When cleaning your car it’s easy to focus on the exterior, with the inside of your vehicle only receiving a quick whizz around with a vacuum cleaner.
However, it’s important to remember that the interior of your car is where you’ll be spending all your time – and a fresh feeling vehicle can make morning commutes feel a lot easier.
And while a vacuum and a new air freshener is a good starting point, there are some areas that are often neglected which deserve a dedicated deep clean.
The car interior experts at Finest Car Mats shared the areas of your vehicle that need attention sooner rather than later.
Footwells
Colin Boyd of Finest Car Mats warns that a shake out of your mats will not suffice.
“Put it this way, think about the soles of your shoes. Would you put your shoes up on the sofa? Your car mat is every bit as dirty so if your passenger is taking their shoes off for a long drive it’s like they’re resting their feet on the bottom of a shoe sole,” he explains.
“However, a clever way to clean your car mat and your footwell is to use a massage gun. It’ll loosen up a lot of dirt and grime that has embedded itself into the mats, and from there you can hoover it all up,” Colin adds.
He also advises that you get a mat that offers proper coverage. Ultimately, while you want to keep it clean, the car mat is a barrier to your footwell getting dirty, so a universal mat won’t cut it. Get something custom cut – for example, if you drive a Nissan Juke, get a custom cut Juke car mat.
The expert goes on: “Aside from that, we recommend a scrub brush or microfiber cloth and Turtle Wax’s Spot Clean Stain & Odor Remover for cleaning your mats.”
Headrest
Colin adds: “A car’s headrest often needs a good clean. Think of it like this: how often would you change a pillowcase? Are you cleaning your headrest nearly as much? If not, there’s a good chance that your headrest needs a good clean.
Seat Tracks
“Your seat tracks – the rails that you use to move the seat backwards and forwards – can get very dirty too, with the lubricant accumulating mud from shoes, the odd spillage and pet hairs. We find that when cars come in, the tracks need a good, deep scrub.”
Don’t Forget The Boot
Colin also recommends taking a closer look at your car’s boot, as space where a spare wheel goes can be a sneaky buildup-hotspot.
He says: “If you’ve spilled something there’s a chance that a small amount has seeped through into the spare wheel bay, because it’s a divot shape it’ll collect at the bottom. Now, if you’ve spilled more than one thing, that build up could be the root of that faint nasty odour that you’ve been struggling to get rid of.”
Colin recommends removing the boot lining, taking out the spare wheel, and cleaning the space with something like Muc Off bike cleaner, which breaks down dirt and grime.
