Hauling Trash and the Sponge Game - Cleaning your Vehicle’s Interior

When you are in your car for any amount of time every day, you will be creating dust, smoke, leaving garbage in the car, leaving crumbs in the car, leaving hair in the car, and all kinds of other messes depending on what type of job you have and depending on how many people ride with you every day. If you have lucky and you are the only person in your car traveling everyday, your auto might not be as ‘dirty’ as a mother’s car that is traveling with three kids. Let’s look a little closer at how you can keep your car clean even after a ten hour trip with four kids in the car!

When you have a good two hours or better to yourself, gather up your cleaning supplies such as the water, sponge, bucket, q tips, which ever type of protecting solution you like to use on the dash and interior, a scrub brush, a toothbrush and a little bit of your favorite spray or block scent.

We will start in the front of the car, because this area requires more detailing that the back seat area. After you have removed all of the garbage from your car, and the car mats you can sweep out the car for the first round. This will get up all the gravel, dirt, paper shreds etc that may be in the car. Then you can start with the top of the dash, wiping it down with your protectant solution, and then moving to the front window from there.

You should consider using the q-tip and sponges dipped in hot water and soap to clean the vents and the small areas in your dash. After you clean out all of the dust, you can clean these areas again with your protecting liquid or paste. Clean around the radio, the gauges, and the vents on the dash, on the floor for a complete clean look, and smell.

Cleaning the doors, and the hard moldings on the doors and around the floor areas is next on the list for a good cleaning, and then after they are dry use the protecting liquid or paste to make these areas shine. Then work your way through the car, cleaning all the hard moldings with hot soapy water, and then drying them and applying protecting solutions as needed. Then you should work on the windows. The windows are usually completed after the moldings and doors are done to wipe off any excess protecting solutions that you may use.

Taking a damp cloth and wiping along the back of the rear window will help you to remove smells from the car, hair that might be blown around, and all of those little critter that get in the auto that need cleaned out. A little trick to get the smoke smell out of your car is to use about one cup of vinegar in your water instead of soap. While you may not like the smell of vinegar at first, the smell quickly disappears as the vinegar absorbs odors in the car.

One of the last tasks you need to do in the car, is to sweep the seats off, getting hair, dust and dirt off and then to sweep the floor again. As you are cleaning the car additional dust and lint will land on the floor that you can sweep up again quickly. Not only is a clean car more comfortable to drive in, it also is increasing the value of your car when you are considering buying a new one!

Also see:

Your Car's Interior

Airbags: More Than Just a Lot of Hot Air?

5 Great Entertainment Options for Your Car

8 Steps to Interior Car Care

First Aid Tools for Your Car

This webpage is brought to you for general information purposes only and there are no warranties as to accuracy, completeness, or results obtained from any information posted on this or any linked website.

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