Car Interior Cleaning Tips: How to Clean and Disinfect Your Car’s Cabin at Home

Cleaning your car is necessary to keep your driving experience comfortable because it helps to maintain a freshened-up car interior. Think about it, every time you enter your car, your shoes bring in a variety of bacteria, dirt, and grime from the outside. Over time, any small rubbish being left in your car will eventually pile up and cause an unpleasant odor that’ll make you feel uncomfortable every time you drive.

And if you suffer from any dust or dirt allergies? Then this may start triggering allergic reactions in you too. Yikes.

In just 1-2 hours (maybe even much less!) you can enjoy a super clean, freshened-up car interior. All you need is time, elbow grease, and a few products you probably already have at home.

Ready to get started? Read on to learn more on how to get a spotless car interior!

1. Remove All Rubbish

First step, get rid of all bits of paper, old food wrappers, or anything that constitutes rubbish from your car. This includes old receipts, food packages, expired parking tickets, and other miscellaneous items that you no longer need. Look through every crevice of your car like your glove box, door pockets, and boot area to be more thorough. Grab some small container where you can keep any loose items littered around your car like loose change, hair ties, sunglasses, or any access cards you’d like to keep inside.

2. Remove and Clean the Floor Mats

Next step, remove your car floor mats to start deep cleaning them. Shake off the mats to dislodge any debris or grime from the fabric. If the debris is particularly stubborn, use a strong vacuum cleaner to suction it off. Having trouble finding a vacuum cleaner? No worries, you can even use a brush with firm bristles to scrape the debris off too.

Then, grab a hose and use pressurized water to thoroughly wash off your car floor mats. Get a brush with some soap water—in this case, you can mix a few drops of dish soap in water to create a soapy solution—and scrub the soaked fabric until it’s squeaky clean. Once done, hose down your soapy car floor mats until the water runs clear. Let them air-dry entirely before re-installing them again in your car.

3. Wipe Down the Hard Surfaces

Grab a microfiber cloth or soft brush, it’s time to wipe down your car interior! Use the microfiber cloth to wipe off the hard surfaces in your car, like your dashboard, door pockets, center console, air conditioning vents, and boot.

Now, dampen your microfiber cloth for a second wipe. Go over those hard surfaces again to get them looking new. Alternatively, you can use any disinfecting wipes during this stage for a thorough antibacterial clean. However, if your car has leather upholstery on the sterling wheel, dashboard, or door panel, it’s best for you to use an automotive leather cleaner to wipe them down with.

4. Vacuum the Rest of the Interior

Now, it’s time to vacuum the carpets. To be more thorough, make sure you vacuum areas underneath your car seats, the headliner, boot, and seat pockets. Keep in mind that different area sizes may require different vacuum attachments, so be sure to have those handy. Vacuum not powerful enough to dislodge the debris in the fabric? Feel free to use a brush to get the job done. 

5. Clean the Seats

Once you’ve settled the small spaces underneath your car seats, it’s time to tackle the seats themselves. Get started by vacuuming the fabric thoroughly, and don’t forget to get deep into any crevices too. Clean around the stitching and any folds. Plus, it’s important for you to use the appropriate products or cleaning solution depending on the car seat upholstery, so if you have leather seats make sure that you wipe them down with an automotive leather cleaner.

If you want to add that extra oomph to keep your upholstery supple and shiny, consider using a leather conditioner. Make sure that you follow the instructions of bottle thoroughly and leave your car interior to sufficiently air-dry after. Have seats made of cloth instead? Try using a dedicated cloth seat cleaner with a soft brush to scrub away any existing stains. Say hello to instantly revitalized seats!

Struggling to get rid of more stubborn stains? Then you may want to consider going for a professional car deep cleaning service. The cost of a professional deep cleaning in Malaysia depends on the size of your car, seat type, and grade of the cleaning service. If you reside within Klang Valley area, most car deep cleaning services range anywhere from RM100 to RM 400.

6. Clean the Windows 

Time to clean your windows! It’s best to save cleaning these for last as you wouldn’t want to risk dirtying the glass as you move around. For this, you can either use a glass cleaner or even any generic all-purpose cleaner to get the job done. Don’t have these products on hand? Feel free to create a soapy solution with a few drops of any available dish soap diluted in water to wipe your windows done.

Make sure to lower your windows slightly and start from the top so that you can catch any liquid that drips down the side. Use a good quality microfiber cloth to dry your windows and avoid any possible scratches.

What Can You Use to Disinfect the Cabin?

There are a variety of products that you can use to disinfect your cabin. These include wet wipes, disinfectant sprays for car interiors, and more. You can find them at your local supermarket or automotive supply shop, so don’t worry about not being able to buy them easily. Here are some items that you can use to disinfect your car’s interior without damaging any sensitive materials.

Disinfecting Wet Wipes

For disinfecting wipes we recommend that you find those that contain sodium hypochlorite or household bleach because they are highly effective. Cnet also recommends cleaners using benzalkonium chloride (also known asbenzyl ammonium chloride), which is a common active ingredient that’s used in many consumer products. The plus sign? It’s known to be gentler than bleach! 

Multi-surface Cleaners

Surface cleaners or disinfectant sprays for car interiors that usebenzalkonium chloride performs quite well too. With just a couple of sprays on the surface followed by a wipe-down is effective and can be used for areas like carpets and hard-to-reach corners. 

Deodorizing Sprays

Get sanitizing sprays that containtriethylene glycol as they’re known to kill bacteria and neutralize viruses in the air. Plus, it helps to disinfect your cabin while removing any foul odour too. You can spray it on seats and carpets inside an unoccupied car, or you can even spray it in the air with the air conditioning switched on. A popular example of a deodorizing spray that you can find anywhere is Febreze.

Soap

Can’t get a dedicated car interior cleaning product or any antibacterial cleaner? No worries, you can use soap as it’s just as effective (if not better!). This is because soap breaks down oil and fights viruses just as effectively. As for which soap you should use, any type of soap would do the trick as long as it’s gentle enough to use on the delicate surfaces of your car, especially on sensitive upholstery like fabrics and leather. Simply mix a small amount of soap in a bucket of water and use a microfiber cloth to wipe down the surfaces in your car.

This article was originally published at carsome.my