I am so excited to be teaming up with HomeRight again for this post and giveaway {yay!!!}
As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
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They say that you can always judge how tidy someone is by the look of their car. Well, hopefully that is not true, because my car is usually a mess! Between all of the kids’ sports gear, doggie car rides to and from the dog park, and meals on the go, messes accumulate rather quickly and often don’t get dealt with right away. Since I am working on cleaning and organizing the garage for this month’s Household Organization Diet, I thought that it would be the perfect time to work on the cars. So, today is the day that we are actually going to get those cars cleaned with this easy tutorial on how to detail a car!
Let’s get to it!
Step One – Gather all of your supplies.
Once you are out in the garage or driveway, you don’t want to have to go back in the house for anything. This is especially important if you have cleaning ADD like me and get easily put off track! Here is a list of my basic tools:
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- two bins and one bag – one bin for items that will stay in the car, one bin for items that go elsewhere, and one big bag for garbage!
- microfiber cloths – I like to have one that will get wet and another that is more for dusting
- polishing cloth {I LOVE my Norwex one}
- compressed air dusters {optional}
- HomeRight SteamMachine Plus {optional}
- Vacuum cleaner with the brush attachment {if you have pet hair} and the long, thin attachment {for getting down in those tiny places}
- toothbrush
- cleaning spray {I just use a 50:50 mix with water and vinegar but you can use any all-purpose spray}
- carpet/upholstery cleaner if needed {My favorite DIY versions are either 1 tsbp. Dawn blue dish soap, 1 tbsp. vinegar, 2 cups or a water OR a mixture of 1/3 cup hydrogen peroxide, 2/3 cup water and a drop of Dawn. You can also add some lemon essential oils to either of them for added cleaning power and a nice scent!}
Step Two – Empty out EVERYTHING!
Take absolutely everything out of the car including all of the car mats, car seats, and any other removable pieces. Sort the items into the proper bins {or bags} as you remove them. Don’t forget the glove box, middle console, door pockets, etc.
Step Three – Get rid of any loose debris.
Working from top to bottom {so you don’t mess up anything that you have already cleaned!}, dust any hard surfaces, and vacuum down floors and upholstery. The brush attachments on the vacuums often work well for removing any pet hair {just move it back and forth in small strokes} and you will definitely need that long skinny attachment for getting in between the seats and into other small places. Make sure you slide the seats all the way forwards and all the way back {and flip up rear seats} to get into all of the spaces. Vacuum down the car mats and place them back into the car.
If you air vents are really dusty, you can use a small paint brush {like what kids would use to paint a picture} or a toothbrush to really get up the dust and then suck it up with the vacuum. Alternatively, you can also use some condensed air spray to blow it out {if you are using this method, make sure to do this before anything else so you are not blowing dust where you have just cleaned!}.
Step Four – Clean and Wipe.
Dashboard and other rubber or vinyl surfaces – I have had my HomeRight steam cleaner for over a year now and I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to use it in the car before – I love it in the kitchen and bathroom and use it all the time. Since the car is obviously a small, contained space, you do want to be careful what products you are using inside, and the steam cleaner is the best way that I have found to get a thorough cleaning and disinfecting without chemicals. In the car, it is perfect to clean and disinfect harder surfaces such as the top of the dashboard {just don’t use it close to any of the electronics} and germ covered handles, blasts all of those little crumbs out of the cup holder pockets and other small spaces, and even works on the carpet and upholstery {including leather!}.
For the dashboard, doors {especially the handles!} vents, and seat backs {pictured below} I used the scrub brush attachment on the steam cleaner and then used the small nozzle attachment for all of the other little spaces. To clean, just blast the surfaces with the steam cleaner and follow with a quick wipe with your microfiber cloth. If you want to add a bit of a scent you can add in a 5-6 drops of essential oils {you can see what essential oils I like best for cleaning here}. Use the polishing cloth to polish up any shiny surfaces and they will gleam!
We rarely get through a car ride without me asking at least one of the kids to stop kicking the back of the seat so this is what our seats usually look like…
With just a quick scrub with the steam cleaner and a wipe with a cloth, they look brand new in just a few seconds.
If you do not have a steam cleaner, just spray down all of the surfaces with your cleaner and scrub as needed with a microfiber cloth. If you have added grime that you need to remove you can make a paste with baking soda and water and use a small scrub brush {or toothbrush} to get into all of those little spaces.
Upholstery and carpet – The steam cleaner also worked great on a slurpee stain that we had on one of the back floor mats. I thought that I would need to pull out my cleaners; however, just using the scrub brush with the steam cleaner alone took it all out!
For more difficult stains on either the carpeting {or fabric upholstery}, you can treat with a DIY cleaner:
1 tsbp. Dawn blue dish soap + 1 tbsp. vinegar, + 2 cups or water
OR
1/3 cup hydrogen peroxide + 2/3 cup water + a drop of Dawn.
As aways, make sure to spot check! You can also add some lemon essential oils to either of them for added cleaning power and a nice scent!
Leather is also able to be safely cleaned by steam and is perfect for getting rid of all of those germs and surface dirt. You will want to use the long brush attachment with the microfiber cover for the seats and can switch to a smaller attachment if you need to get into any little grooves. If you have lighter colored leather seats with specific stains, however, you will likely need to add a cleaning product as well since the steam doesn’t penetrate the leather. Look for small leather cleaning kits that you can even keep in your car so that you can get to stains {such as lipstick or pen} as soon as possible.
Mirrors and Glass – For the inside mirrors and windows, I used the steam cleaner and then dried with the polishing cloth. On the outside windows, I find that I get the best results with the steam cleaner if I scrub any specific spots {like bird poop or a collection of dead bugs!} with the steam cleaner using the scrub brush attachment followed by the squeegee attachment. Again, I finish everything off with a polishing cloth for a streak free shine. If you do not have a steam cleaner, use the water/vinegar spray, scrub with a microfiber cloth, and then finish with the polishing cloth.
One of the other things that works awesome with the steam cleaner is cleaning off the headlights. Due to unusually low rainfall this year, we currently have a water ban on, and are unable to wash the outside of the car. Things are dustier than normal {and we have had a lot of smog with some local fires} so the headlights were really getting murky. Using the same steam cleaning technique as the windows, these came out looking shiny again in no time!
And we are done!!! It may sound like a long process, but it actually goes quite quickly and will save you a ton of money on detailing costs! Get things cleaned this week and I will be back next week with some car organization tips! 🙂
Now for the best part – giveaway time!! One lucky reader will win a HomeRight Steam Machine Plus steam cleaner! It honestly is one of my most versatile cleaning tools and I know you will love it! Just follow the prompts below to enter.
OMG it did a great job! wow!!! I hope I can win one!
XO ellen from Ask Away
Good luck!
Thank you so much for the wonderful ideas…..time to go clean out the van! 🙂
Very clean and shiny looking car!
The water bottle (or thermos?) in the cup holder is wonderful! Where did you get it? I want to buy one for a birthday gift for my friend who loves canoeing and kayaking.
The water bottle is from Chapters Indigo – my favorite water bottle!
Love this post. My car’s not as cluttered as it used to be when the kids were little. The youngest is 10 and it’s mostly his stuff hanging around. I’d love to use the cleaner to detail my car and then show my 17 year old how much fun it is so he can do his car next. :o) I hate cleaning the bathrooms, so maybe this little tool will make it not so much of a chore?
lol! I’d love to see your son’s car when he is done! 😉
The inside of his car is actually pretty clean with the exception of dirt from the shoes that gets tracked in. It’s the outside with all the bird poop that he hates dealing with. Ha ha.
I would love to use this for my bathroom. Never thought to use in the car. Great idea!
Ferb, I know what we’re doing today!
I would use it in the bathroom as well…
I haven’t been able to get my car clean like I want to, so hopefully I will listen to your advice and get it all done! Thank you!!!
Looks like a great tool
Would love to clean my car up,between my two dogs, three year old, and myself, it’s a wreck!
Car looked great. Would love to win a steam machine. Sounds like it would be great for cleaning a lot of things around the home.
What a cool product. This would definitely make cleaning out my car less of a pain!
If I won, I might be inspired to clean!
lol! 🙂 Whatever it takes!
Thanks for the tips and fantastic giveaway! I’ll have to look into this steam cleaner, it seems to do a great job!
i never thought of using compressed air. i have been looking for a steamer for my bathroom for ages!! no one carries them any more. im excited to think i will be able to get one now
I would clean my entire house, including my dirty car, with the steamer! I never thought how it could be helpful for cleaning the car !
I’m excited to hear about this product, sounds like it should be a household go to! Great blog post, thanks!
Wow, what a great idea! Now that our son is a new driver and has frequent use of our car, we’ve tasked him with cleaning it. It looks like this would make the job much easier!
Wonderful! Never thought to steam clean the interior of the vehicles! Seems to make quicker work of a dreaded job! Thanks so much for the blog!
I enjoy detailing my vehicle & with 4 children it needs it often. I love the idea of a steam cleaner for blasting out the tiny cracks & crevices!!
Love your steamer! I see how handy it is!!
id clean my giant tile shower! Tons of grout to keep clean so this would be great!!
I would clean everything!!! I love your blog and how you approach cleaning and organizing.
Oh does my car need this….it still has salt from the winter around the mats….
I’m pretty sure I’d clean my whole house if I won! The first thing I’d clean though is my one, teeny, tiny bathroom 🙂
I would LOVE to use the steamer to clean my car, my kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, etc!! This looks so versatile!
Oh, man–I’d love to use a steamer on everything in the bathroom! In the car, I think it would be great for the corners of all those bins and pockets. I feel like I never get those clean. Thanks!
i would use this on every possible thing I could. We recently bought our first home and with 5 children the would come in very handy. I have fibromyalgia and I was amazed at how easy my mom’s steamer made cleaning for me at our old house.
Using this for the car is a great idea. Thanks!
I am inspired to try this…my husband thanks you.
lol!
This is such a great post! I’ll definitely be doing this today!
This looks like an awesome tool- I love cleaning with steam!
This is an awesome post!! I have such a hard time getting the gunk and grime out of my car with the 4-year old tracking in all of her dirt! 🙂 This little machine would work wonders, not only in my car, but also in my bathroom and kitchen! The linoleum never seems to get clean enough!!
I would definitely use it to clean my car!!!! So handy!
I’d love to win this steamer! ☺️
We really need to clean our van, and this would be perfect for accomplishing that! Thank you for this giveaway!
I would love to use the steam cleaner in my kitchen, especially the stove.
I would love to actually use one of these that works properly. Then I could also get rid of all the ones that are cluttering my home. Reason being, mine do not have all of the nifty attachments so I bought a hand held, a mop steamer, a walk behind, and a carpet steamer. I could get rid of all of those things and what space I’d save!. So I would de-clutter AND use it to clean everything from floors to countertops to my car and any other place that benefit from a steamer. Wow, taking care of two major obstacles in my life, decluttering and clean. What a great feeling that would be!
Good point! lol! Good luck!
Omg, I would LOVE this to clean the interior or my car. Between our golden retriever and toddler it is in need of some major love!
I would clean my bathroom grout and my car – both are crying for attention!
If I win, I would love to see if it can clean NC RED clay from the light gray carpet in the car! That would be a miracle!!!
Have you tried using some Dawn mixed with hydrogen peroxide on that? If it is really stubborn, I put a white towel down over it with the cleaning products on and then put some weight over it {like a few books} overnight. Rinse and clean {or steam} in the morning.
i would use it on everything to be honest. I watch a 8 month old crawling machine little boy and trying to conceive baby #2. So I clean everything daily.
I will definitely clean my oven with it first but the car might be next on the list. Thanks.
I recently moved from Oregon to Florida and my car is a crazy mess from the trip and I’ve been putting off cleaning it. This really helped and I feel a bit more motivated to get out there and make my car look pretty again. lol. Thanks so much for posting.
What a big move! Enjoy your new home and {hopefully!} clean car! 🙂
I was just thinking my van needs a good cleaning. This would make it so much easier.
What a great idea!! Thanks for the handy info!!!
I would clean my bathroom first, then I would steam clean my ENTIRE house!!
I would like to clean my oven first ….. then the car and shower enclosure.
I would love to win a steam machine. We live in an apartment and this would help to keep it clean!
My boys bathroom could use a good steam clean! I’d also love to try it out in my hair salon.
This looks wonderful! I just cleaned my car before vacation, but now it needs it again after! This would certainly help!
Such great tips! I would totally use the steam cleaner in my SUV and everywhere else in my house! Thanks for the chance!
Love the idea of using a steamer! We recently got a newer vehicle and I want to keep it looking awesome!
this is on the agenda today! Perfect timing! THANKS for the motivation:)
#sitsblogging
These are fantastic tips! Thanks for linking up with us at the #HomeMattersParty and I hope you’ll join us again next week!
Great tips! Pinned and tweeted. Please join us tonight at 7 pm, and party with us. I can’t wait to see your new masterpieces or amazing classics! Lou Lou Girls
Looks great, but isn’t peroxide a bleach? Wouldn’t it bleach your car fabric?
It’s an oxygen bleach so it should generally not bleach your car fabric. It actually works great to whiten whites while brightening colors. As with any other stain removers, however, spot testing is recommended. 🙂
I would love to purchase a steamer to use in my cleaning. Do you know where to buy a steamer like yours in Canada?
They are on Amazon.ca – just search HomeRight Steam Machine Plus. I know some Home Depots also carry them. 🙂