Maven Says: Blink...and its done!

When I got my box of Blink products I had a master plan. I'd take a picture of my Mommy-mobile and then I'd spiff it up using my nifty new box of cleaning and organizing stuff and give you before and after shots. Then my mother came to visit and I left her in the Mommy-mobile with the kids for 10 minutes after skating lessons to run into the grocery store for milk and bread. When I came out my carefully preserved mess wasn't such a mess any more and my plan had to be revised. I am a working Mom, with 3 & 6 year old girls and 12 & 18 year old stepsons. We spend a lot of time in the Mommy-Mobile, running to the boys' other house (and they sit in the back where no one looks into the seat back pockets for far, far too long), running the girls to school, skating, church, and daycare, just to name a few. We eat, sort mail, watch DVD's, drink coffee, sneeze, and more or less live in the van so there is no shortage of mess

We didn't have any flying lattes, major roadtrips, or mini-disasters, usually a good thing, a bit of a disappointment though when you've got new stuff to try out. Then, I remembered, the big red stain! Not too long ago we moved oldest daughter's booster seat to the back of the van to accomodate an adult in the middle seats. When we moved the booster we found a red mark on the seat and all over the back of the booster. My lame attempts thus far yielded no results.

BEFORE PICTURES

I decided that the Mess Lifters, stain removers were the best ammunition for this particular job. I pulled out the booster and gave it a shot. The stain on the car seat came right off (I will admit they were stain treated 3 years ago when we bought the van). I was surprised, I thought it would take at least a little muscle or leave a bit of a stain but nope, all gone! Then I tackled the booster seat. It took a little more muscle, mainly because there was a LOT more stain. My best guess is red marker that had soaked into the fabric cover. It took two wipes but it got most, if not all of the stain. Certainly enough to keep it from turning my car seat red again!

AFTER PICTURES

Most of the packages come with neat, clips that let you easily store them in the map pocket on the back of your seat. I wasn't too keen on leaving the stain removers or smudge cleaner where little hands were likely to find them but it was perfect for putting the Trash Tossers where I'd use them most. I love the concept of small, garbage bags with a draw string to clean up the debris of a day in the car with the kids. Where were these things when I had kids in diapers?I giggled a little when I read that there was Smudge Cleaners, fingerprint remover. Really, removing finger prints or smudges were the least of my problems, icky sticky week old latte is much more my speed. I did toss the smudge cleaner into the under seat storage area in my van though, its the perfect thing to clean off the dash board or front windshield when I'm sitting in the parking lot at school or waiting in a long drive-up line and with it stashed under the front seat-I can get to it easily.

The Tidy Totes are lime green mesh bags that spoke to me when I pulled them out of the box---oh, a way to organize the stuff in the van pockets. Alas, we haven't been on any trips so I haven't used them other than to put the headphones and remote for the DVD together, in one place, hoping that we could avoid stepping on them, yet again. My one concern is they do seem a bit thin so I'm not sure how they'll deal with being stuffed full of girly toys on long car trips. They should be fine for markers and coloring books though.

I can pretty safely say I wouldn't have picked up the whole suite of products on my first trip out to the store but the Trash Tossers and Stain Lifters are definitely here to stay. The verdict is still out on the other products but I am itching to use them on our trip back from visiting my parents at Easter, I'll update you and know what icky, sticky messes we manage to confront! The products themselves and the packaging are well thought out. They store conveniently--either hanging off the map pocket or in my van neatly tucked away in the under seat drawer. Its a HUGE improvement over my drawer full of recycled grocery bags and towels for unexpected spills. Although targeted at the Mom crowd, I can definitely see them crossing over, my father would love the Smudge Cleaners, he is a bit of a car perfectionist, obviously NOT a trait I inherited!

Although, it may not be what they had in mind for tiding up the car, I love the fact that my underseat drawer went from this...............................To this:

If you have a particularly messy vehicle (and a really cute kid or two won't hurt), don't miss out on your chance to enter the MessMaker contest sponsored by Blink...and its done. The contest runs through April 15!