Summer for most families means even more time than usual spent in the car.
While this can easily mean chaos, temper tantrums, and sticky messes, these hacks prove car travel – whether long haul road trips or quick jaunts to the playground – can just as easily be organized, well-equipped, mess-free, and, dare I say it, pleasant for both parents and their offspring.
1. Missy of Lookie What I Did‘s car hack means that kids no longer have to balance (or not!) a drink, snack, or meal in their laps. Her solution–$1 shower caddies–makes transporting and eating on the go impressively easy, not to mention the amount of energy it’ll save you on car clean up time.
2. Speaking of cutting down on clean up time, consider this genius hack from Holly over at Kids Activities Blog, you’ll never clean your cup holders again!
3. Remedy the lack of a stable, even surface in your car by giving your kids a lap tray. Two Sisters Crafting did just that by transforming a cookie sheet. The flat surface makes coloring, eating, and watching movies possible for kids in the car. The testament to the power of the lap tray? Two Sisters says it kept a 4 year-old happy and entertained throughout a fourteen hour road trip.
4. It doesn’t take a road trip to heat up a car on a summer day; a trip to the park will do it. Spare small hands from being singed by sun-baked belt buckles with this hack from Mashable. You’ll be in the car with seat belts fastened in record time.
5. Leave it to Martha to create a blueprint for the ultimate summer car kit–which is as uncomplicated as it is comprehensive. (How does she manage to do that?)
6. There’s nothing quite as cute as kids sleeping in the car with their heads bent over practically into their belly buttons. Cute, that is, until you consider the not so adorable neck strain happening. Super Jenn‘s seatbelt pillows mean all the car snoozes without any of the strained necks.
7. Elizabeth Warren‘s hack keeps art supplies, toys, and so on within kids’ reach at all times in the car. Just imagine the peace in no longer uttering a phrase like, “Don’t unbuckle that seatbelt; you’ll just have to wait until we pull over to get Buzz.”
8. One Good Thing by Jillee proves she lives up to her blog name with her simple hack for keeping cars clean.
9. You might swear that Allison of You Have Your Blog We Have Aars is your personal car-angel after you implement her hack to ensure kid’s sippy cups don’t fall to the floor, time after time. We knew she was a total smartie when we brought her on as an MPMK contributor and this just proves it!
Looking for more inspired ideas on how to optimize your car for littles? Check out our original Car Hacks for Happy Kids post and find even more great tips!
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Annie