snow brush with ice shovel

How to Clean a Car

First things first: empty the car out. Throw away any garbage, recycle the crusty old soda bottles and the driving directions to unrecognizable destinations, and pull out the floor mats. If your car has plastic or rubber mats, quickly spray them down with water and sprinkle some baking soda over them. Let these sit a while, then give them a quick scrub with a brush or rag before rinsing off the baking soda. If your car has carpeted floor mats, skip the water of course, but do throw a layer of odor-absorbing baking soda over the mats and let it sit until you're ready to vacuum.

Next, wash any plastic or vinyl interior surfaces with a rag dampened in hot water. Yep: just hot water. You might want to run a dry rag over a dusty dashboard first, to avoid making mud. If you want your interior vinyl and plastic surfaces to be shiny and protected from fading and cracking, choose an environmentally conscious product like Eco Touch Dashboard Protect, and let the surfaces dry completely before applying it. Because I drive a decade-old Saturn, I didn't have to worry about how to clean car leather, but if you do, there isn't actually anything to worry about: you can simply wipe those surfaces down with gentle soap and water and then condition them with a small amount of olive oil, as described in my article on cleaning leather.

Now clean the interior windows and rear-view mirror with white vinegar. I just put it in a spray bottle straight up, but a mixture of equal parts vinegar and distilled water works just as well. The only drawback to using vinegar on windows instead of harsh ammonia-based products is that vinegar doesn't always dry as quickly, and cloth rags usually leave streaks behind. I try to use paper towels only as a last resort, so instead I used folded-up pieces of old newspaper, which absorbed the vinegar and left the windows streak-free.

The last step in car interior cleaning is to vacuum all the carpets and upholstery. Make sure you vacuum the trunk, if you have one, or lay down the seats to reach otherwise unexposed areas of carpet, if your vehicle has that feature. And, of course, don't forget to vacuum carpeted mats you may have pulled out of the car earlier. Once again, sprinkling baking soda on all the upholstered or carpeted surfaces and allowing it to sit for at least five minutes before vacuuming will help remove odors. If the seats in your car have stains you'd like to get rid of, you can clean them after vacuuming by following the steps in Eric's article about cleaning upholstery. Afterward, put the things back in the car that belong there, like your road atlas and jumper cables.

Finally, the fun part. Washing the exterior of the car is the fun part, right? The trick here is to use as little water as possible and, if you can, to park the vehicle on the lawn. That way, the wastewater will be filtered in the ground instead of running straight into the storm drain, which would lead it, unadulterated, into nearby waterways. Unfortunately, because I live in a large apartment complex, my only option was to use the car wash bay in the underground garage. Before you go after the car with a soapy rag, give it a quick rinse to loosen the dirt and wash away some particles that could scratch the paint as you scrub. To wash the car, limit yourself to a single bucketful of liquid. I used a homemade mixture of liquid dish soap, powdered laundry detergent (both made by Seventh Generation), and water. You can make a concentrate of this soap to keep handy by stirring 1/3 cup dish detergent and 1/4 cup laundry detergent into a gallon of water. Or you can make a single-use solution, like I did, by mixing a couple tablespoons of each soap into 2-3 gallons of water in a bucket. After you've soaped the car up thoroughly, give it one last quick-as-possible rinse, and let it dry.

At this point, you can be done cleaning your car, or you can put a couple of finishing touches on it. To scrub tires, hubcaps, and bug-encrusted license plates, rub on a thick paste of baking soda and water. As always, be sure to use rinse water sparingly. If you want to put a coat or two of wax on your clean car, try to use an environmentally friendly brand. These are relatively hard to come by, even though most car waxes use natural carnauba wax as a base; the problem is all of the hazardous chemicals that most companies mix in with the carnauba wax. Your best bet for an eco-friendlier alternative is probably Optimum Car Wax, which is made by Eco Car Care and is available at several online shops.

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