Our minivan has been past due for a cleaning for some time now, especially since the chicken incident. This afternoon, with the sun finally shining, I decided to do a thorough cleaning and then organize the unruly van.

The experience was not unlike the clown car at the circus with a seemingly never ending line of stuff coming out.

I suggested to the kids once everything was out of the van, that they do an inventory of what we had while I vacuumed the interior.

Here's the list:

3 pairs rollerblades, 3 pairs elbow and knee pads, 2 helmets, 3 pairs of wrist guards, 4 disc golf discs, 2 pairs ballet shoes, 2 pairs of lyric dance shoes, 3 pairs of tap shoes (I tap too), 1 pair flip flops, 1 pair of sneakers, 2 sand buckets, 6 plastic rings, 3 jump ropes, 1 hacky sack, 1 rubber ball, 2 plastic horses, 5 containers of hand wipes, 3 umbrellas, 2 fleece sweaters, 4 pairs of winter gloves, 1 Pokeno game, innumerable hair elastics (a hazard of girls), 5 issues of National Geographic Kids magazine, 2 "treasure" rocks, 4 AA batteries with recharger, a sketch book, a box of pencils and markers, plastic container with a change of clothes for each of the kids (socks, underwear, pants, shirt, sweater), jumper cables, jug of oil, jug of windshield fluid, jug of coolant, a snack box filled with crackers and gum, 2 unopened bottles of water, several small geocache toys, CD case with audio book, a mystery paperback and my backpack full of other stuff. And this didn't count the wrappers, half-empty water bottles and other trash we removed.

It's good to be prepared when you have kids but we are way over the top - embarrassingly so. I truly had no idea we had so much junk in there. And a few things - like the Pokeno game - I thought we had lost somewhere because I hadn't been able to find it in months.

I tried to sort through everything and repack the van with the necessities - which was still a lot of stuff - but the kids kept chiming in with their opinions.

"What if we want to jump rope and we don't have one with us?"

"We might need those plastic rings for a game."

"I like my magazines in the car so I can read them when we go places."

"We need our golf discs for when we drive by the course and want to play. And I love rollerblading so we have to keep them in the car in case we find a place to skate this week."

"Well, we can put away the bags with our dance shoes after class tonight."

I had to shoo them away so I could finish the job I started and they found a puddle to play in.

I had the van looking much improved and called to the kids to get in so we wouldn't be late for their ballet class. They ran over and I immediately realized once again why I don't clean the van much.

By my estimation, it was clean for about 60 seconds.

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