You clean your home, you clean your office space, but have you cleaned your vehicle?

Now, more than ever, cleaning has been on the forefront of everyone’s mind. Here at Copart Canada, we deal with vehicles daily, so when it comes to cleaning them, we have some insight that may help you. Believe it or not, cleaning your vehicles interior is more than removing the garbage, water bottles, coffee cups, receipts, and take out wrappers from your floor, it’s about getting into the overlooked places where dirt and germs remain unseen.

Let’s be honest, most of us avoid cleaning the interior of our vehicles until we absolutely must. Whether were put into a situation where we feel we must clean it because we’d be embarrassed if others saw the state of our vehicle or it’s so dirty and smelly, we just can’t take it anymore. We’ve all been there.

Think about how much time you spend in your car; driving to work, driving with your family, and travelling for leisure. Regular auto-interior cleaning is essential for good health and it’s probably time for you to clean your vehicles interior.

The main culprit of a dirty interior is dust and if you don’t know this already, were sorry to tell you that dust is composed of some gross things, including plant pollen, human and animal hairs, and skin cells. In fact, dust may contain up to 9000 different types of fungi and bacteria! Ew.

When cleaning the interior of your vehicle the number one rule is start from the top-down. The reason you start from the top down is based on the wisdom that when you disturb dust particles from the higher places, it falls to the lower places, therefore if you start with the top-down cleaning approach you won’t miss a thing!

So, let’s talk about the best way to clean your vehicle’s interior.

Declutter: throw away garbage and recyclables.

• This may seem obvious, but the first step is to get rid of all the garbage and recycles from your doors, floors, cup holders, trunk and any other places the garbage and recycles are in your vehicles.
• Get rid of the “extras”. Take some time to remove those extra receipts and papers out of your glove compartment, sort through all the reward cards in your middle console, take the shoes out of the trunk and remove all unnecessary clutter from your vehicle.  

Vacuum the seats

This is based on the wisdom that while you disturb the dust and particles from higher places, it falls to lower places, you’re going to begin with the seats and other high areas first.

Dust the dashboard, rear window shelf, windows and other surfaces.

• With the top-down approach in mind dust the dashboard, console and other surfaces.
• To further clean consider using a soft microfiber cloth dipped in water, wipe down the dash, console and other hard or leather surfaces.
  • If the vehicle dashboard is extremely dirty, we recommend using warm water with a mild soap.
  • Clean your windows with a vehicle specific window cleaner. Spray the cleaner on a cloth and wipe the window in a rhythmic manner. Buff with a dry towel to reduce streak marks.
  • We advise you not to use harsh chemicals on your vehicle’s surfaces, unless that product was made specially for the interior of your vehicle surfaces.
• Pro Tip: Always read the label of a product before use to ensure it is appropriate for the material of your dashboard. 

Remove and clean the floor mats

• When reading the vacuuming seats section, you were probably thinking “why wouldn’t I do the floors as well?” following the idea of starting top-down we are now ready to take the next step.
• The next step is to vacuum the floor and the floor mats. Be sure to remove the floor mats completely from your vehicle. Vacuum the floor underneath the mats along with vacuuming the mats and underneath the mats. Take your time vacuuming these locations as a lot of dirt and debris get lost in the space between the floor mat and carpet.

Remember the tight places

• Vents, air passes through them before blowing directly on your face while you drive.
• Vents also happen to be a small space where debris and bacteria thrive. It’s extremely important to keep vents clean. To be precise, use a cotton swab or a toothbrush to clean your vehicle’s vents.

So, whether your cleaning your existing car, or getting a used car, make sure you employ these cleaning tactics to help you stay healthy. Speaking of used cars, check out some of the Drive Wholesale vehicles Copart Canada has in stock.