A vehicle rear cargo reminder system having a front door sensor, a rear door sensor, an alerting device and a controller. The front door sensor being configured to detect opening movement and closing movement of a front door. The rear door sensor configured to detect opening movement and closing movement of a rear door. The alerting device is configured to provide an alarm signal. The controller detects a sequence of events via the front door sensor and the rear door sensor. The controller determines whether or not an object might be located beside or on the rear seat of the passenger compartment, and operates the alerting device to provide the alarm signal to the vehicle operator in the absence of detection of conditions of an ignition switch of the vehicle.