Quick and Easy Tips to Clean the Car
I don’t live in the car, never have, never will. I also never really allowed my children to eat in the car, except on road trips, which made it easier to keep the car clean. Not eating in the car is something that has worked for me and my family, but instead of having crumbs in my car, I have receipts so it cancels out right? Anyways, after I’ve turned into the crazy receipt lady, I usually determine it’s time to clean the car and I have some quick and easy tips for you.
5 Minute Tips to Clean the Car
Sometimes five minutes is all I have to clean the car before I embarrass myself when I’m giving someone a ride. That’s when I usually
- Grab a grocery bag and clear out the trash
- Take a damp cloth (water) and wipe away visible grime
I don’t always do all three, but getting the trash out will make a huge difference. And if your cup holders look nasty or you forgot to get the stuff out of those, simply close it to hid the mess. My next favorite thing to do is to wipe away the dust on the console and near the door handles. Those two areas always see the most grime and need a good wipe down every one in a while anyways.
10-25 Minutes to Clean the Car
In addition to my five minute tips to clean the car, if you have just a bit more time, you can do more to detail your car like:
- Vacuum the floor, the big chunks
- Quick vacuum of the seats
- Wipe down the seats
*The level of clean you will get and how quickly it gets done is up to you. I can do a quick surface clean on most of these tips in about 15 minutes which will dramatically improve the appearance, but leave enough that I still need to deep clean the car later.*
Someone I know likes to collect empty water bottles on the floor of the car, just in case we have a zombie apocalypse and need to stop to fill them up in a river. Not really, but there’s still and unhealthy attachment to them; get rid of the water bottles so there’s nothing kicking around anyone’s feet.
When you vacuum the floors of your car, move the front seats all of the way up like in the picture above, so you easily get all the way under the seat. This is by far my favorite tip because I can also get my vacuum nozzle into the pits of despair and reclaim the money or pens I’ve dropped down there. For your limited time, focus on getting the big chunks off of the floor and seats.
Pick up any nasty goo on your seats with a lightly damp cloth (water), or with an appropriate leather cleaner. This will also pick up some of the stubborn dust the vacuum left behind.
25-50 Minutes to Clean the Car
This is where you can really detail your care and make it as good as new. In addition to everything else mentioned, try to:
- Remove floor mats to vacuum and spot clean
- Wipe down rubber seals
- Detail high and low traffic areas
When I’m in a hurry and want to do a quick vacuuming, I don’t remove the floor mats and usually miss some crumbs. On days that I detail the car, I remove them, thoroughly vacuum, and treat problem areas. If your car mats are very dirty, take them to the car wash and power wash them clean with the hand sprayers; just be sure to rinse all of the soap out with plain water.
What rubber seals? The ones that keep the wind out on the doors; those never get cleaned unless you do it or you have your car professionally detailed.
Use a soft cloth and water to remove any dirt and grime lurking on and around the seal. I like to see, even when the door is opened, that all surfaces are clean. Cleaning the car door seal can help make your car smell cleaner as it can help remove some lurking odors.
Detailing the inside of the car is tedious, but well worth it. I like to use pre-moistened cleaning cloths for this part, but you can also use a damped cleaning rag too. Use your fingernails, an old credit card, or a toothbrush to clean the seams in the seats, near the gearshift, cup holders, and door handles. Taking the extra time to remove micro dirt and dust from these areas will really make your car feel new again. I also recommend to take the time to disinfect the plastic parts of the dash, door, and seat belt to make your car healthier too.
Those crumbs in the seats drive me insane, however, the upholstery attachment on your vacuum should be able to pick up most of those, if not, use a toothbrush to get them out.
After doing all of these tips and tricks to clean the car, it feels like new again and nothing is better than rocking out in a clean car.
Happy Cleaning!
These are great tips. We just sold a car. In our cup holders something spilled a long time ago and turned into cement. I had to use baking soda and vinegar to get it out. It was gross but most of it came out much more easily. Following you on pinterest. 🙂
Thanks! I’ve been in that same situation and I think I poured some soapy water in the holder to clean it out.
Hair conditioner for shine. Wash your car with a hair conditioner containing lanolin. You’ll become a believer when you see the freshly waxed look, and when you find that the surface will repel rain.
I have never heard that before, but it totally makes sense.
Oh my goodness a woman’s work is never done! My whole house is a mess right now so I just wntaed to watch an inspirational vid to get me going! This has really helped! I’d like to show this to all of the people that claim being a mother/housewife is an easy ride and not a proper job!!! Some people really dont seem realize how hard it can be to keep a home clean and tidy! Would have been nice to see picks of the house finished.
Thanks for the tips! I am gonna clean my car the coming weekend. My kids ate some chips and sweet stuff inside and the car is in a horrible situation.
Thanks for sharing your tips,i trust my friends not do leave my car dirty and they don’t. We all eat on it and drink and we don’t get it dirty. As long as it keeps going like this then there is no problem.
I’m glad you mentioned removing the mats as one of the biggest steps to cleaning your car thoroughly. I feel like we have all had those days in a hurry where we just vacuum and don’t actually take them out, but I imagine that doing that too often may cause them to wear out faster due to the residue that is left. I would love to get some custom mats made for my vehicle, but if I do I will definitely have to be better about my cleaning habits!
The car cleaning is not a task which always needs a professional touch. Because by following the right tactics you can wash your vehicle effortlessly, and keep your speed machine looking brand new. Yes, a perfect cleansing agent makes the difference in the overall result, but with the right approach, an inexpensive dish-washing liquid can also effectively clean the vehicle. Here, in the above blog, you have suggested some tremendous car cleaning tips. I would like to tell that apart from following the above cleaning techniques, you can use shampoo, handheld vacuum for the purpose of cleaning. Thus, by avoiding washing under direct sunlight, washing with the equitable suds, plunking the finish and polishing the finish, you can get maximum benefit out of your vehicle cleaning.
This is a great article on how to clean your car.
Amazing informative resourse on easy car clean tips. All the points are useful. I use some of cleaning spry for easy take :p
BTW, Many many thanks for your great stuff!
Regards
Adam Smith
It doesn’t include the cost of hiring a plumber to fix the block in your line that caused the sewer backup in the first place. And it doesn’t include the costs of replacing any items that were removed during the cleanup process. When raw sewage touches porous surfaces, in almost all instances those surfaces will need to be removed and thrown away.
Car vacuum is a great addition to your cleaning regimen because it has one singular purpose – clean your car thoroughly, in the shortest time possible, and with minimum input on your part. No car-cleaning tool can perform that task better than a car vacuum cleaner.
Secondly, a car vacuum cleaner is well adapted to clean a car, you can use it to take care of virtually all form of usual dirt that collects in cars, even in the hard to reach areas. Such that the interior of your car evokes that brand new, exquisite, pristine feel many years after purchase simply because you used the right tool for negligible amount of time to maintain your car interior.
If you or any other member of your family has then you need an effective tool that would get rid of invisible allergens in addition to getting rid of visible dirt.
If you don’t use water, your car will never be clean. It’s not a matter of professionalism, it is a matter of getting your car clean. Sponge sounds like a good plan, use some detergent too.
Hey! Those tips were very helpful. Also, you can fix the little scratches and dents with nail paint of the same color works very fine.