Tips For Spring Cleaning Your Car

Thank you to Kimberly Clark and The Motherhood for sponsoring this post. The honest opinions are my own.

Spring is here! Our flowers are start to peek through, the temperatures are warming up, and we’ve even seen some blue skies and sunshine recently. It has me excited to spring clean everything especially our car!

With two kids and a big dog, there are muddy boot and paw prints all over the backseat of the car. There are homework papers, envelopes and more are scattered in the front and backseat. Since we do a lot of traveling, we also do a lot of eating in the car and unfortunately that means wrappers end up everywhere (I wish I had a nickel for every straw wrapper on the floor of our car right now!).

I can imagine anyone with young kids feels the same and that’s why I’m excited to share these tips for spring cleaning your car. They worked for us. Here’s some “before” photos:

Read through the tips and then check out the “after” pictures – what a difference!

Tip One – Get Organized

Assemble all of the items you will need to clean your car. Grab some shopping bags, garbage bags, Viva® Big Roll Vantage Paper Towels, vacuum and (extension cord if you need it) car wipes, a multipurpose cleaner, and window cleaner. By piling everything together you will know what you have and won’t have to run around to find it once you are in the midst of cleaning. It makes things simpler, easier, and more convenient.

Tip Two – Get The Kids Involved In The Clean Up

Since I’m guessing the kids are part of the reason the car is a mess, get them involved in the clean up. It’s surprising how excited younger kids can get about cleaning. Take advantage of it while you can! Make it fun, give everyone a plastic shopping bag and set a timer. See who can either clean up their area of the car the fastest or who fills their bag the most in a certain amount of time. For parents of older kids, if they have a weekly chore list switch some things around and replace a regular chore with picking up the car. They may welcome the change.

Tip Three – Don’t Forget The Trunk

While you are working on picking up the odds and ends inside the car, don’t forget the trunk. It’s never fun to get your car sparkling clean and the next time you go somewhere you find the trunk a mess. The nice thing about the trunk is that most likely it is free of straw wrappers and other food related wrappers however it can also see its fair share of dirt due to bags of gardening soil, mud thanks to football, baseball, golf, or soccer cleats, or woods shavings, nuts, bolts, and more due to hardware store trips, as well as errant receipts and grocery bags. So grab a bag and gather up all the trash and empty out anything that doesn’t belong in there permanently.

Tip Four – Vacuum

Grab your vacuum and use it to clean the floors, seats, in-between the seats, and the trunk. If you have a handheld vacuum that doesn’t need to be plugged in just grab and go. Otherwise plug in the extension cord, plug in your vacuum and use the hose to suck up all of the dirt and grime.

Tip Five – Wipe Away The Grime

Use Viva Big Roll Vantage Paper Towels and wipe away the grime.

Viva Vantage has a scrubby texture, like a terrycloth. It’s great for getting stainless steel appliances and glassware to shine and scrubbing stovetops, patio furniture and other grimy surfaces like the inside of your car.

Spray multipurpose cleaner and use your paper towels to wipe down the dashboard, steering wheel, gear shift, glove compartment, seat belt buckles, center console, cup holders and more.

For really grimy areas be sure to let the cleaner sit for a bit before wiping away. It really makes a difference when you give it time to work and then tackle it with Viva Vantage Paper Towels.

Tip Six – Preventative Care

Keep your care from getting as messy as it once did with a few simple tips. Put silicone cupcake wrappers in the cup holders to keep them from getting sticky and dirty again. Get a coin organizer to keep track of loose coins. Put a small trash can or bag in the car so all the trash can go in one place and be easily removed when you want a quick clean up. And finally, put a stylish bin in the trunk and you can put your grocery bags in it and then you’ll be able to bring in all the groceries in just a trip or two. It also acts as a great holder for sporting equipment, hardware pieces and parts, and other odds and ends that may find themselves scattered about the trunk.

Here are the after pictures as promised:

Looks great right? Driving around in a clean car is such a wonderful way to welcome spring!

I also recommend keeping a 6-pack Cottonelle® and a pack of Viva paper towels in the trunk as well. You never know when they will come in handy. The toilet paper is great for random runny noses and the paper towels are always handy for any spur of the moments clean ups. As parents we know these both can happen at any time!

To ensure you are prepared for the annual clean and spring home essentials restock, Viva, Cottonelle and Scott offer products, available at Walmart, that are go-to necessities to create a home that’s spic and span.

These tips for spring cleaning your car will make it easier to tackle such a big project and the tips for preventative care will keep it shining and sparkling throughout the spring and summer months.