Are you carrying a little extra weight?

It’s a question we all dread being asked… but on this occasion I’m talking about those ‘non-essential’ items in your vehicles!!

Many of us drive around with a boot full of ‘stuff’ that has no use to us on an everyday basis, and when it’s locked away on the driveway, it’s forgotten about.  But it costs us – EVERY time we travel in our cars. Extra weight = extra fuel = extra £s.

When was the last time you gave your car boot a good clear out and sorted through all of the junk in there?

I did just that recently in my husband’s car.  Now you might wonder why he’s allowed to get away with carrying around so much junk when I’m in the business I’m in?!  Well his car is essentially his office space, used in the main by him alone, so it’s up to him to keep it in check.  However, before we took a weekend trip away recently, it was up to me to ‘lay down the law’ and make the changes!!

We pulled out everything that was in 2 plastic crates and scattered across the boot space and in the footwells and grouped items together.  We found food wrappers, empty water bottles, scraps of paper, broken pens, one of a pair of socks (belonging to one of the children), roller boots, several road/street maps (despite having a sat nav system in the car), high visibility jacket, 3 first aid kits, kitchen roll, rags, empty laptop box, jacket, 2 ice scrapers, de-icer, note-pads, Ker-plunk game, beach towel and 2 bottles of motoring oil – one empty.  Clearly not all items needed for day-to-day use!!

Sorting out what to keep and what to bin/recycle/re-home was pretty easy and the end result is just one crate of ‘necessities’ containing only the items he needs to go about his business.  I have gained a useful ice scraper, note pad and a first aid kit for my car, the children have their game, roller boots and socks back and our various bins have been filled up accordingly with the remainder!

Other weight-savers to consider if not used on a regular basis are to remove roof racks/roof boxes and the extra seats from people-carriers; both weigh a considerable amount!

Why not take some time over this coming Bank Holiday weekend to check out the extra weight you could be carrying around – and see if you too can clear the clutter from your car and lighten the load?