# What piles up in your car? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018 "2004-08-22T22:41:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/1 "2004-08-22T22:41:47Z")
Empty plastic water bottles and aluminum cans pile up on the floor of my car, then I purge them and start over again. But that’s it. I make sure not to have loose french fries lying around, or anything else that might pervade the vehicle for weeks on end. What’s collecting in **your** ride? ---
**Author:** ![Triss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Triss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triss)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/2 "2004-08-22T22:46:53Z")
Dog fur. Pens. Bits of paper with scribbles on them. Water bottles. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/3 "2004-08-22T22:52:34Z")
newspapers receipts envelopes from mail I’ve opened in the car notes to myself for errands shopping lists paperback books miscellaneous memos from the Front Office ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/4 "2004-08-22T22:57:29Z")
Bodies ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/5 "2004-08-22T22:59:21Z")
CD’s Mostly. I’ve got two of those CD cases on both sides of my visor. I’ve also got CD’s falling out of the enclosure on my cup holder. I’ve also got them tucked in crease of the seat next to me. Otherwise, that’s it. It’s actually pretty clean. ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/6 "2004-08-22T23:01:07Z")
Water bottles. Shoes I take off to switch to a more comfortable pair. Mapquests…usually with the _correct_ directions scribbled on the back after I get lost. Some sort of wrap, shawl or sweater, for the movies because I never remember that I’ll get cold. Earrings in that little spot under the CD player obviously designed for something…I decided it was for earrings. But mostly water bottles. Lots of them. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/7 "2004-08-22T23:02:17Z")
Mail. I drive up to my mailbox before I park my truck, so most of it just gets pitched on the floor on the passenger side. StG ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/8 "2004-08-22T23:04:18Z")
Pennies. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/9 "2004-08-22T23:17:06Z")
Amateurs, the lot of ya! 😛 -Work duffel bag that I ceased carrying daily about two years ago, but still contains useful items tying me into little guilt knots when I contemplate throwing it out -bags containing wrapped birthday gifts riding around until I see the recipient -empty pop/water bottles -empty cardboard 6-pack holders from summertime fill-the-cooler activities -lots and lots of books either from the used bookstore or on the way back -various coats and jackets because it’s cold when we leave in the morning but not when we come home in the afternoon -capped bottles of tranny fluid, oil, funnels, tow rope, screwdrivers, etc. -shoes, I tend to not have exactly the right pair for whatever outfit, but have 1 sister and 1 gf the same shoe size, so I’ll drive there in the wrong shoes on the way to a function, switch them out and forget to bring the old pair in -years of straw wrappers Yeah, we haven’t actually used the backseat in years. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/10 "2004-08-22T23:27:48Z")
cassette tapes dog nose marks on the windows ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/11 "2004-08-22T23:30:52Z")
Recyclables. Currently it’s a large box of old magazines that I keep meaning to drop at the recycling drop-off place. Other times it’s been aluminum cans and newspapers andwill soon be all the plastic jugs currently in my garage. Heck maybe I’ll even throw them in with the magazines and kill two birds with one stone. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/12 "2004-08-23T00:29:08Z")
Receipts Junk mail **Gunslinger** ’s trash (in his personal pickup, he uses the passenger seat floor as a trash can, and I’m trying to break him of this habit in my truck) Shopping bags (I’ll use whatever I bought while still in the car, and then the bag floats around the truck for months) I’ve also had my Christmas decorations in the back of the truck for a month now; we just haven’t gotten around to putting them in the storage closet since we moved to our new place. They’ll probably be there until Black Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/13 "2004-08-23T00:30:19Z")
Sweaters. A billion librarianly cardigans. I could outfit a reference army, as long as they were a size 2, with what’s in my car. Books I finish various places that never make it home, so they inhabit the car until I finally purge and then I can’t find their dust jackets. Anything for any class I’m currently in. Rarely makes it into the house. For about a year after I went to Daytona for Spring Break I still had my blender in the back window. After a while it became a badge of honor. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/14 "2004-08-23T01:12:15Z")
Receipts from gas stations Jackets/coats CD’s and CD cases. This turned out not to be good when my car got broken into back in April ☹ Random stuff that I remember to bring home from work, but forget about by the time I get home and don’t remember to bring up from the car ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/15 "2004-08-23T01:22:30Z")
Hmmmmmm… So what’s in the old Saturn wagon? **Front seat:** Two packages of flexible hooks, to be installed at the barn. Partially used bag of spring clothespins (for keeping paper towel roll in shedrow from unrolling in the breeze) (on passenger floor) Handkerchief in cupholder Cup for cupholder (on floor) Red Rum roll-on equine wound care container Oilskin ball cap (on dashboard with lucky sixpence, trail tag, and paper clip) Empty supplement bucket recycled as wastebasket Box of baby wipes Barn dirt (on floor) **Island between seats:** Front pocket: quarters, nail file, several pig-gelding rings, barn dirt Rear pocket: three double-end snaps, box cutter, pair of scissors, digital thermometer, cell phone, mini-notebook, container of push-pins, Phillips-head screwdriver **Rear seat:** Jacket Rain jacket Flannel shirt Oilskin ball cap Pair of rubber boots Spare helmet (temporarily left behind in New Hampshire at friend’s farm) Saddle pads (to be washed, or washed and returning to barn) Grocery bag of paper towel rolls Old feed store bill Halter and leadrope Street atlas Two phone books Stethoscope Bag with two salt bricks Body brush Hay and barn dirt **Cargo area:** Folded tarp Bale of hay Baling twine ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/16 "2004-08-23T02:05:49Z")
- Unclassified .ppt files; - CD cases (I put the disks and jewel case cards into my pouch); - Newspapers, magazines, newsletters, etc.; - Arby’s cups and bags; - Empty 2-liter bottles, that I use to mix powdered sports drinks in. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/17 "2004-08-23T02:20:26Z")
Empty cigarette packs. Plastic pop bottles. Books. General Trash. My knitting backpack. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/18 "2004-08-23T02:22:14Z")
Mottled magazines and yellowing newspapers. Gasoline and ATM receipts. Napkins from fast-food joints. Half-used packets of Altoids. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/19 "2004-08-23T03:03:10Z")
Trash piles up in my car like none other. I’m not really sure how I end up with so many fast food bags, napkins, papers, Wal-Mart sacks, packages et cetera in my car. So every couple of weeks I’ll take all the trash and stuff it into one of the Wal-Mart sacks and tie it shut. But then more trash piles up and I’ll put that trash in another Wal-Mart sack. So by the time I actually get around to cleaning my car thouroughly, I have 4 or 5 sacks full of trash in my back seat. Yes its ridiculous that I don’t just throw them away at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018/20 "2004-08-23T03:44:49Z")
To put it bluntly, my car looks as though a homeless person moved inside it a month ago. Someone noticed how messy the interior was, and half-jokingly said, “I think a squatter has been living in your car!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-piles-up-in-your-car/261018.md?page=2)