How to Keep Your Car’s Interior Clean: 12 Simple Steps
While many people visit the car wash regularly to get their car’s outside sparkling, they often skip cleaning their car’s interior. Maybe they assume no one will see the inside of the car so they can afford to ignore it. Or maybe they figure that spotless seats and a shiny dashboard simply aren’t as important as a streak-free exterior. But learning how to keep your car’s interior clean is a vital part of your vehicle’s maintenance process. The interior of our car reflects ourselves, and we want to ensure that it always looks its best. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of cleaning your car’s interior and how to keep your car clean.
4 Benefits of Cleaning the Inside of Your Car
There are several benefits to learning how to keep your car clean, including improved safety, car longevity, and more.
1. Increases Driver Safety
While it may be hard to believe, cleaning the inside of your car can keep you safer behind the wheel. How is that? When you regularly clean your windshield, windows, and side mirrors, you improve your visibility while on the road, which makes for a safer and better driving experience.
2. Minimizes Wear and Tear
Over time, the inner surfaces inside your vehicle become susceptible to wear and tear. For example, your car seats degrade over time from the constant friction of daily usage. A deep cleaning routine can prolong longevity and keep other parts inside your car from premature aging.
3. Promotes Good Health
Dust, dirt, food crumbs, and other allergens can build up over time and cause problems for those with allergies or asthma. Crumbs can also attract insects, rodents, and other creatures.
Regularly vacuuming your car cabin at a car wash is the easiest way to stay on top of the mess that can so easily accumulate inside your vehicle. To protect your health behind the wheel, change your car cabin air filter every 15,000 miles.
4. Saves Money
Another reason to keep your car’s interior clean is to protect your investment. Interior dirt can cause carpets to wear prematurely, increase leather and cloth wear, and cause seat stitching to break.
Dirt can also leave scratches on plastic, wood, and aluminum throughout your vehicle. Neglecting to clean your car’s interior can ultimately depreciate the value of your car.
Bottom line: Taking your vehicle to a car wash center on a regular basis is a convenient way to keep your vehicle in optimal condition.
12 Ways to Clean the Interior of Your Car
If you want to learn how to keep your car’s interior clean, here are 12 tricks you can use to help preserve its appearance.
1. Take Out Removable Items
The first step is also the easiest. Take out any removable items, such as floor mats, seat covers, kids’ toys, and anything inside your car that might interfere with the cleaning process.
2. Clean Your Floor Mats
Your car’s floor mats can accumulate dirt and large crumbs, so give them a good shake to remove any debris. Follow up with a good vacuuming, then scrub your mats using a scrub brush and water mixed with a few drops of dish soap.
After you’re done, air dry them outside in the sun. Make sure that both sides are completely dry before placing them back in your car.
3. Polish Your Windows and Mirrors
When polishing your car’s windows and mirrors, avoid using products that are not made for cleaning glass to avoid damaging the surface of the glass. Opt instead for specialized cleaning solutions, like alcohol-based glass cleaners.
Spray the windows and mirrors and then use a microfiber cloth to wipe away the cleaning solution. Use a second cloth to remove streaks.
4. Keep Food and Drinks Away
Food and drinks can create hard-to-remove stains, particularly chocolate, coffee, and soda.
One of the best ways to keep your car’s interior clean is to avoid bringing food and drinks in your car. You won’t have to clean your car as often or worry about odors and seeping into the seat fabrics.
5. Vacuum
Vacuuming the interior is a simple way you can quickly improve your car’s appearance. Even a cluttered car can still look well maintained if it’s free of dust, crumbs, and other debris. Vacuum your seats, carpet, side door panels, and inside of your trunk.
If your car has light-colored fabric carpets, you’ll want to vacuum them more thoroughly. Tan or gray carpets can show dirt, stains, and molds more easily than other types. If you need high-powered vacuums that can suck even the tiniest debris, try our Take 5 car wash service.
When you use our services or become part of our membership program, you get access to our mega-horsepower vacuums, which you can use anytime to remove both large and microscopic specks of dust or crumbs.
6. Use Seat Covers
The most effective way to prevent permanent stains, rips, and tears in your car’s upholstery is to use seat covers.
This makes cleaning easy, as all you have to do is remove the seat covers and wash and dry them. Seat covers can save you time and money over the long run and will also help your seats maintain their factory-new appearance.
7. Eliminate Odors
To help your car smell as fresh as it looks, try air fresheners that contain enzymes. These can be useful for breaking down pet and smoke odors.
For an effective DIY method, combine baking soda with essential oils in a closed plastic container. Cut slits into the container and place the container under your seat.
If odors are still lingering, bring your car to the nearest auto shop so they can identify the source of your car’s strong odor. You might be dealing with maintenance-related issues, such as a faulty air conditioner or an electrical problem.
8. Clean Your Cupholders, Door Panels, and Dashboard
If you want to know how to keep your car interior looking like new, clean your cup holder, door panels, and dashboard, as this is often what passengers will notice first. Use a soft-bristled brush to remove any built-up residue and clean your door panels and dashboard with disinfectant wipes.
For tough stains, use a stronger solution like a degreaser. Not only will this eliminate residue, but it can also keep your car’s components looking brand new. If you need a professional cleaning service to preserve the quality of your vehicle, try our Pro5TM Plus Wash Service and experience the satisfaction of a thorough cleaning.
9. Condition Your Leather Seats
Leather seats are convenient because they’re high quality and don’t retain stains or odors as much as cloth seats do. However, that doesn’t mean you should disregard a regular cleaning routine.
For the best cleaning result, apply a conditioner that is specially formulated for leather material. You can either use a soft-bristled brush or a microfiber cloth to apply the solution to the leather.
Final tip: Don’t apply a substantial amount of your cleaning solution on your seats. If you do, you could end up saturating the leather. Instead, use just a small dab of the solution and work it into the leather.
10. Disinfect the Most Used Surfaces
Cleaning is just part of the process–you’ll also need to disinfect, too. Over time, your car’s interior can accumulate bacteria, mold, and other contaminants that can affect your health. You may not notice them, but they are there.
Use disinfectant wipes everywhere you regularly use and touch, including the steering wheel, gear shift, door handle, and glove box.
11. Use Compressed Air for Hard-to-Reach Places
You should clean every inch of your car, even the hard-to-reach places. A compressed air duster can blow dirt, debris, and tiny food items from under the seats and center console so you can vacuum them up.
A compressed air duster is easy to use, as the only thing you have to do is point the duster in the right direction, pull the trigger, and let it work its magic.
12. Clean Your Air Vents
Cleaning your air vents is essential if you want higher air quality and more efficient airflow through your ducts. By cleaning your vents, you can reduce dust, pollutants, allergens, and other irritants in your car. It’s also a great way to remove lingering odor.
While there are several ways you can clean air vents, the easiest way is to use a vacuum cleaner. A vacuum cleaner can help remove dirt and other debris from your vent without damaging the vent. Complete the task by using a damp cloth to remove any residue from your vents.
Get a Thorough Car Cleaning at a Take 5 Center
Learning how to keep your car’s interior clean takes time and a lot of hard work. Fortunately, you don’t have to go at it alone. Whether your cabin is covered in crumbs or you just need a quick touch-up, Take 5 is here to give your vehicle a superior clean with fast, friendly, and convenient service.
You’ll be in and out in no time and back on the road with a smile. Find a Take 5 car wash location near you for the best car interior cleaning service!
Get in touch with questions or to learn more about our services.