Are You A Car Slob?

Do you or somebody you know drive a junk-filled car, a mess on wheels? Do you drive the ultimate mess on wheels? If you can grow potatoes on the floor board of your auto, you may be a car slob.

Open the door and books, papers, soda cans, parking tickets, fast-food wrappers and other assorted articles spill out. s

Stuff crammed in, covering the floor, filling the back seat, spilling into the front and piling up to the windows. It's a jumbled mess of wrappers, pop cans, coffee cups, papers, tools, banana peels, apple cores, books, boots, bats, balls, uniforms, clean clothes, dirty clothes, unmatched shoes, laptop computers, fast-food bags and candy bars.

It's everything but the kitchen sink - although we learned that at least one car carries a wash basin; another a toilet plunger.

Drivers of these rolling garbage cans defend themselves, explaining that they work out of their car, are too busy or have lots of kid activities. Or, they just might need it, as in the case of the retired archaeologist who drags along the shovels, tent, all the tools of the trade - just in case.

But a littered car doesn't mean clean it or no-sale.

Can all this disorder actually be a disorder? One special education specialist thinks so. She suspects that drivers have undiagnosed Attention Deficit/Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder (AD/ADHD). She notes that many AD/ADHD students have major problems with organization.

But we should be careful about jumping to conclusions. Some drivers of junk-filled cars are fastidiously clean and orderly in their homes, at school or on the job.

Nor it is just another form of hoarding, behavior that produces junk houses where tunnels cut through mounds of clutter. According to Dr. Suck Won Kim, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, hoarding is often associated with impulse control disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorders, and they may not be behind the junk-filled cars. There are many reasons why they do what they do, he said.

No matter the reason, however, operating a cluttermobile has some real drawbacks.

All that junk adds weight, and that affects fuel economy, especially in town, with its stop-and-go driving. The heavier a car is, the more force or torque is needed to get it going again once it's stopped. And, in turn, it takes more effort to stop a moving junk car. The brakes won't last as long.

Inefficient as it is, it's not illegal to drive a clutter-filled vehicle--at least, until the mess is high enough to interfere with seeing out the windows.

More important, however, is safety. The stuff inside cars can become "weapons" in a crash, and not just in a roll-over or a serious collision. Hitting something at 30 miles per hour might stop your car, but it doesn't stop all the stuff inside from flying around. If anything strikes an occupant, it can severely injure and possibly kill them.

In addition, when the airbag deploys, it comes out at about 200 miles per hour. Any object in its way is ejected at nearly the same speed, with the same consequences, he added.

So are there any benefits to driving a mess on wheels? At the very least, if your car breaks down on a long-distance drive across the lonely prairie, the extra clothes, old newspapers and uneaten lunches might sustain a person. Even if it's just for the time needed to dig out the cell phone.