Spring Cleaning Tips for Car Owners
Spring is upon us and soon everything will start turning green again, but for many spring means spring cleaning – a process where you thoroughly clean your house and everything else that you maybe don’t clean as often as you room for example. And that includes your car, because many of us are guilty of not cleaning the outside and inside of our cars as often as we should. So let me give you some tips on how to spring-clean your car and do it quickly yet wholly.
1. Clean out all of the stuff in your car
The first thing you need to do before you even start to clean your car, is to take out all of the stuff that is inside of it. From tools and random supplies in the trunk to old receipts and other junk in the salon of the car, take it all out so you can get to the actual cleaning part of the spring cleaning process. I will return to all of this stuff and what to do with it in a moment.
2. Start the cleaning with carpeting and upholstery
You should start your car spring cleaning process with cleaning all the carpets in your car first. Just take them out, shake or vacuum all of the dirt and mud out of them and then clean the places in the car where the carpets should be. Afterwards take a damp towel and wipe down all of the seats so they, too, are clean from any dirt, food particles or anything else that usually gets on our seats. This will ensure that you are starting with a clean interior of the car, which you can organize and clean more in detail later.
3. Wipe down the console and all of the other surfaces in your car that are not fabric
Next make sure you also clean things like the console, the glove compartment and so on, because this will make sure that there are as minimal dust in your car as possible. Just make sure that you don’t wet any electrical connections, especially when you are working on your console, because that can result in your car or parts of it to not function properly. Best use a damp cloth to wipe down your plastic or wood console, because that will get all of the dust out and leave it clean.
4. Clean your trunk
Once the salon of your car is clean you should also do the same to your trunk, because often our trunk is one of the dirtiest places in our car besides the carpets. You should vacuum it and get all of the dirt and other random things out of it, so it actually looks like a trunk of a car not just another storage space.
5. Clean the windows from the inside, too
The next step to get your car in tip top shape is to clean the windows from the inside. When we go through a car wash or just clean the exterior of our cars we usually automatically also clean the windows from the outside. But that isn’t enough, because the inside of those windows can actually be dirtier which can bother you while you are driving. After you have clean them make sure you shine them, too. And don’t forget to do the same to the car mirrors, as they should need to be clean, so you can clearly see what is happening behind you.
6. Organize, organize, organize
The last step of cleaning the inside of your car is to organize all of the stuff inside of it. The main parts of a car where we usually hold different stuff are the trunk, the glow compartment and the backseat. So develop some kind of system to keep these compartments organized. I recommend to buy a few different sized boxes and use them in your car. A bigger box can go in your trunk where you can store your tools, different car liquids and other necessary things, so you have them when you need them, but they aren’t rolling around in your trunk every time you are taking a turn. You can also use a smaller sized box to store papers, receipts and other knickknacks in the glove compartment of your car, so they, too are always available to you, but don’t just roll around in your glove compartment. But for your backseat, I would recommend to not store any important stuff there, as you never know when you will need to transport more than one or two people from point A to point B. But if you absolutely must then limit the things you store in your backseat so they don’t take up more than one seat or preferably the leg space of the seat.
7. Look under the hood
And before we wash the outside of our cars, you should also look under your hood and clean that space too. Sometimes we don’t even notice how things like leaves and dirt collect under the hood and in the engine area. So clean it as much as you can, or involve professionals to do it for you. In addition you can also replace the windshield wipers when you are at this step, because after a long winter of ice and snow the windshield wipers won’t work as good and can fail you when the April showers come.
8. Wash the exterior of the car
Now it is time to wash the outside of your car, since the interior is clean and organized. Wash the body of the car, as well as the windows and wheels. It is common sense to clean the top of the car, the sides, front, back and the windows, but many times people don’t pay enough attention to the wheels of the car. So clean them, and you can also check the tire pressure while doing it, to make sure your car is ready to roll.
9. Wax and shine
Lastly for that one extra step that you maybe not do every time you wash your car, wax the outside of it and shine the outside of the windows, too. This will make sure that your car will latterly glitter in the sun. Added bonus – the exterior of your car and more importantly the paint of your car will be more protected against the elements, lasting for a longer time without any trace of rust. And you’re done. Your car and you are ready to enjoy the spring with road trips, adventures and far voyages.
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