one point  it was filled with miscellaneous garbage from the floor up to the seat.

I am not proud of this fact. I work hard on changing it. Today, I spend at least 3 hours a day in my car, generally with 3 or more kids and mostly around dinner time. So, food happens. And it is a process to actually collect it all up and toss it. Maybe more in my head than in reality, but still. Not too long ago my best friend got in the car and almost threw up because there was half a pizza on the floor. She cleaned out my car and tossed all of my garbage. Yes, I felt slight shame in the nastiness of my car. When I get in other people’s cars and they are clean and don’t smell, I marvel. I actually stare at the floor mats and wonder how, how can this be? And I resolve to not be a slob anymore. But I have far too many excuses…

I travel, I have kids, it’s cold, I don’t have time, I am sore, there is no trash can close by,it’s only Tuesday,I have to sort it, it is just such a hassle….I think using public garbage cans may actually be illegal. Really. When at a gas station and I am emptying my garbage in the can, I seriously believe the lady behind the counter is going to come out and yell at me or call the police because I am dumping my garbage in their can. I have no idea where this garbage phobia came from. I don’t recall ever being yelled at by anyone, ever for using their garbage can.

Although, at the car wash I used to go to a sign did go up that said I couldn’t dump my garbage unless I was getting a car wash. Maybe they put the sign there for someone else, cause I always felt so guilty that I did get a car wash every single time I went there, before I dumped my garbage.

So, I am not a slob by choice, you see. I am simply SAVING you from having more than your anticipated garbage in your can. I am actually being thoughtful. What a shame that my thoughtfulness leads to my slobiness…I wonder if I will ever grow to a point where I am unafraid of the car wash authority, or the gas station lady and just dump my trash with no remorse. Maybe. I have no issue with other people dumping their garbage in my can….that statement is true on many levels…

Ok, I’m working on it. Unless TLC comes out with a show on people with car garbage phobias and then I can be on it and make a million dollars and get a whole car make over!! Like new floor mats and some filtration system that gets rid of the sour milk smell….and a Super Car Maid who will live in my car and tell me what I am doing wrong and how to correct myself…Come on, who doesn’t want to see another reality show? And I didn’t even tell you about the car I had with the mice that lived in the heating vents…..