How to make a DIY drink transporter for your car to avoid spills
Our latest easy-to-assemble car hack not only provides a stable surface for your bevvies to rest in, but it also catches drips.Even if you only use half the tray, you can place takeaway food bags in the other half and carry it all together like the champion you always knew you were. Everyone wins!
Fetching coffees for co-workers, hydrating a whole sports team or catering for a kids party? This hack will come in handy. If you’ve ever had a cardboard drink tray tip over in the back seat, you know why. Spilled lattes are worth crying over. Milk that’s soaked into carpet or upholstery develops an unholy sour aroma not dissimilar to a full fridge after a two-week holiday, and soda… that’s just sticky.
The makings of your future team-saver
Here’s what you’ll need:
- laundry basket or storage tub (we rolled with the tub, admittedly only because our newly acquired XL muffin pan didn’t fit into our laundry basket. By mere millimetres. But our fallback works perfectly, so it’s smiles and beverages all round)
- large muffin tray (12 muffs)
- pool noodle
- stanley knife
- glue (the kind that’s designed specifically for plastics. Fun fact: regular superglue shouldn’t be used with polyethylene, which is what pool noodles are made from)
- texta
- ruler
Step 1
Take your pool noodle out to your car and put it on the front passenger seat. Butt one end of the noodle against one vertical side-support, and then mark the noodle in line with this same point on the other side of the seat. The aim is to cut a length of noodle that will nestle neatly into the car seat’s base, to level your tub. Once marked, slice your noodle.
Step 2
Hold your noodle section against a bottom corner of your tub at the point where the tub’s edge and the noodle’s internal curve meet. You want the edge of the tub and the noodle’s inner curve to form what is basically a right angle with a rounded corner. Mark the noodle where its sides and the tub touch.
Step 3
Rule straight lines from your marked points along the side of the noodle, and then cut following these lines. Remove the cut-out section from the noodle and test your angles. If you didn’t mark and cut your noodle perfectly, it won’t sit flush on the tub’s edge. We made this mistake, but it’s no biggie – just mark it again and cut away at your interior angles until the noodle fits well, or give it a trim.
Step 4
Glue the carved noodle piece to the centre one of the tub’s two long sides.
Step 5
It’s difficult to lower a muffin tray full of drinks into a basket, especially if it’s a close fit. To avoid potential embarrassment, use a tub that’s a bit longer than your muffin tray so that you have enough room to fit your hands in at the sides, but also so that it’s a neat fit width-wise. Otherwise you’ll need to carry the whole tub into Macca’s instead of just the muffin tray, which is hella conspicuous. But hey, own it either way. You’ll have the last laugh or at least be able to enjoy a sense of smug self-satisfaction while everyone else with large drink orders struggles to juggle. Ha!
Step 6
Put your tub on the front passenger seat, noodle facing backwards, and make sure it’s snugged in to the rear of the seat. Now go forth and quench some thirsts.
Bonus points for handing your muffin tray through the drive-through window.
Related: Drip-catching coaster for your car
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