Your car can be your home away from home. But if it is full of clutter, the AC does not work, and there is dust all over, it can be a stress trigger. In the confined space of the car, even the smallest things can look outrageously out of place. Wipe it out before it piles up on you. The small enclosed spaces need more thorough care and maintenance than the large spaces. Therefore, you must make deliberate effort every week to keep your car interior in great shape. As you take your car for regular mechanical care and maintenance at Robbins Automotive and Smog check center, don’t forget your interior.
You are in immediate contact with the interior, so it deserves more care than the exterior. To help you keep your car interior clean all the time, follow the ideas we have shared below:
1. Stop the dirt from getting into the car first
Even in car care and maintenance, prevention is always better than care. Therefore, try to keep the dirt from getting into the car in the first place, if you can avoid it!.
Don’t get into the car with muddy shoes. The mud ends up piling on your pedals and on the floor mats.
Close the windows when there is a lot of dust and wind. While this won’t keep all the dust out, it will keep most of it away.
While running the AC all the time consumes fuel, it is on the low side. The cost of the fuel would amount to less than you would pay for thorough cleaning.
Don’t eat in the car because food particles will spread everywhere. Not only are they dirty, but they will attract bacteria, rodents and roaches.
2. Clean spillages when they are still fresh in your car interior
If you have children, keep some clean rags, and cleaning products handy in the glove compartment.
As soon as a food or drink spill happens, clean it out immediately. If you do that, it will not have time to set on your cloth or leather upholstery.
Later on at the scheduled time, you can clean the vehicle thoroughly, paying special attention to where the spills had been.
3. Clean all the enclosed storages
The modern car has so many storage options in the interior. There are the more visible ones such as the glove compartment, the cupholders, and the door pockets.
It is hard to forget these spaces when you are cleaning the car. However, the small nooks and crannies that we use for keeping coins and other small things are forgotten easily. Don’t!
Check under the steering wheel. Most vehicles have one or two storage spaces that are always forgotten.
4. Shake out the floor mats daily in your car interior
Your feet and shoes collect bacteria, dirt, mud, and other types of debris all the time.
Shake the mats everyday outside the car, well, unless you have not been in the car that day. You can shake the driver and front passenger mats only if you didn’t have people at the back.
When you get to clean the car during the weekend, you will find the mats easy to clean because they will not have accumulated too much dirt.
Some people also buy cheap plastic mats or covers to place on top of the mats that came with the car. Plastic is easier to keep clean since you can just wipe it with a damp piece of cloth.
5. Use car seat covers if you have children
Children will make the car dirty. They can have little bathroom accidents, throw up in the car and stand on the seats with their shoes. There will be a lot of spillage when they drink or eat in the car.
If you carry your pets in the car, protect the seats with waterproof covers. The joy of using covers is that when they get dirty and stained, you just remove them, clean them in the washing machine and put them back.
Remember to buy dark colored seat covers because sometimes you will get too busy and forget to clean them in good time. If they have light colors, the stains will show too much.
6. Declutter your car interior every month
Again, because of the small space in the car, clutter piles up fast. From having your clothes, extra shoes, takeaway food packets, boxes of candy, umbrellas, books and more tools than you need, the pile sneaks up on you.
Once every month, open the doors of the car, check every storage space. You see that book in the car that you haven’t opened in many days? You will never read it in the car. Take it back to the house.
Apart from tools for emergency repairs on the car, take everything else out. It is just making it easy for bugs to hide in your car.
7. Get a trash container
Trash containers for cars don’t look like trash bins at all. They are well sealed and they fit in with the car interior decor.
You hang them behind the seat with the straps they come with. If you drive a sedan, hang it behind the front passenger seat.
For a hatchback or an estate, hang it behind the last row of seats. It is small and it stays well out of sight. Just get one that is the same color as your car’s interior.
Conclusion
Keeping your car clutter-free, and dust-free is easy, but you have to do it daily, if need be. Also, once a month, clean the car thoroughly.
Vacuum the floor, the seats and the backrests if they are made of cloth upholstery. The car seats are dust magnets and they absorb too much of it.
Invest in a few cleaning products such as microfiber cleaning cloths, detailing brushes, upholstery and dashboard cleaners.
