I kept a messy car for a really long time. When I started driving in high school and I ended up with my own car I would put stuff in the back seat and in the floorboards. As I got older and I would eat out at fast food places I would put the garbage in my car and leave it empty it out every month or so. It was gross.
As I got older I would leave things that I thought I needed in the trunk and in the side pockets and in the places underneath seats and it never moved. When I had garbage I would put it in the backseat if I had an empty cup or empty can or bottle it would go in the floorboard of the backseat and this continued well into my adulthood.
Even when I had children I threw stuff in the floor and didn't clean it up.
One day I had to let some people ride with me to lunch while I was at work. One of them was my facility manager and one of them was the assistant facility manager and I was embarrassed by what they had to move to sit in my car and then what they said about my messy car.
They didn't put me down and they didn't make fun of me, but it was embarrassing. After that, I cleaned up the inside of my car.
I'm still not very focused on washing and waxing and cleaning the outside of the cars because I'm just not into that.
I don't want my car to be shiny and look new and I don't want to really impress anybody, but I do try to keep the inside clutter free and garbage free. And I feel a lot better about things when I have to have somebody ride with me.
It makes me happier. And I like that.
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