Best Ways to Keep Your Car Clean
Keeping your car clean can be a challenge. Eating, hoarding, and a lack of organization can leave your car an undesirable place to be. The situation can be amplified if you have children or like to use your car as storage. Car cleaning can be as simple as reducing clutter.
How to Clean Your Car
The best way is to take everything out. Then separate everything using garbage bags; one for storage at home, one for things to throw away, and one for what will stay in your car.
Make sure you check everything—the glove compartment, trunk, the center console, under the seats, and organizers behind seats. Toys, clothes, change, and paperwork should be stored in your house. Save for a tote bag, car emergency kit, winter supplies like small shovels and deicers, a first aid kit, and car-relevant paperwork, there shouldn’t be much else.
These cleaning tips should also help keep your car fresh and clean:
- Vacuum clean the dashboard, console, and glove compartment.
- Use a window cleaner for all interior glass surfaces, especially to clean fingerprints.
- With a damp cloth, wipe window buttons, handles, and other common touchpoints.
- A thin object, such as a butter knife (wrapped in cloth), can be used to remove items from cracks.
Ban Eating in the Car
It is nearly impossible to avoid dropping crumbs or spilling drinks in a moving car. Instead of drive-thru pit stops, take a break and sit down at a restaurant or picnic area. It’s safer and there’s less to clean up later. For long drives, choose dry, non-sticky snacks and drink water that’s easier to wipe dry.
Be Prepared for Emergencies
Your emergency kit should include an old towel to soak up spills or kid/pet accidents. Use some baking soda on a set spill or source of odor. It can then be vacuumed up after a few hours. The warmth inside a car causes spills to set quickly, so clean up as soon as possible.
Cleaning Tips
There are many simple, and affordable, cleaning implements to use in your car.
- Socks: A sock over a cup, sprayed with an all-purpose cleaner, can freshen up a cupholder; then place silicone baking cups inside to catch crumbs.
- Swiffer duster: Wipe down the dash the instant you see any dust, so it stays clean and fresh.
- Mini expanding files: Keep all your car papers organized, so there’s no need to sort through the glove compartment.
- Headrest hooks: Hold purses and shopping bags, so you don’t have a mess at every sharp turn.
- Covers: For seat/console gaps so snacks or phones can’t fall through. Waterproof covers in back can protect upholstery when a dog is riding along.
- Squeegee: Spritzed with water, it can effectively clean pet hair off upholstery.
- Detail brush: To clean tiny crumbs and debris from hard-to-reach seat seams.
For leather seats and surfaces, mix one-part Woolite to 10-parts water in a spray bottle. This works for seats, steering wheels, and anywhere else there’s leather. On the outside, clean windshield wipers by soaking a paper towel in rubbing alcohol to avoid glass streaks.
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