Pimp My Ride

I confessed recently that my car is embarrassingly enough a mom car these days...it is decked out in Cheerios, apple cores, milk stains, and other evidence that a newborn, toddler, and busy mom are toted around in it daily. Well, let me correct myself...my car was a mom car...
Last weekend, I got myself a new car (OK technically Josh and I got ourselves a 15,000 mile used car, but it's new to me!).  Obviously this is exciting, but especially when you consider we are going from this ***brace yourself***):

lovely milk stains, huh?  trust me...
there was a ton of other stuff too but at least I cleaned it some before snapping this shot

Now our used/new car is sparkly and clean, and while it will inevitably take some type of beating, I am determined to keep it in better shape than I did my lovely old Highlander.  In fact, Josh has actually threatened that he will take over driving my new car if I trash it, so it's pretty good motivation to up my game.

Part of doing this was doing something I swore I would never, ever do:

Yup, I put a towel down on the back seat.  My mom always had towels down on our seats growing up and I thought it was ridiculous...I mean sure your seats are all nice when you go to get rid of the car, but you didn't get to enjoy them while you had it, right?  Well, Josh and I checked out some of those handy under the car seat mat things and quite frankly, they didn't seem to cover enough space for our messy children, so the towel seemed to be the best option.

The real key to my "keep the car clean" plan, though, is this handy guy:

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest (where else?).  It's a simple plastic cereal holder with a grocery bag inside it...the perfect car trash can!  Goldfish, apple cores, gum wrappers, etc....now they have met their match...or at least that is the plan.

So, we'll see how long this lasts, but for now, I must admit, it's really nice to get in a car that doesn't feel like a glorified trash can!  Anybody else have any tips for keeping the car clean?