The interior of your vehicle goes through a lot. Whether you have children or not, you likely have multiple people, shopping bags, and other things coming and going from your car regularly. Unfortunately, it is easy for your interior to show the results of this use. These are a few tips to help you keep your upholstery looking and smelling great.
Gather Your Supplies
When you first saw that new Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, RAM for sale and bought your vehicle, you probably wanted to keep it clean, but you need a few supplies. Gather a vacuum with a hose and other attachments, microfiber rags, a bucket, a soft-bristled brush, and a spray bottle. Collect a few cleaning products made especially for stain removal, upholstery, and/or leather.
Vacuum First
After you remove all the trash from your vehicle, get the surface dirt, debris, and dust vacuumed up. You don’t want to rub this down into your upholstery as you clean. Use attachments to get in the crevices between your seats. Do a thorough job.
Treat Stains
To clean your seats of stains, use a stain remover made especially for your upholstery. If you have leather seats, choose a leather cleaner or saddle soap. For cloth upholstery, consider a commercial upholstery cleaner or homemade cleaner, but be sure you do your research and choose products that work for your seats.
Apply the stain remover, which should have the consistency of a paste, and brush it into the fabric using your soft-bristle brush. After the paste dries completely, vacuum it up. Check for additional stains and treat as necessary.
Apply Your Upholstery Cleaner
When you are ready to clean the car seats, use a spray bottle with an appropriate upholstery cleaner. Use only a light mist of the cleaner so you do not saturate your upholstery.
Clean all areas of your upholstery, but start from the top and work down. This prevents you from soiling areas you have already cleaned. Then, wipe your seats down completely with a damp microfiber cloth. Consistently change your water so it stays clean and doesn’t transfer dirt and grime onto your clean upholstery.
Let Everything Dry
Choose a nice day to complete your car detailing task so you can leave the windows down and let your upholstery dry completely. You can also leave your doors open, but turn off your interior lights, and position a circulating fan so that it blows into the car.
Cleaning Leather Upholstery
If your seats are leather, start by applying saddle soap or leather cleaner to a damp microfiber cloth and rub down your seats. Follow the same pattern as you would with cloth upholstery. Start from the top and work your way down. Change rags as they get dirty so you aren’t reapplying the debris to other parts of your leather.
When everything is clean and dry, apply a leather conditioner. This keeps your seats soft and prevents cracking. Then, buff the seats with a clean, soft cloth.
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Enjoy Your Clean, Fresh Vehicle
It may take some time to restore your upholstery to like-new condition, but it’s worth it. You can protect your seats, make your upholstery last longer, and keep your car smelling clean and fresh by spending a few hours every so often caring for your car’s interior.
