Basic Interior Cleaning Tips

Depending on how long between vacuuming your car, the quality of the fabrics, what you are vacuuming up and the tools at your disposal, all this will determine what sort of result you can achieve. Oh, and how patient you are!

So hopefully some of the ideas and simple hacks with tools many of you will have around your house will get you a result.

While it might sound obvious, you need good light. If you can’t see it every chance you will miss it, this goes for glasses as well if you use reading glasses you should probably have them on!

Be methodical, divide the car into sections making sure you move the seats all the way forward and back. With the mats (fabric) bang them with a tennis racquet or similar and put them back on the seat. Don’t put them on the car, they will scratch the paint on the ground they will pick up dirt leaves etc. I generally put them on the seat to vacuum the floor and put them back and give a vacuum when they are in position. Lastly, on the obvious stuff don’t run the vacuum hose through the car, it will have a tendency to pick stuff up and you will knock it into the car as you move the hose around.

Okay, some of the hacks and tips detailers use:

1) Sandy floors – bang them. Ways to do this. With your hand (might get a bit sore though!), a rubber mallet, I have even seen a massage tool used! A stiff brush will also help lift sand.

2) Pressure wash (even a hose) rubber matts, drink holder rubbers, ash trays anything you can take out of the car that might need a little bit more attention.

3) A couple of microfiber cloths and possibly a bit of general purpose cleaner good for things like makeup removal sunscreen etc (be careful with leather you are better off using a specific leather cleaner and conditioner here). Use one cloth to get rid of the bulk of the grime, the other as a “finisher”. Stay away from any solvent base products, it can potentially pull the colour out of vinyl’s and plastics.

4) Use a clean paint brush for the vents and other tough to get at places. Be careful of the metal part of the brush, you can always wrap some insulation tape around there as a precaution.

5) The dreaded animal hair. There are so many items around. I have found the anti-static brushes coupled with the vacuum to be the most effective, along with what looks/feels like volcanic rock. However, I haven’t seen that in retail outlets.

6) It is handy to have an assortment of different shaped brushes to get into all those hard to get at spots.

So these are the main items detailers will use when doing a basic interior vacuum. Remember, all you are trying to do is remove foreign matter out of the car in the most efficient and least invasive way.