Pepsi Refresh: Clean a Stranger’s (or Loved One) Car
I was in my room the other day pondering what kind of good deed I could do this week for my own personal Pepsi Refresh challenge. For some reason I couldn’t think of anything (pretty bad, huh?). After about an hour, I gave up, pushed my computer aside, and decided to go to the park to walk my dog. I geared up (it’s winter here, so it’s quite an event), grabbed the leash and pup, and walked out to my car. I came around to the driver’s side and to my dismay found hot sauce sprayed on it! What the heck?!
Since I had just spent the last hour trying to figure out what I should do to help my community, I immediately thought “Sheesh, some people around here obviously don’t care about the others around them.” I mean, really…hot sauce??
Anyway (you can see I’m still a little perturbed about the incident), there is one good thing that actually came out of me finding this vandalism – an idea for helping my community! Not only do cars get dirty from hot sauce being sprayed onto them, but also from dirt, salt (to rid the roads of ice), and just general use. I personally find it a hassle to wash my car and usually end up paying $5 for a stinkin’ carwash! I figure at least some of you share my sentiments so I thought “Hey! Why don’t I wash my neighbor’s car for them?”
As I started my car, I became pretty excited I had figured out my good deed for the week until it hit me. Duh…it’s winter. I’m not saying you can’t wash your car in the winter, but where I live, it gets cold. Reeeaaalllly cold. And snowy. And icy. …And you should see my point by now: not exactly the best time to be standing outside spraying cold water and suds everywhere.
Darnit! My plan was ruined until I thought beyond. I’ve got it! I’ll clean the INSIDE of a car! Unfortunately, this wouldn’t exactly work with a neighbor’s car. First, I like to be discrete about my “acts of kindness” and secondly, most people would probably find that a little intrusive. So I opted that my car-cleaning deed would have to be for a close friend or family member.
Since I live with my boyfriend, he became my victim. While he sat in the living room playing videogames, I told him I was going to clean my car, in which he responded with “Thank God!” (*Secret time* I may have cleaned his car, but my car is a piece of work!) Little did he know that I had really cleaned his mildly-messy car until we were leaving later on that day. At first I’m not sure he noticed. He made a sort of confused look, took a whiff (I went all out, with interior polish, Windex, and vacuum), and asked “Did you say you cleaned your car or mine?”
So, I couldn’t keep my good deed secret this week, but I did get a big hug!
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We were so inspired by the Pepsi Refresh project reallocating their marketing money to go toward the greater good that we decided to do our own small part in helping out our communities. Each week we will be posting blogs on ways that we have contributed to bettering the communities we live in. The MyRentalPad team hopes you are inspired to make a difference and join us!
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