Your car is like a mobile house. You drive it everywhere, and you use it for many kinds of situations. Whether you’re wet from the rain, or you’ve been in the gym and you’re sweaty, you always go in your car without thinking how dirty your car seats get.
It can also quickly become a dumping ground for toys, bottles, and pretty much every kind of trash. Even if you don’t have a family road trip planned, it’s always a good idea to give your car’s inside a good scrubbing to make the most room for food, clothes, and whatever else you need to transport.
A clean car means a healthy life. Don’t inhale uncleaned seat dust anymore. Read on to get informed on how to clean car seats.
How to Clean Car Seats
Consider this: Sometimes, you and your kids are sweaty, dirty, or sick, and you and your family may sit in these seats. When you do that, you give the car a foul odor. Your car seats can get stained too. And this immediately makes your car look older than it is, and the ambiance is a lot worse.
You can decrease undesirable odors and give your car’s interior a clean, fresh look by carefully cleaning the car seats, whether they’re leather, vinyl, or cloth. Vacuum the car seats first with a soft brush head, then use the adequately targeted cleaning method.
Keep in mind that there are different types of car seats, and you have to use a different method for a different material. For example, you don’t clean leather the way you clean cloth. But all the methods are easy for whichever material you have.
Generally, it would be best to vacuum clean your seats at least once a week, and you should clean new stains immediately. Depending on how much you use your car, you can clean them thoroughly more often.
Leather car seats
We all know that leather can be the most delicate material for your car seats. But also it’s the best looking and best feeling material. Consider using all these steps when you clean your leather car seats.
First of all, you should take some leather cleaning wipes. Start cleaning the car seat, one area at a time. After that, you should take a leather cleaner or mild soap and clean the seats with a soft, damp cloth.
Then, you rinse off the soap with another damp cloth until you see that the soap isn’t coming out anymore and is completely removed. You take a dry cloth and buff the seat. It would be best if you also considered buying and using a leather protectant to condition it.
That product will make sure that future stains will come out more quickly. Also, you should use as little liquid as possible if your leather car seats have perforations.
Vinyl car seats
Vinyl car seats are easier to clean. While the specific method for cleaning vinyl seats varies depending on the product, you can usually start by wiping them down with a damp rag and then applying the vinyl cleaner to another clean damp rag. After that, use a soft cloth to wipe the vinyl cleaning solution across the seats.
Another method of cleaning these types of seats is using a bleach mixture. A potent mixture for cleaning would be mixing the bleach with water in a 1:1 ratio. This creates an efficient solution.
After that, you dip a cloth in the mixture. You can also use a sponge or a stiff-bristled brush. You scrub the seats one area at a time. You scrub them mostly where they have stains. After you do that, you dry them with a dry cloth.
Save car seats’ color
But, the essential thing that you have to make sure of is that no color is coming out of the seat. So make a little bit of the solution and brush a tiny area of your seat that isn’t overexposed. If you see the color coming out, don’t use this method.
In that case, just spray the car seats with an all-purpose cleaner on the stained areas and let them dry. It should remove most of the stains and the bad smell.
Cloth car seats
When you’re cleaning your cloth car seats, the first thing to consider is vacuum cleaning them. Ensure that they are free of dust, pet hair, and all kinds of debris, so you don’t push them further into the seat. Use all the tools your vacuum cleaner comes with to reach all the spots.
After that, if you see horrible stains, you should pre-treat them. For most grease stains, you should use a little cleaner and work it in the fabric with a brush. Make sure to leave that for at least 15 minutes before starting your overall cleaning.
The deep cleaning begins
You may need to combine the cleaning solution with warm water, depending on the kind of your cleaner. Follow the instructions on the product packaging for how much to use per gallon of water. It would help if you used a spray bottle so that every area can get an equal amount of product.
After spraying the seat, you should take a brush and work on the product. Start from the top of the seat, so the diluted solution drips down. Make sure to scrub every area well. When your brush gets dirty, cleanse it with clean water.
When you’re done with that, take a dry microfiber cloth and ensure that all the moisture is out of the seat. If they still aren’t clean all the way, do another round of this. Repeat the process as many times as needed. In the end, allow the seats to dry and use a protective coating.
Conclusion
We all know that even though we try to keep our car clean, it will still be dirty one day. So don’t worry too much. Just try not to stain it with paint, food, or grease. Those stains are hard to remove. However, considering the above-mentioned instructions on how to clean car seats, maybe those stains will disappear as well.
Even if your seats look clean, you still need to clean them from time to time because they fill with bacteria and dust as they are used. If your car seats are clean, your whole car is. Nothing can compare to the fresh and clean smell when you go inside.
