While many motorists clean their car every week or fortnight, few do the interior at the same time — chiefly because the cabin isn’t exposed to dirt, debris and the weather. From time-to-time, however, you’ve got to clean out the inside of your car, especially if your children are regular passengers or you eat in the car and forget to take out the rubbish.
Cleaning the inside of a car isn’t difficult, but it can be time-consuming and fiddly, with lots of nooks and crannies where dust and dirt can hide. To help, here’s a guide on cleaning the inside of your car like a pro.
Step 1: Clear Out the Rubbish and Start Vacuuming
Before you start wiping the dash and cleaning the seats, it’s important to remove any rubbish and unwanted items from the car — so grab your vacuum cleaner and a bin bag and get to work. It’s a good idea to use a brush vacuum tool to remove dust from the air vents, as this can lead to bad odours lingering in the cabin. We’d recommend removing car mats and boot liners, too, as lots of dirt and debris can collect beneath these.
Once you’ve given the interior a good vacuum it’ll already look much better — and that’s just step 1 of the process.
Step 2: Clean the Windows
Cleaning glass on the inside of the car is nearly as important as cleaning the outside; fingerprints, dust and smears on the inside of the windscreen can reduce visibility and lead to dangerous dazzle when it’s sunny. By using a quality cleaning product like our Anti Glare Glass Cleaner, you’re guaranteed a streak-free finish for high all-round visibility.
For the best results when cleaning internal glass, spray a couple of squirts of glass cleaner directly on to a soft cloth and use a figure of eight motion to remove streaks, dirt and dust from the windows. It’s a good idea to clean the windows before you do the interior surfaces, as any drips won’t have an impact on your clean dashboard.
Step 3: Kill Bacteria and Odours
Spend a lot of time in your car? No matter how clean and tidy you keep it, germs and bacteria will gather on internal surfaces, and odour from food and other sources will stick to soft furnishings. To combat this, invest in a bottle of Simoniz Odour Neutraliser. Suitable for hard and soft surfaces, this odour-eliminating spray is guaranteed to leave the inside of your car smelling and feeling fresh.
To remove bacteria from hard surfaces, spray the product directly on to the metal or plastic and leave for a few minutes, before wiping with a soft cloth. For soft furnishings, just spray on and let the formula do the work.
Step 4: Clean and Polish the Dashboard
Dashboards are prone to collecting dust, debris and fingerprints, and can soon lose their just-bought appearance after a few thousand miles. Whether your dash lacks is scuffed or is just plain mucky, we have a number of products which are designed to return it to its showroom-best, including Foam Action Dashboard Cleaner, Matt Dashboard Wipes, Dash Restorer Pads and specialist Matt and Gloss Dashboard Treatments.
For day-to-day cleaning, we’d recommend the Matt Dashboard cleaner. This tough cleaner offer long-lasting protection and a rich, matt finish for most dash surfaces.
Step 5: Clean the Seats, Doors and Carpets
Whether made from upholstery or leather, soft furnishings in the cabin are subject to lots of wear and tear, and are right in the firing line when it comes to dirt and stains. For fabric-upholstered surfaces, we’d recommend scrubbing the carpets and seats with our Upholstery and Carpet Cleaner. This intensive cleaning formula is guaranteed to lift stains and odours from interior fabrics, and will restore the just-bought smell of your car.
For leather surfaces, use our special Leather Protection Wipes to remove dirt and marks, before treating the material with our Leather Protection Cream. This product guarantees to nourish and protect the leather to prevent wear, and can be used on all types of leather trim around the cabin.
If you claim to love your car, remember to take care of it on the inside, too. Our interior car cleaning products are specially developed to care for internal surfaces, so you can restore your car to its just-bought best inside and out. For more information, visit the Simoniz website.
