Tuesday Tip: Keep Your Car Looking and Smelling as Clean as New

By Yehudit Garmaise

The best and easiest way to keep your car clean is to avoid eating in it. But if a no-food rule is not possible, the following are a few other tips to keep the inside of your car looking and smelling as clean as new:

1. Attach a little travel trash container or a plastic bag to the back of one of the front seats, and remind children to toss their garbage in that designated place. At the end of each day, remember to remove garbage bags, which can cause bad odors and clutter. 

2. Put silicone cupcake liners: in your cup holders to catch drips and spills from drinks. Instead of struggling to clean your cup holders, you can take the cupcake liners inside and wash them in the kitchen sink or dishwasher.

3. Keep Wet Ones or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes in your glove compartment to wipe up spills or messes on the spot. Once a week, grab a wipe, and wipe down the seats, the seat backs, the insides of the car doors, and the car’s console.

4. Clean up messes immediately: The longer you wait to clean up spills, the harder they will be to remove later. You can save yourself from permanent stains by taking a few minutes to clean up messes right when they happen.

Food, however, is not the only source of garbage and clutter in cars. 

5. Don’t use your car as a storage unit for things you are planning to give away or otherwise didn’t know what to do with. Before entering your home, take a minute to bring inside or throw away items that might have piled up in the car. 

Don’t forget to look under the seats and in the trunk, where many random items can be left for months.

6. Create organized spaces for items in your car, such as loose change for meters and car vacuums. Instead of allowing loose change to fall on your car’s floors, keep it neatly in coin holders next to the driver’s seat. 

7. Hang a small shoe organizer from the back of your passenger-side seat to stash books, toys, and stuffed animals for long drives, instead of allowing toys to roll all over the back seats.  

8. Knock or wipe your shoes clean: We can’t take off our shoes before entering our cars like we would our homes, but we can try to quickly knock any mud, dirt, or snow from our shoes before climbing in.