Car care. Easy tips and tricks to always pull up in a clean car.

If you’re like me, you spend a ton of time in your car. Who wants to ride around in something that’s cluttered and dirty? Certainly not me. I try my best to remind everyone when they leave my car to take out what they brought in. Does this always happen? Certainly not. Sometimes you just have to pick up the slack if you want your space to be clean.

Let’s first talk about ways that you can simplify your car cleaning process. The first thing that we do when we buy a new car or a used car, like within the next two days, not months later is to outfit the car and mats that are rubber and are made for that particular model of car. Why spend a little extra money when you can get the universal mats? Because when you buy mats that are made for the car, they fit perfectly and they hug the wall of the car to trap any dirt and debris onto the mat and not onto the carpet of the floor of your car. This makes it so simple to lift the floormat dump it, and put it back into a perfect fit, and have it be dirt-free. I do not like carpet mats. There are so many reasons why, but for us these are a bad idea. First stop we’ve had four kids. Kids (and adults too) typically have really dirty shoes. These are all things that bring major car funk to your mats. Vacuuming the car is something that I just don’t wanna spend my time doing. Because I have plastic mats that have been made to fit my car, they are so simple to lift up and dump out or simply to wipe with a little brush to sweep out my car. Here's a look at the before, the lift out and dump, the wipe down and their back. No vacuum necessary.

Here’s the link to the mats that I use for an example:

Here is also a link for a inexpensive car handheld brush that I keep for touchups:

Next step, in the trunk of my car I keep a bag that is filled with all the extras that my kids tend to forget. I think we have all been there when we get to a destination and someone has forgotten their shoes. For this reason, I keep a pair of flip-flops in this bag. I also keep an extra sweatshirt for the kid that’s cold, a towel, because you never know there’s many times when you need one, an extra hairbrush and hair bands, a hat, and for me my pickle ball racket.

Here’s what my car bag looks like:

Because I know I have the spare items in the back of my car, I make sure that when everyone leaves my car, they take everything with them. I don’t want leftover shoes for the next sporting event, or an extra jacket. If it’s an extra items that I typically keep in my car, it goes in the bag in the trunk.

Snacks. If you have a family that gets hungry like I do, snacks are a must. I inevitably have someone in the car that’s rushing somewhere and they forgot to eat. For my car I keep extra Z bars and granola bars. I also keep drink packets that can be mixed into water that I can get through a drive-through.

The last thing that I would highly recommend for driving a clean car, would be a subscription to a car wash drive-through. For our family we have a membership to Circle K where we can wash up to six cars a day for $50 a month. Being that we have many cars and drivers this family plan works for us. My college daughter has her own membership near her campus where she pays much less, and can also keep a clean car.

Cars are a big investment. They are a place where we spend a lot of our time. Pull up in something that represents you. Something clean and that doesn't have extra stuff inside. I know this can be hard with kids, but trust me it is so worth the couple minutes of extra effort to empty your car every time you get home rather than to allow piles of miscellaneous, left goods to build up.

I might have been there, I might know that.

Xo,

Mama