Go Ask Dad: Adventures in cleaning the minivan
It’s that time of year when we load the minivan and travel to stay with extended family. Hence, it’s also time to clean out said minivan. Truth be told, this should happen more frequently throughout the year. I have plenty of excuses, but my wife is tired of all them, so I’ll spare you as well.
The point is that I began by removing all the items that had accumulated on the floor. I was pleased to discover not one but two umbrellas, which I had assumed I had lost. Another notable find was the long-overdue library book. And I unearthed a fully sharpened pencil that I used to write this column on the inside flap of that library book, since I had already paid to replace it.
But the vast majority of trash was shoved into a big plastic bag. You don’t have to be a forensic scientist to figure out that my children’s diet consists of cereal bars and lollipops, or that we have had our share of runny noses. When I was finally finished, you would have deduced that our minivan had been toilet papered.
Now, the fun part – vacuuming. I’m serious! We recently purchased a new vacuum that, lo and behold, actually works! How satisfying to watch the cracker crumbs and dust bunnies sucked up the tube. Emptying the vacuum, I saw that I had collected enough dog hair for a second dog or to knit our current house wolf a lovely sweater. But I had other things to do, like spray off the rubber floor mats.
My wife pitched in as well, wiping the windows and dashboards. While the finished product was not up to the standards of a professional car detailer, she and I smiled with satisfaction. Onward! May our minivan remain relatively tidy until the next road trip. And let me know if you’d like a dog-hair sweater for the holidays.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of Little Big Moments, a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems. Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
