A Gift from the Heart

As winter approaches faster than most of want, there is a perfect gift idea for that hard to buy for person: a survival kit for the car. All encased in a duffle bag, you can include:

  • two large garbage bags per person that can be used as a cover and to keep heat in
  • candles
  • first aid kit
  • flashing road beacon
  • blanket
  • flashlight
  • Bic lighter
  • spare batteries
  • extra phone charger
  • orange reflective flag to put on the antenna
  • small camp shovel, rain poncho, and duct tape

There are also some people who include even more items and include a solar radio, a full-bug out bag, as well as waterproof hunter gear including sub zero boots, coat, mens hats and gloves. It is almost always better to be safe than sorry. And if you have ever been unfortunate enough to get stuck in a sub-zero snow storm and you are wearing a suit dress, heels, and light leather coat then you know the importance of having t Read More

You Might Be Surprised By How Dirty Your Car Or Truck Actually Is

Ultra plush

We love our cars. We have loved them for over 100 years. From the big, family cars to the zippy little roadsters, America has had a love affair with cars. The same could be said of trucks both big and small. We deck our cars out, giving them beautifully molded carpet and even going so far as fixing up the trunks with things like a lavish cardboard trunk mat.
Accessories like floor mats and trunk mats as well as custom carpets might seem like just the thing to make your car or truck the perfect road palace, but the fact is, cars and trucks tend to be the dirtiest places you spend most of your time in. The GAP Enviromicrobial Services recently conducted a study and found that the car is consistently dirtier than the home. It has 17,000 times more bacteria than a home, making it more likely for you to become ill as a result of your daily driving than your dirty kitchen floors.
Many people use their cars for all kinds of reasons. They drop their children off at activities. They go out to dinner. They do their household shopping. Take the shopping, for example. Most shoppers bring their bags to the car and put them into the trunk before driving home. What they are not aware of is the fact that many trunks are the filthiest place in the car. Many don’t have a cardboard trunk mat to keep the floors clean. Aston University in Birmingham found that the trunk of a car contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 850 different types of bacteria.

Our cars are not what we should be thinking of when we think of healthy air quality. The fact is, your car can be anywhere from two to ten times more polluted than the air outside on the freeway. Keeping your windows rolled up so that you don’t have to breathe the polluted air might actually be backfiring on you.

The best thing to do is make sure you’ve set your car up to be as clean as possible. If your car’s carpeting hasn’t been changed in 10 years or more, maybe it’s about time to pick out something new. You’ll breathe more easily and you might even be able to get the color you wished it had in the first place. Take care of the inside of your vehicle but don’t neglect the trunk. Put down a new cardboard trunk mat and cut down on the bacteria above the spare tire.

We spend a great deal of time in our cars and trucks. The median number of minutes we spend driving each day is 60, while the average number of minutes an American spends in the is 87 every day. If you’re going to spend that much time in your car, why not keep it as clean as you can?