Here Are 17 Tricks to Make Your Car Cleaner Than Ever
When you think of spring cleaning, you probably imagine airing out your windows and cleaning your home until it shines. But there are plenty of other things that fall under the wide (and very pristine) umbrella of spring cleaning. For instance, your car! I will speak for myself – although I’m sure many of you will feel my pain – when I say that my car is an absolute disaster area. There is a Kermit the Frog Chia pet in my back seat, which I think says it all. If you need to clean your car as desperately as I do, take advantage of spring to do the cleaning! Check out these 17 helpful hints to get started on your spring car cleaning.
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Cupcake Liners
This an amazing hack to keep car clutter minimized in your cup holders. Get some cupcake liners (sturdy materials and fun patterns are encouraged!) and put them in your cup holders. When clutter builds, take the liners out and replace! It’s that easy.
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Get Streak-Free Windshield Wipers
Is there anything more distracting than your windshield wipers smearing your vision? To avoid this obnoxious and potentially dangerous nuisance, douse your windshield wipers in rubbing alcohol and get some DIY smear-free wipers perfect for Spring showers.
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Clean Your Car Vents
Your car vents can get disgusting if left unattended, and the worst part of all is that they’re so difficult to clean. Being so narrow and gated, you need a really specific tool to get in there and get out the winter cobwebs. It might shock you, but foam art brushes are just the thing! Small and malleable, these brushes get right in where it counts to get the fresh spring air right to you.
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Shine Your Hubcaps
If the hubcaps on your wheels are getting dingy, shine them with this easy concoction! No need for intense elbow grease with this combination of cleaning powder and water that makes a super-cleaning paste. You can use wheel cleaner as well, but that tends to be harsh on the wheel’s finish.
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Clean Your Grill
Your car grill is the first line of defense against bugs flying at your car…gross, I know. And it gets especially gross when spring comes around and the bugs are out in droves. If you want to thoroughly clean your car grill of insect carnage use dryer sheets. These sheets wipe your car grill clean nicely and leave a lovely, clean laundry scent.
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Brighten Your Headlights
It can be dangerous to leave your headlights dingy – they’re an important part of letting the other drivers know you’re on the road, after all. To keep your headlights bright and fully functional, clean them with this DIY cleaning paste made of toothpaste, of all things. The baking soda in the toothpaste does a great job of cleaning your lights so that they’re sparkling bright and clean!
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Wash Your Floor Mats
Nothing takes more abuse than the floor mats in your car – they get all the dirt and mud and water from your shoes, the poor things. Give your floor mats a little TLC by spraying them with stain spray before throwing them in the wash. That way they’ll come out of the dryer stain-free and cleaner than ever!
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Banish Pet Hair
If you’re a pet owner, you know the struggle: if your dog even THINKS about jumping in your car, there’s instantly thick, white hair EVERYWHERE. And it’s impossible to get off. Banish that pet hair forever with a spray bottle of water (to loosen up the hair) and a squeegee (to wipe that hair away). With spring coming, we don’t need any more allergens floating around…
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Clean Your Sticky Dashboard
How do dashboards get so sticky so fast?! It’s an impossible fact of life. Well, you may not be able to figure out that riddle, but you can get rid of that sticky dashboard! Use Goo Gone and a rag to get a mess-free dash.
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Super Clean Your Windshield
Don’t just occasionally squeegee your windshield at a gas station, really take care of it! With this magical mixture of glass cleaner, steel wool and a finishing layer of Rain X, you’ll have a spotless windshield to take in every spring day to come.
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Reach Those Crevices
The tricky thing about your cars’ interior is all the little cracks and crevices. There are so many little spots that so quickly get filled with fallen food crumbs and dust, and they can look so unsightly. Think you can’t reach those tricky spots? Think again! Cover a screwdriver with a rag and use the flat, small head of the screwdriver to clean out every dirty crevice in your car!
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Compressed Air Hack
Want a more thorough clean for your car vents? If using a foam brush just isn’t enough for you (no judgement if your vents have gotten to that point, we’ve all been there) then you need to take some extreme measures. Compressed air is a quick, simple and extremely effective way to blast out the debris from your vents and leave them good as new.
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Microfiber Cleaning Cloth
A part of your car you might not consider cleaning? The ceiling! Sure, you don’t see it every day exactly, but you can’t forget that it is there, being very dusty above you. For most car interiors, a regular cloth won’t do a thing – invest in a microfiber cloth to really get the job done on your car ceiling.
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Get Corrosion Off Your Battery
The most important parts of the car aren’t necessarily in plain sight. What’s under the hood matters most of all and needs to be cleaned accordingly. If your battery starts to become corroded, this can be extremely bad for your car’s health and dangerous for the driver. Try this surprising hack of pouring soda on the corrosion to get your battery sparkling clean and working effortlessly again.
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Polish Exterior Crevices
Cracks and crevices aren’t just INSIDE your car. The way cars are designed, they usually have a tundra of dips and cracks on the exterior detailing as well. And these cracks are begging for dirt and bugs to go flying into them. To clean these crevices without damaging the outside of your car, use a clay bar to gently clean away all dirt and leave your paint job glowing.
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Olive Oil Dashboard Polish
So your dashboard is dirt and dust-free, but you want to go that extra mile. What can you do? Give it a polish! This DIY olive oil polish is simple to make with kitchen ingredients and will make your car look like it’s brand new – and smell amazing, too – just in time for spring.
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Clean Leather Interior
Leather looks lovely as car interior…until the little cracks get filled with dirt and grime. Don’t leave your leather on it’s own! Old cleaning toothbrushes are perfect for this kind of interior; use the super-cleaning combo of baking soda and water to really get those crevices clean as can be.
Do you have any spring cleaning tips perfect for your car? Share them in the comments section below.
