If your vehicle’s interior regularly turns into a dumping ground, knowing how to keep your car organized and clean can do wonders for your driving experience. While it can feel overwhelming when you first start to clean up your car, it can actually be pretty easy to maintain a tidy vehicle. Instead of being embarrassed about how your car looks, you’ll be proud to give other people rides once you’ve implemented a few cleaning and organizational tips!
How to Keep Your Car Clean and Organized
From storing wet wipes in your glove compartment and investing in a small trash can to using organizers and shaking out floor mats regularly, there are plenty of easy ways to improve the cleanliness and organization of your vehicle. As you tidy up your vehicle, learn more about how to keep your car clean and organized by following these seven tips below:
1. Store Wet Wipes in Your Glove Compartment
It can be easy to forget to wipe away crumbs or clean off sticky surfaces once you’re out of your car and going about your day. Storing a pack of wet wipes in your glove compartment can make it far easier to stay on top of your car’s cleanliness. Instead of having to go find cleaning supplies, you can quickly pull out a wet wipe and clean up any spills without leaving your vehicle!
2. Keep a Small Trash Can in Your Vehicle
Putting loose wrappers, receipts, and trash into the side compartments of your doors or, worse, on your floor can be tempting. However, this approach only makes your car look messy, and as the trash grows, it can be difficult to work up the energy to finally throw it all away.
Keeping a small, waterproof trash can in your vehicle makes it easy to throw your trash away, and you can even find small trash cans made to hang off a headrest. Just make sure the trash can has a secure lid to prevent spills.
3. Make a Habit of Shaking Out Your Floor Mats At Least Once A Week
As you get in and out of your car, you’ll track in dirt, leaves, and other debris that will get on your floor mats. If you want to prevent this dirt from building up too much, shaking out your floor mats at least once a week can do wonders for their appearance. Alongside making the floor of your car look cleaner, regularly shaking out the mats makes it far easier to clean them, saving you time in the future.
4. Place Silicone Cups or Liners In Your Cup Holders
Cup holders are one of the easiest parts of your car to get dirty from spilled drinks, condensation, and crumbs. You can prevent dirty cup holders by placing a silicone liner or cup inside them. For example, silicone baking cups can be a great choice, as they’ll line the bottom of your beverages. Since silicone is leakproof, odor-resistant, and durable, it’s an excellent material for lining your cupholders and preventing them from getting dirty.
Before you put any silicone cups or liners in your cup holders, take a minute to clean out any grime in the holder. Typically, spraying the holder with an all-purpose cleaner and then wiping it off with paper towels or an old rag will get any grime or sticky spots out. After the holder is clean, add a liner or place a silicone baking cup in it to protect it from getting dirty in the future.
5. Use Odor Eliminators Instead of Air Fresheners
While air fresheners can make your car smell nice, they only mask bad smells instead of eliminating them. In contrast, odor eliminations are made to neutralize the cause of a bad smell, leaving your car smelling fresher and cleaner. Whether you’re trying to get rid of stubborn smells from mildew, pets, or smoke, an odor eliminator is a more effective choice than an air freshener.
6. Place Organizers Throughout Your Vehicle
If you have kids or tend to have lots of loose items in your vehicle, investing in some organizers can be a huge help. With backseat organizers, you can hang them around a headrest and use them to store items like a first aid kit, tissues, snacks, water bottles, and toys.
For your trunk, you can use a storage bag with a zipper to store jumper cables, flashlights, ice scrapers, spare shoes, and anything else you can think of. Cargo nets can be another great item to use for items you only need to keep in your trunk temporarily. For example, they can store loose items like beach supplies and sports gear. Both of these organization options will reduce clutter in your trunk and make it easier to find whatever you’re looking for.
7. Store Leather Cleaning Supplies in Your Vehicle
If you have leather seats, you’ll want to also keep a microfiber cloth, a soft-bristled brush, and an appropriate leather cleaning solution in your glove box or an organizer. Even if you don’t know how to clean leather car seats, you can safely clean up spills or grime with these supplies without damaging your seats. Having leather cleaning supplies in your vehicle also makes it easier to maintain your leather’s quality by quickly cleaning anything that could stain it.
While cleaning, just make sure to apply the cleaning solution in small areas to stop stains or discoloration from occurring. For small spills or sticky spots, you can just spray your microfiber cloth with the cleaner before wiping away the grime. For deeper cleans, spray the seat directly and move the soft-bristled brush in a circular motion. Next, wipe away the cleaner with a slightly damp towel and then dry the seat with a microfiber cloth.
Schedule an Interior Detailing Appointment at Chapel Hill Tire
If you’re looking for car cleaning services in Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, or the surrounding Triangle area, turn to Chapel Hill Tire. Since we know how overwhelming it can be to clean a dirty, disorganized car, we regularly provide car wash and detailing services to make the first step easy. When you schedule an appointment, you don’t have to pre-clean the car, as we’ll remove any trash and store other items we find in a bag to ensure nothing gets lost.
Learn more about our car wash and detailing services today. If you’re ready to bring your vehicle in for an inspection, please make an appointment at one of our convenient locations in the Triangle area. We also recommend checking out our coupons to see how much you can save!