We recently posted a link though our social media to some top tips about how to declutter our homes after Christmas.  The three top tips were

  1. One in, two out.
  2. Revaluate your holiday decorations before putting them into storage for next year
  3. Clean out the fridge and pantry.

And when we read it, it got us thinking about our cars!

When we offer car seat checks at local supermarkets and community events, we are guaranteed to hear someone say….

“I apologies for the state of my car!”

“You know what it is like with children, I don’t have time to clean the inside”

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Obviously we aren’t the Cleanliness Police and we aren’t there to tut at the dirt on the inside of your car. However, we may need to tell you that the objects you have in your car could seriously injure your occupants if you have a crash.

So here is the simple science…. If you are travelling at 30mph, and you come to a very quick stop, i.e. you have a crash, the car will stop but the loose items inside will still be travelling at 30mph and the force of these stopping is approximately 30 times their own weight. Therefore your mobile phone is a similar weight to a brick, and this is one of the lightest things you’ll have in the car isn’t it?

So just have a think about what you have in your car.

  • Pram chassis – because it doesn’t fit in the boot
  • Changing bags and handbags
  • Toys
  • Juice bottles and feeder cups
  • Shopping – including bags of potatoes, bottles of cola.
  • Even pets ( clearly not an elephant!)

By having these items loose in your car you could potentially injure a child or adult passenger, who was secured safely in the car with an appropriate child seat or a vehicle seatbelt.

So how about decluttering your car?

Here’s our check list to help

  1. Empty the boot of the unnecessary stuff. (Even I removed our picnic blanket last week, as I didn’t think we’d be using that until the summer?) then you can use that space to store the shopping,
  2. Use the storage compartments in the doors and the glove boxes,
  3. Use the cup holders to store drinks,
  4. Make sure that everything is fastened down in the car and that includes high backed booster seats and cushions when the kids aren’t travelling with you. One very popular high-backed car seat is the equivalent of 6 washing machine loose in a collision!
  5. If your Group 2/3 seat isn’t using ISOFix Encourage your older children to fasten their seat in with the vehicle belt, when they leave the car.
  6. Keep a few of the good old nappy bags in the car, so every now and again you can get the children to empty their sweet and crisp packets into it to keep it tidy, before they get out.

Believe us – Keeping the clutter down to an absolute minimum is a life saver!

Julie Dagnall

Director at Child Seat Safety Ltd