How To Save Money & Detail Your Car Yourself This Afternoon

While there’s nothing better than a freshly vacuumed and detailed car, it can get expensive. And when you have one or more children, that only ups the ante. You can’t spend $100+ every two weeks because your kids won’t stop dropping Skittles in the car floor that melt into the carpet. Of course, that’s after being stepped on hundreds of times to really drive it into the floor.

Fortunately, we know a few quick tricks that can help you detail your car yourself, save some money, and keep your car fresh and clean, no matter what your kids throw at it!

First thing, you want to clean out all the large garbage in your car and take out anything you don’t absolutely need to keep in there.

Then you need to take out your rubber floor mats. You can wash them with a cleaning spray, scrubbing once over, and rinse them off with water. They can then air dry while you detail the rest of the vehicle.

Next, take an air compressor and blow into all the nooks and crannies of your vehicle. Try to blow all the dirt and debri to the center. This will get all the dirt that’s impossible to get with a vacuum cleaner out from where it is hiding! Then you just vacuum it all up once it’s all in a convenient spot.

You can also use stiff scrub brushes to loosen dirt or Skittle pieces from the grip of your car carpet. Then vacuum over the carpet again to get it all out!

A carpet cleaning machine to pull out the dirt and scum from your carpet.

As for your seats, if they’re leather, you should use a specialized leather cleaner and rub on the seats. You don’t want to rub the grime in, so you should flip the terry cloth often so you’re not rubbing your seats with the dirty part of it the whole time. Then you allow the seats an hour to dry and rub in a leather conditioner, which will help keep the leather seats supple.

When you’re cleaning around the buttons on the dash, put a cloth around a screwdriver without sharp edges. Then spray the cloth with a nontoxic cleaner and use the screwdriver covered in cloth to clean around the buttons and divots in your dash panel.

I’m sure you’ve looked at your air vents and seen at least one layer of dust on them, right? Well they’re basically a magnet for it. When you’re detailing your car, take a bristle painting brush, spray it with Pledge or another furniture polish, and brush it over the vents. Be sure to wipe off the dust collected on the brush before moving on to the next one.

You can also go back over all the vinyl in your car with a Magic Eraser. This will erase the scuffs on your doors and center console!

Now take these tips, go clean your car, and post a picture with your freshly detailed vehicle! And if you have any secret tips for detailing your own car,
share them with us!