Do a 15-minute sweep before the tow truck arrives. Remove your garage-door remote, spare house keys, toll transponder, parking permits, disability placards, insurance card, registration, glovebox papers, and all personal items. Check the center console, visors, under seats, trunk, and spare-tire well. Factory-reset the infotainment system, including Bluetooth pairings, HomeLink, and any saved home address. Leave the keys and the signed-over title with the car.
Your pre-pickup checklist
Remove security items first
Start with anything that opens a door or identifies where you live. Take out the garage-door remote, gate fob, building access card, spare house keys, mailbox keys, storage-unit keys, and any key tags with an address. Check the visor, console tray, cupholders, door pockets, and key ring. If a remote is built into a visor button, clear it during the electronics reset step.
Pull billing devices
Remove the toll transponder, parking payment tag, fuel card, fleet card, or any device tied to a paid account. Then sign in to the toll or parking account and remove this vehicle from the account. Do both steps. A loose tag can still create charges if it travels, and an active plate or vehicle profile may still be billable.
Clear glovebox documents
Take the insurance card, registration, service receipts, warranty papers, loan papers, roadside cards, and any documents with your name, address, policy number, or account number. Remove parking permits, work permits, school permits, and disability placards. Keep only what you need for the donation transfer outside the car until the final leave-with-car step.
Sweep cabin and trunk
Work front to back. Check under the seats, between seat cushions, seat-back pockets, door pockets, floor mats, visors, center console, glovebox, cargo pockets, trunk, and spare-tire well. Look for cash, sunglasses, tools, chargers, medications, documents, garage keys, personal photos, and children’s items. Open every small compartment, even if you rarely use it.
Wipe stored electronics
Factory-reset the infotainment system if the vehicle allows it. Delete Bluetooth pairings, call logs, contacts, navigation history, saved home and work addresses, garage-door settings, and HomeLink buttons. If the reset menu is hard to find, check the owner’s manual or remove paired devices one by one. Also log out of any connected app profile.
Remove optional add-ons
You may remove personal aftermarket items such as a dash cam, phone mount, upgraded stereo faceplate, portable GPS, removable seat covers, or child seats. Keep the vehicle intact and as described when you scheduled the donation. Do not remove parts that make the car incomplete, unsafe to load, or materially different from what you reported.
Leave title and keys
When your sweep is done, leave the keys and the signed-over title with the car as instructed. Put them where the tow operator can receive them, but do not hide them under a mat or in an unsecured public spot. If there is more than one key or remote needed to move the vehicle, leave those too.
Items handled outside this sweep
This checklist is for personal, valuable, billable, and digital items inside the vehicle. Keep your donation paperwork separate until the car is ready to go, then place the signed-over title with the keys. Vehicle paperwork can vary by ownership, title status, and vehicle type, so check the Idaho DMV if anything on your title or donor record does not match your situation. License plates: see our separate guide License Plates After Donating a Car. Release of liability: see our separate guide Release of Liability After Donating a Car.
Common questions
Can I leave trash or old items in the car?
Remove anything you can. A few ordinary items may not stop a donation, but the safest habit is to clear the vehicle completely. Do not leave medications, personal records, tools, electronics, cash, firearms, keys, or anything you may want later. Once the vehicle leaves, recovery may not be possible.
Should I cancel insurance before pickup?
Do not rely on this checklist as insurance advice. Remove the insurance card from the glovebox, then contact your insurance company about when to change or cancel coverage. Some donors wait until the vehicle has been picked up and the transfer paperwork is complete. Your insurer can tell you what applies to your policy.
What if I cannot factory-reset the screen?
Delete what you can. Start with paired phones, contacts, call history, navigation destinations, saved home address, garage-door buttons, and app profiles. If the battery is dead or the screen will not power on, remove any removable devices and write down what you could not clear for your records.
More donation prep guides
A clean sweep protects your privacy and keeps billable devices from traveling with the vehicle. Set aside 15 minutes, remove personal items, wipe stored data, and leave the keys and signed-over title with the car. Your donation through Idaho Wheels Forward benefits Heritage for the Blind (EIN 58-2164446). When the checklist is complete, you are ready for pickup.