The most challenging part of any shopping trip is organizing all those bags in your trunk and getting them easily into the house. This simple, inexpensive trunk organizer trick will solve both of those problems in one fell swoop.
If you’re someone who’s ever been to the grocery store at any point in your life, you’re so going to thank me for this trunk organizer trick. This is the best car organizer for dealing with all kinds of clutter in your car trunk or the back of your SUV and the best part is that it’s very inexpensive and easy to find.
I think bringing in grocery bags is kind of a universal pet peeve, isn’t it? And when you have to make a gazillion trips to bring in all of those (seemingly) millions of bags? It’s the worst. OK, well there are definitely many worse things, but bringing in grocery bags in multiple trips, along with all your other belongings, is still pretty annoying.
So here’s what to do about it!
The Laundry Basket in The Trunk Organizing Trick
The next time you see the big, stackable, utilitarian plastic laundry baskets on sale, make sure you pick a couple up for yourself! Well, if your vehicle is bigger than mine, you may find it useful to pick up more than two, but two is just about all that will fit comfortably in my little trunk.
Keep those laundry baskets in your car trunk or even as a front-seat organizer at all times and they’ll come in handy in more ways that you might realize at first. These baskets are the best kind of roomy cargo organizer, acting as grocery transporters, as well as compartment dividers for all your storage organizer needs. They’re sturdy, reinforced, and waterproof to hold wet laundry, so they’re able to withstand whatever you can put in them, acting as liner trays for your trunk area, and a tidy car seat protector too.
I find this to be a much more simple back seat organizer solution for extra storage compared to a headrest hanging organizer with all the finicky zipper pouches or a drawer style plastic storage unit. If we can just toss things in and go, that means that we’ll actually use it, so these baskets, along with a glove-box are the best way to keep a car well-organized and clutter-free.
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The first and most obvious way is that you’ll save yourself a ton of time and effort when you get home from the grocery store. I know you know exactly what I’m talking about here. Who likes carrying all of those little grocery bags in to the house? It’s a little bit better if you use the larger reusable shopping bags or the grocery caddy style bins, but even then, this is much more effective.
When you’re taking your shopping bags out of the cart and loading them into your trunk, just stick them directly into the laundry baskets! When you go to bring your groceries into the house, you’ll be making so many fewer trips than before when you’re transporting everything into the house. And even though you’ll be carrying a lot of weight, carrying it comfortably in a big laundry basket is actually so much easier than having all of those plastic bag handles cutting into the palm of your hand. It’s funny how that works out, isn’t it?
You can also easily add bungie cord straps with hooks reaching securely across the top of your large storage bins to hold any small items in if you’re worried about things blowing away in the winds as you’re walking into the house.
More car cleaning and storage solutions: How to be One of Those People Who Always Have a Clean Car
Not Just for Groceries or a Car Seat Organizer
But the fun doesn’t stop there! This little trick comes in handy for mall shopping trips, when you don’t usually end up using your own reusable bags, traveling, camping and everyday car organization.
For traveling, these baskets are great for bringing smaller luggage items like coolers, backpacks, and toiletry bags into the hotel room in one shot rather than trying to find another shoulder to hang a bag off of. The extra laundry baskets comes in handy on your way home from your trip too if you need somewhere to put anything you purchased or for dirty laundry.
On a daily basis, these laundry baskets are really helpful to keep you organized for all of your car essentials like your purse, backpacks, and other handbags, wipes, a tissue box, gadgets, and emergency supplies.
For camping, I’ve been known to use laundry baskets as a storage box to organize all of our non-perishable foods, and even our bedding. Basically these baskets are willing to help out whenever you need them, and you’ll probably find yourself figuring out new ways to use them pretty regularly once you have them in your trunk at all times!
This trick has definitely come in handy for me on more than a few occasions. It’s a simple one, but it works, and those are usually my very favorite little tips. Hopefully this will turn out to be useful for you too!
Another essential road trip tip: The Coin in the Freezer Trick
Do you have a trunk organizing trick like this that you love?
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.