Prevent Spills During Your Next Road Trip With This Kitchen Staple

Road trips are fun. Road trips are ever-exciting. But road trips are also inherently messy. Everybody involved in the trip is cooped up inside a cramped vehicle for hours — or even days — at a time, so messes are inevitable. Factor in kids, and then you can probably expect your car to resemble the inside of a garbage bin at the end of the trip. Unfortunately, parents know that's not even an exaggeration. As much as you love your tiny tots, there's no denying that they are innately talented at conjuring rather, erm, creative messes.

From cookie crumbs on the floor to cereal grains in between the seats to juice spills and ketchup staining the upholstery, you can expect all sorts of messes in your car's interior when you're on a road trip, regardless of whether or not you enforce strict rules to your passengers. After all, it's kind of unreasonable to ask them not to eat or drink in the middle of a cross-country adventure. What you can do, however, is make beverage containers spill-proof to at least minimize some of the mess. It won't stop someone from accidentally dropping a baloney sandwich on the carpets, but it can save you from having to zap out soda stains from the seats. You can easily do this by using trusty 'ol cling wrap.

You know how cling wrap is helpful in making your toiletries virtually slosh-proof, thereby preventing them from spilling inside your luggage? You can apply the same trick with beverage cups you use on your road trips. If you don't have a travel mug for everyone in the car, you can make just about any container spill-proof by wrapping the cling wrap around the opening to seal it, and then slotting a straw in the middle for easy sipping. This helps a great deal in avoiding leaks, so you have one less cleanup problem to think about when the trip is over.

This hack, which the hospitality industry apparently refers to as "hotel wrapping" or "banquet wrapping," can also work with any food container you have with you that you don't feel confident about, like perhaps the tub you used for storing your homemade sandwich spread, or the plastic bowl of stew you were hoping to share with everyone when you reach your destination. With bigger containers, though, it's worth wrapping multiple times over, just to ensure that whatever's inside is a) incredibly secure, and b) won't emit any funky smells down the road (literally). On the flip side, with beverage cups, avoid adding many layers, as you may have a hard time puncturing it with a straw. You'll likely throw the cup away in a few hours, anyway.