How to keep your car clean without (almost) ever cleaning it
Tell me how you look after your car and I'll tell you who you are! Thus a clairvoyant may begin with the intention of discovering someone's personality. Indeed, there may be a link between car care and personality type. There are those who have a fixed appointment with their car every weekend to get it back as it did when it just came out of the car showroom, equipped with vacuum cleaners, dishcloths and degreasers of all kinds. Those who, on the other hand, consider the car a mere means of travel, and therefore only pay attention to the fact that the pedals are clear and that the glass is not completely fogged: it does not matter if chaos rules the rest of the car!
In short, car cleaning, whether you belong to one or the other type of person, is something you have to take care of sooner or later. Don't be afraid: taking care of your car will make you spend the time you need to stay in the passenger seat more pleasantly, just as a clean and fragrant house is more welcoming than a dirty and messy one.
The ideal would be to put into practice some simple habits that help keep the car clean without having to spend too much time on it: impossible? Not at all! If you apply the advice we give you in this article, you will be able to keep your car clean for a long time and without much effort!
So let's start with some tips for keeping the car clean by cleaning it less frequently than you think:
- Don't delay: do it now!
You have just finished eating a chocolate bar and you do not know where to throw the package: you say to yourself “I'll put it here on the dashboard, when I get out I'll throw it”. No! Probably when you arrive at your destination other thoughts will come to your mind and you will not remember that paper to throw. Throw it away! Where is it? If you can't reach a bin immediately, have bags in which to store all the garbage you generate when you are in the car. The ideal would be to have a bag for each type of material, in order to sort out the waste immediately, but we do not expect so much: a single bag will be sufficient that you will periodically empty by separating the garbage. This way, your car will always be free of empty bottles, useless receipts and expired parking tickets. The same goes for any stains you cause: do not postpone cleaning when you have many stains to remove, as they may have become encrusted, but fix the damage the same day.
- Cardboard and newspaper sheets for the winter season:
What do you do when you come home in the winter and your shoes are soaked or muddy? You takes them off on the threshold of the door, you certainly don't wander around the house leaving stains everywhere! Well, the same should be done when getting into the car: no, we are not asking you to take off your shoes, but to adopt strategies that prevent dirt from mud and water. How? Simple! Cut out some cardboard shapes, or arrange some newspaper sheets on the mats: in this way you will prevent the mats from getting dirty and you will save yourself the trouble of washing them, squeezing them and waiting for them to dry (with the risk that the typical smell of non-woven fabrics will remain not dried perfectly!). Obviously, be careful not to hinder the functioning of the pedals!
- A cloth to clean the dashboard
In your home you have stored your cleaning products close at hand, so you can easily take what is useful if necessary. The same should be done with your car: keeping some cleaning products at hand will make it easier for you to take care of the car: the advice is to keep a cloth or duster in an accessible compartment. You know those interminable waits at traffic lights or stuck in traffic? These are the most suitable moments not to take a peek at your mobile phone, but to wipe the cloth on the dashboard, the point where dust and dirt accumulate more easily: just one swipe given regularly and you will not have to resort to specialized products frequently.
- Keep only the essentials
If you are one of those people who "You never know it will come in handy ..." your car will surely have everything you need for any eventuality. Books, games for children, some cosmetic products, a super-equipped work kit that will be the envy of even the most well-stocked mechanic: all these things can be useful, of course, but to the detriment of order! Although well finished, the cars still have limited spaces that should only be filled with what is really essential. Remember that it is unlikely that you will find yourself in the desert without being able to reach a shop and buy what you need. One day you can easily buy everything you might need instead of keeping it for years and years in the car, with the risk that it will deteriorate before it is used, if it is a product subject to expiry. What you definitely need to keep in your car is a first aid kit, an emergency kit (complete with an approved reflective jacket, an approved warning triangle and snow chains), a pen and handkerchiefs.
- Clean car even at the beach!
The beach and clean car for many is an impossible combination: of course, we do not promise that not even a grain of sand will end up in your car, but we will reveal some good practices to postpone car cleaning for a few days. When the summer season arrives, put a soft brush in the car: you will need it to remove excess sand from your feet that risks falling into the passenger compartment! If you are scrupulous, you can equip yourself with a small tank of water and a small towel: whoever wants to get into your car will have to undergo the washing of the feet! If, on the other hand, you are from the “minimal effort” school, cover your seats with seat covers which you will then beat regularly to eliminate the sand collected.
- Buy muffin moulds!
No, we weren't wrong. The reason why we advise you to bring the muffin moulds into the car (you can choose between silicone or disposable paper), is to cover the cup holders your car is equipped with: that's where the dust lurks until it becomes concrete and requires the use of a vacuum cleaner. By adopting this stratagem, however, you will line the compartments so as to easily empty the moulds at will, rinsing them under water or throwing them out directly.
- Use organisers
This advice is especially valid if children are traveling in the car with you, which necessarily means that the car gets dirty more easily or fills with scattered objects. There are storage pockets to attach to the seat where you can store everything you need: toys, water bottles, wet wipes, spare diapers, sunglasses ... Nothing will get lost in the passenger compartment but everything will remain in its place.
- Whenever you leave something, remove it immediately
At this point of the article you will have well understood that to keep the car clean your mantra must be "Do not postpone what you can do right away": well, if you have shopped and it occurs to you to leave your purchases in the trunk waiting of a more favorable day to find him accommodation, you are wrong! Do it now: empty the trunk of what makes it unusable, and always try to keep it clear: you will need space when you least expect it!
- A good car air freshener!
You may think that a perfumer is useless, but we know how much getting into a perfumed car has another effect than a car in which we know perfectly what the owner ate the last time or being able to assume the number of cigarettes he consumes each day. : as a last tip we give you to give your car a good smell, but don't overdo it! Your aim is to make the passenger compartment pleasant, not to stun your passengers as soon as you open the door. For a natural and delicate fragrance we recommend using a cotton lavender bag to hide under the seat or to display. If, on the other hand, you prefer a neutral smell, you can use a bag (an old knotted sock is also fine!) Filled with coffee grounds, coarse salt or bicarbonate: in this way, in addition to naturally absorbing odors, you will also remove some of the moisture in the passenger compartment.
This guide is definitely not for car cleaning maniacs, who will instead like to get to the smallest crevices, but for those who use the car every day and want to keep it in a decent state without dedicating all the free time to its cleanliness. From time to time a more thorough and thorough cleaning will be necessary but in the meantime you can enjoy your clean car with minimal effort!
