Did you know that the average person spends over four years of their life inside their car? Since we spend so much time in our car, taking care of its interior is as important as regular maintenance. Whether it’s dust and dirt getting inside your A/C system, or mounds of clutter causing stress and confusion, a messy interior can negatively impact your personal well-being. Thankfully, you can easily keep the interior of their vehicle clean for years to come using a few simple cleaning tricks and products.
Basic Tips and Tricks for a Cleaner Car
Eating fast food inside your car is one of the quickest ways to create clutter. The bags, the cups, the grease and the crumbs create an unpleasant and unhealthy mess. By skipping out on the drive-thru, you can drastically cut down on the amount of trash that enters your car, not to mention the amount of money flying out of your wallet!
Even if you abstain from eating in your car, keeping junk out altogether is still a tall order. Stop potential messes by keeping a small trash bag in the car at all times. Simply empty it whenever you stop to get gas.
How to Clean the Interior of Your Car
If the inside of your car has gotten a bit out of hand, it’s worth investing a few hours to thoroughly clean out your car. Getting rid of trash and clutter has a refreshing effect. It will motivate you to keep your car clean for longer periods of time. Here are some cleaning techniques you’ll need to know to get the job done:
- Vacuum the inside. Before you start any detailing, make sure you’ve vacuumed up any leftover clutter and debris. Use the professional grade vacuums at a nearby carwash or a small to mid-sized hand vacuum cleaner to get the job done quickly and effectively.
- Get gunk off the floor mats. After you’ve vacuumed thoroughly, the best way to eliminate the dirt and grime that gets tracked into your car is to remove the mats from your car. Give them one-to-two good passes with a power washer. Leave the mats outside to dry thoroughly before replacing them—wet floor mats can cause harmful mold to form in your car.
- Clean your seats. Your approach to cleaning your car seats will vary depending on whether they are made of cloth or leather upholstery. Cloth upholstered seats can be cleaned simply and effectively with an everyday carpet steamer. Cleaning your leather upholstery, however, requires a slightly finer touch, as well as some specialized products. To keep them from becoming cracked and faded, apply leather cleaning oils. This helps remove dirt build-up and restores your leather’s natural qualities from the damage of sun exposure.
- Clean all hard surfaces. Clean your console, radio buttons, arm rest and steering wheel with a cloth and correct surface cleaner. For plastic or wood paneling, a simple household surface cleaner should do the trick. For easily accessible areas, simply spray cleaner onto a dry cloth and wipe down. For harder to reach spots like your A/C vents, use a lightly damp toothbrush to reach in and scrub.
Must-Have Products for a Cleaner Car
- DropStop. Some of the hardest messes to clean are the ones in-between your seats. You can solve this problem by putting a DropStop in the crevice between your seats to catch your messes before they slip through the cracks.
- Microfiber cloth. To stop both interior and exterior messes at the source, always make sure you have the proper cloth to clean your car without leaving streaks or making the mess worse.
- High-quality deodorizer. You may be used to the smell of your car’s interior, but your passengers are probably having a different experience. Consider investing in a high-quality deodorizer.
Dillon’s Automotive’s Auto Maintenance and Services
Unfortunately, some of your car’s problems can’t be cleaned away. When a funny sound or sputtering start won’t go away, you can trust the experienced technicians at Dillon’s Automotive to diagnose and repair the problem. For all of your car maintenance and repair needs, contact us using our online form, or by calling (281) 395-1100.
