I heard you can tell who a person is by looking in their medicine cabinet and through their trash. I think this is true. Why are there “professional” dumpster divers searching through the garbage of famous people. Does Halle Berry really use Cover Girl blush and mascara? What about Madonna? Does she only eat raw, macrobiotic food or would you find a charred piece of steak in her trash? Does she feed Lourdes, Rocco and David Chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s? And forget about the link between a person and their medicine cabinet. What would a cabinet full of Vicodin and Ambien say about a person?
Aside from these two places being able to describe the character of a person, there is another, the inside of a car.
The other day I was in my Mitsibushi Outlander for the bazillionth time. At a stop sign, I glanced around my car and realized there was a lot of crap, quite literally, strewn all over the inside of my car. You would think this would compel me to go home and clean it. Instead I finished my work day, went home, and took the following photos.
Mojo wrapper, etc in driver's door
The inside of the driver’s door: Mojo wrappers from eating on the run, straw wrappers from my ninety-nine cent 42 ounce Diet Cokes (at least two a day), Trident White spearmint papers.
Driver’s seat: Nonfat Greek vanilla yogurt schmear from eating in the car.
Diet Pepsi cans
Middle console: Two empty Diet Pepsi cans. Got addiction?
Passenger seat: Laptop computer (I’ve been known to open the computer and look for an email while “driving.”) and book bag. Work is never far away from my fingertips.
Broken umbrella, ella, ella...Everyone needs one of these, right?
Passenger floor: Broken umbrella, empty Ziploc baggie (Need to recycle it, but won’t happen if I leave it in my car.) and “old” phone charger from my previous cell phone…HELLLOOOOOO!!!!
Jack's jet drawing
Backseat floor: Hiking shoes from when Jack and I hiked Cowles’ Mountain about six weeks ago. Socks are there, too. Empty water bottles…see I drink water, too, and recycle them when I clean out my car. Jack’s drawing of a fighter jet. More work papers.
Hiking shoe...oh, there it is.
Back of the car: Data and protocols from my consulting job at SDSU, reusable grocery bags, McDonald’s toy from Happy Meals, Jack’s drawings, bungee cord for securing my surfboard on my roof (when I surfed), shoebox from boots I had repaired and never put them back in the box.
Trunk trash...the name of my new band
What does the inside of my car say about me? I’m a harried woman with kids, a Diet Pepsi (can)/Diet Coke (fountain) addiction, who eats and works while driving. I’m environmentally conscious with my use of recyclable grocery bags and my contemplation to recycle plastic bottles. I’m messy. I have other priorities besides cleaning, obviously but who doesn’t? And I have difficulty saying no to things and organizing my time and my surroundings.
I’m not the first one to contemplate character and cleanliness.
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.”
“Krishna insisted on outer cleanliness and inner cleansing. Clean clothes and clean minds are an ideal combination.”
I like this one by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?”
Clearly this clutter is bothering me (and you’re probably thinking it should, for the love of Pete). And this messiness is not just in my car. It’s my purse, my bedroom, bathroom, kitchen cupboards, my office, my email mailboxes, etc., etc. So starting tomorrow I’m going to start to clean up my car and my character but there is no promise about the godliness part.
