I’ll admit it: our car was a complete mess. Sharing it with my husband, Silas, who works as a carpenter, meant it always smelled of sawdust and hard work.
The floor was a disaster zone of dirt from his work boots, crumpled takeout bags, dusty tools, and the occasional stray nail or bolt! Whenever I tried to tidy it, our son, Owen, said something that flipped our world upside down.
While Silas wrecked the front of our old car, the backseat was Owen’s territory. It was a wild pile of snapped crayons, half-eaten chips, and sticky juice packs!
Between driving our five-year-old to kindergarten, doing errands, and visiting my mom — who’d been struggling with her health — keeping the car clean felt impossible. It was a fight I kept losing, but giving up wasn’t an option since I needed the car too.
But this Saturday morning was different. Silas’s coworker, Nate, offered to drive him to an early job, giving me a rare bit of free time and full access to the car. I looked at the chaos that was our vehicle and decided it was time to battle the mess.
