Some days, there’s not a single quiet place in the house. No matter where you go, there’s a TV on, or someone on the phone, or a lawnmower running. The only quiet place to attend that important Zoom meeting... is the car.

When most of America shut down, I started hearing about all the things people were using their cars for. The office was a pretty low-tier one in terms of creativity. When there’s work to be done and the kids are running wild at home, defecting to the car for an hour to take a call makes the most sense.

As things have dragged on, though, I’ve seen people turning to their cars for increasingly more diverse things. One friend takes his elementary-school-aged kids out to the minivan to watch movies on the tiny TVs embedded in the seat backs while his wife takes an important call in their apartment. Apparently there’s novelty in watching Toy Story for the 200th time but on a much smaller screen that you can’t bring inside.

During the warmer months, another friend outfitted the back of her SUV as a portable nursery. She’d strap her month-old kiddo into the carseat, drive to a secluded park somewhere, and enjoy nature with her baby while knowing she had basically built a changing table, playpen, and nap spot in the trunk (which, of course, she kept open).

My mom really wanted to order food from a particular restaurant that she’d never been to but was afraid would close before she ever got a chance to try their food. They were out in the middle of nowhere, so she set up a nice little picnic area in the trunk of her Armada, ordered the food for pickup, and ate it while it was hot in the back of her SUV.

I have a few pals that normally get together for Friendsgiving but who are all outside one another’s bubbles. They’re all getting together in the parking lot of an old mall and each having a meal in the trunks of their cars so that they’re all hanging out but still technically socially distanced.

But I bet that’s only scratching the surface. How have you been using your cars to keep yourselves sane during this pandemic?