Keep Your Car Good As New: Cleaning Hacks

A new car is always a proud moment for everyone. The shiny look, the leathery smell, the glossy glasses and headlamps that makes your heart brim with excitement, that soon turns into a dusty, mouldy, and dull monster once the car hits its six-month milestone. It is then just an old car – no hype, no excitement, no nothing! With little kids and their crunchy snacks or a coffee lover/spiller of a wife, colleague/friends/neighbours with their dirty shoes, or the dusty traffic, monsoon rains or weather-mood-swings, keeping your car ‘as good as new’ is not an easy task. Sooner or later you realise that using your car cleaning kit is of little help and that trying to keep the spark is a Sisyphus task.

Here are some handy cleaning hacks that can help you keep the junk away from your car.

1. Teach your headlights to brush

Like how grey hair is an indication of our ageing selves, a dusty brown headlight shows that your car is ageing too. To get your headlight to shine like it’s new, all you need is your toothpaste. Smear toothpaste on your grimy headlights and leave it for a few minutes. Buff it gently and wash it off to see the magic.

2. Pet hair fall problem solved with water and squeegee

Your pet might be the cutest thing on the planet, but when your car fills with its shedding fur, it can get really annoying. To remove fur from your car apparel, you just need some water and a squeegee. Spray water onto the area, this loosens up the fur from the upholstery. Further, remove these with a squeegee.

3. Dish soap or Castile soap diluted with water for the vinyl dirt

It might get a little tricky to remove the embedded dirt and grime from your vinyl. A toothbrush is the best tool to help you in this situation. Use a mixture of dish soap/castile soap and water, and brush the dirt off the vinyl using a toothbrush.

4. Olive oil for your skin and the car’s

Olive oil not only gives shine to your skin but also to your car dashboard. Clean the dashboard with a duster. Use car wipes to rub the olive oil on the dashboard. You will wonder when the last time was that it had shined the way.

5. Clay dough tricks

When it comes to small pebbles, food crumbs or grime that refuse to be vacuumed from the car floor, your kid’s clay dough might do the trick. The tiny pebbles and food crumbs stick to the dough and come off the floor. Where vacuum cleaner fails, clay dough wins.

6. Paintbrush for your vent cleaner

Vents are one of those galling crevices where a lot of dust hides. To clean the vents, dig out those old painting brushes hidden in the attic. The brushes are long enough to reach all the nooks and crannies of the vents. Using a vacuum cleaner while you clean the vents helps to get those out sooner.

7. Cup holders, a.k.a cupcake holders

Cup holders are one of those spots that are really hard to clean. It is like a magical hollow where things go in and never come back alive. To avoid all that gunk to end up at the bottom of your cup holders, fix silicone cupcake liners. It is easier to clean the cupcake liners than the never-ending holes.

8. 2 tablespoons dish soap, 2 tablespoons washing soda- the ultimate stain removal recipe

Mix 2 tablespoons dish soap/all-purpose cleanser and 2 tablespoons washing soda in warm water. The dish soap helps getting off the grease and stains while washing soda is a cleaning booster. Dip a toothbrush or super sponge into the mixture and scrub of the stain in slow circular motion. Make sure you are done with all the vacuuming and dusting before you try this. You don’t want your seats dirty again.

9. Say goodbye to that nasty smell?

All those food crumbs, grime and dirt often make the carpets of the car give out a nasty odour. Baking soda acts as a deodorizer, and spreading it on the carpet often helps to solve this issue.

10. Who loves coke more than your alloy wheels?

There is more than one use for this amazing beverage. You can take away rust spots and dirt from your alloy wheel just with a piece of aluminium foil and coke. Soak the aluminium foil in coke and rub it against the rust spot. Grease that sticks to the alloy wheels can degrade its quality and hampers the appearance – get some white vinegar and rub it with a microfiber cloth to remove this.

11. Streaking wipers scream alcohol

We might have always come across that streaking wiper moment. A streaking wiper is not always a signal to be replaced. To save your windshield from being smeared with dirt clean the wipers with rubbing alcohol.

12. Toothpaste for scratch marks and nail polish to prevent it from rusting

Smear some toothpaste on to a piece of cloth and rub it on to the scratch marks, you can see how the cloth acts like an eraser. Alternatively, you can use neutral coloured nail polish on the scratches. It removes the mark and also prevents the part from rusting.

13. Old tricks still work

To get your windshields and windows to sparkle, use a sachet of shampoo along with the water. Nothing beats this age-old trick. Now wax your car and get a car air freshener, and you have a brand new version of your old car.

Making sure that the car is taken care of not only helps in its lustre factor, but also increases its life. This would further help you with its resale when it is time for you to upgrade to a new car.