5 Smart Ways To Keep Your Car Organized Without Trying

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Even if you like to keep your car as clean and organized as possible, busy schedules and frequent usage can make it easy for clutter to build up at an alarming rate. It's especially easy for this to happen if you regularly need to bring along kids or other family members for the ride. Rather than needing to react to that clutter and mess after it has already become an inconvenience, taking some time to organize your car can help minimize the buildup in the first place.

In the same way that there are plenty of cool car accessories designed to make your journey more enjoyable, there are also many auto organizational accessories. Those things might be shoes, clothes, small personal items, or even old food wrappers — whatever they are, having somewhere to keep them can help keep your car looking tidy for longer. Your car might also have some built-in organization features you're not using, so check out these five tips if you're looking to keep your car organized without trying.

Many people regularly eat and drink in their car, and when they're done, those wrappers and bottles have to go somewhere. It's all too easy to chuck a bottle onto the floor or leave it in a door pocket and forget about it until you end up with trash dotted all over the car. The easiest way to limit the buildup is to make a habit of removing any trash from your journey every time you arrive home. That way, you shouldn't ever end up needing to take too much trash out at any one time.

As well as becoming clutter, dropped food wrappers can also leave crumbs or smears of sauce embedded into your floor mats. If you frequently find yourself having to deep clean your car to get food remains out, it might be worth considering a small in-car trash can.

Retailers like Amazon have plenty of affordably priced options available, such as the Hotor Car Trash Can, which retails for $12.99. It features a leak-proof lid to keep trash from spilling back into the car, and it can hold up to 2 gallons of waste. It can also be attached to a headrest thanks to the included straps and features several small pockets to hold extras like snacks or wipes.

Small items in the trunk of your car can get easily thrown around if you don't have something to keep them in place. To keep them secure, it might be worth investing in a trunk organizer. We tried out several top-rated trunk organizers of various sizes, concluding that for our reviewer's compact SUV, Starling's Car Trunk Organizer was a particularly strong choice. A basic version of the organizer retails for $33.99, but a lidded variant is also available for $45.99.

We found its large side pockets to be very useful for carrying bits and pieces that are usually at risk of getting lost in a packed trunk, and we also appreciated the spill-proof plastic base. Some other, cheaper trunk organizers have fabric or polyester bases, which means that any spilled liquids might permeate through to the trunk floor, giving you an additional cleaning job. It also folds down neatly, with one half of the organizer able to be compacted down while the other half is still in use.

If you regularly carry around muddy or wet shoes in the trunk of your car, it's also worth considering a shoe organizer. Some shoe organizers are tailored to specific uses, like the Yorepek Golf Trunk Organizer, which features a ventilated compartment that holds up to two pairs of golf shoes, plus additional storage for caps, gloves, tees, and other small items. It retails for $37.99 and is available in multiple colorways.

As well as being careful about how you use your trunk's floor space, it's also worth considering if the back of your trunk could be better optimized. Specifically, whether a hanging organizer might be a worthwhile investment. The pictured example is the Femuar car trunk organizer, which retails for $19.99 on Amazon, but plenty of other similar options are available. These hanging organizers attach to the rear row of seats and usually feature a variety of pockets in various shapes and sizes. Among other things, they could be used to store personal items, hand tools, or first aid essentials.

If you don't have any spare room in the trunk, another option that's potentially worth exploring is a hanging organizer to attach to the rear of the driver or front passenger seat. Uleeka offers a pair of hanging organizers to hang behind both seats for $19.99. Much like the hanging trunk organizers, they could be used to store personal items or first aid kits, but they could also be used to attach tablets to the rear of the seat to keep younger passengers entertained on the road. As a bonus, they also double up as seat protectors, to keep the backs of seats safe from scuffs and dirt from rear passengers' feet.

Even if you make an effort to keep your car as clean as possible, dirt will inevitably be dragged back in by muddy boots or paws and spills are still likely to happen. To keep on top of smaller cleaning jobs, we tried out Amazon's most popular handheld car vacuum. We put it to work clearing up everything from food spills to twigs and dirt, and it did a good job of dealing with most of them. It still wasn't a replacement for a larger, more powerful vacuum — and so you'll still need to regularly deep clean your car to keep it spotless — but it helped with smaller everyday tasks.

The vacuum we tested was the Black + Decker Dustbuster QuickClean, which retails for $39.99. However, if you'd prefer something that's pricier but more capable of tackling tougher jobs, there are plenty of alternatives available. Amazon offers lots of top-rated car vacuums, many of which retail for $100 or less. While some feature built-in batteries, other options from brands like Craftsman and DeWalt run on their respective maker's cordless battery lines, making them cost-effective choices for anyone who already has an array of cordless power tools.

Even without needing any additional organizer accessories for your car, there's still one smart way to ensure you're keeping it as tidy as possible. It's always worth checking that you're maximizing your use of any hidden cubbies or storage compartments in your car, or if you haven't already, checking whether any exist. The location of these storage areas will vary between different car models; for example, the Chevrolet Equinox EV has additional storage space under the floor of the trunk, while some examples of the Chevy Tahoe have a sliding hidden storage space in the center console that can be accessed via a button.

Other brands offer a similarly diverse range of hidden storage options, with the current generation Toyota Prius featuring a hidden Easter egg in its secret center console storage. If you take out the tray near the cupholders, you'll find a second compartment that's marked by a hashtag #HIDDENCOMPARTMENT. It's worth searching online to see if anyone has uncovered hidden storage for your particular car model that you didn't know about.