The scene is the same in most cars: an umbrella in the backseat, library books in the glove compartment and a set of golf clubs in the trunk. Your car becomes an extended part of your life, accumulating more clutter everyday. It’s no surprise – you spend much of the day on the road as you commute to work, chauffeur the kids to after-school activities and shuttle around town doing errands.

That’s why it’s important to keep your car organized and ready for all your errands and outings. Start by keeping a supply of trash bags in the car to temporarily store food, junk mail or other papers you don’t need. As soon as you get home, discard the trash and bring in mail, purchases or anything else you won’t need stored in the car.

Stash items you use on every trip like maps or an umbrella in a plastic organizer bin or in compartmentalized seat-back organizers. Replace items like tissues as they run out so you’ll always have what you need. Use a crate or laundry basket to store groceries, dry cleaning, library books or video-store rentals for the trip home. Visor and glove compartment areas may be small, but specialized organizers can hold your pens, paper, sunglasses and even spare change.

Make the most of your time in traffic or while waiting for soccer practice to end with a mobile office of sorts. Carry folders with work-related reading, bills, birthday cards, permission slips or other papers. Just be sure to separate work and personal items so that your child won’t accidentally give his teacher your quarterly report, and so you won’t end up handing your big client a permission slip to visit the museum.