My Filthy Car: With Car Cleaning Tips
Half of me is super embarrassed to share these photos, but the other half of me knows I am not alone.
There are five children who ride in this car. We are in here roughly 2-3 hours each day. Lugging kids to and from school, snacking in the car, sometimes breakfast on the go, backpacks, toys, you name it and it has been in my car. My children are savages.
Life gets busy and if I do not stay on top of it, my car gets out of control. The last time I cleaned it was right before Thanksgiving.
Enter with caution, and toss judgement out the widow. Did I mention it took us two hours to clean?
And now we present….
I drive a Suburban. It is ten years old, 170,000+ miles, and it is one of my favorite vehicles I’ve ever owned. There are three rows, which means, the further back you climb in the car, the grosser the messes get.
I like to go to a car wash to clean my car. I prefer to use their heavy duty vacuum and the commercial carpet shampooer. Sometimes, I also use canned carpet cleaner and a scrub brush, which you can get from the dollar store. Both methods are effective, but I certainly prefer the commercial carpet shampooer. Or, just call it a day and go buy a new car. Kidding.
Car Cleaning Tips
- First remove everything from the car- car seats and all. Take a bag (or if your car is anything like mine, you’ll find an abandonded bag in the car while you’re cleaning) and fill it with toys, bills and junk that needs to be kept.
- Then, do an overall vacuum of the entire car. Even if you have leather seats, run it over the seats as well, cause who are you fooling, there are crumbs everywhere!
- Now you can shampoo. Either hose the floorboards down with canned carpet cleaner and get to scrubbing, or break out the commercial shampooer.
- Vacuum again to fluff the carpet back up and remove particles the shampooing stirred up.
- Before returning the car seats to the vehicle, turn them upside down and shake to remove all hidden particles. Vacuum them like there is no tomorrow and machine wash any pieces deemed washable.
Let’s watch this car transform, shall we?
This is the passenger side floorboard. Clearly, my bottle of water, a phone bill, and lots of crumbs and stains.
The command center gets really bad quickly in my car. It is the catch all for change, receipts, cups, pencils, pens, and makeup. And, as the lone sock indicates, my dashboard gets bad as well. I toss the kids’ school papers up there and it gets a little out of control.
Scrub, scrub, scrub!
See the difference? 
Let’s move to the second row. This is where Matthew’s car seat is and where the two big boys usually sit. The floor below Matthew can get out of hand fast. He tosses his toys, crackers, and look at that… those red things with green grassy tops are strawberries that he could reach from his car seat as he played grab-bag with the grocery sacks. For what it is worth let me just say, fresh produce in my floorboards is not common.
The mess on Matthew’s side had reached such a level of grossness that when I would open the door things would fall out. That, for the record, can be embarrassing.
As far as the big boys are concerned, their side of the floorboard was not bad at all. After all, they know they need a place for their feet to go.
(brace yourself) 
Let’s move to the third row- where the twins sit. What is that saying, out of site out of mind. They have reached an age where they put their seat belts on themselves, or the big boys reach over and help them. So in all honesty, the mess took my breath away when I finally laid eyes on it.
Well, the horrid smell was taking my breath away as well. They make potions in their cup holders and cubbies. I guess they get bored back there? The side I am sharing is Nick’s side, which was moderately gross. Luke’s side, had a chocolate vomit smell to it and would make you lose your lunch. It was GROSS, just trust me.
And reason number 472 on why I love leather seats. They wipe up spotless! (A MUST with children!)
Tell me, what is the craziest thing you found in your car?
Are you that person who, previous to children, your car was spotless and now you can not keep up? (Me, too!)
What are your car cleaning tips and tricks? We want to know.
And don’t forget to hop over to Gotta Love Chevy DFW’s facbook page and share with them the time your car got the dirtiest.
I just got a new car, so no one is allowed to eat or drink in it. Or bring toys, books or papers in it.
Honestly, they’re kind of lucky I let them ride in it at all. ;o)
That’s funny, Shannon. Congrats on the new car- I love the new car smell. 😉
Thank you SO MUCH for this post!! I have had our minivan looking just like this so many times…in fact, I’m quite certain if I went out there now and sent you pictures it would look very similar indeed. Once I offered a ride to a neighbor who was walking to a parent event at the elementary school. When she got in the car I was so ashamed and embarrassed. I’m quite certain hers never looks that bad. Your pictures – the before and afters – look AMAZING! You rock. Thanks for the tips! Whenever my husband takes a look inside the van I just shudder. I know what’s coming next — the tirade about how disrespectful it is to allow the children to destroy what he has provided (which I in turn respectfully roll my eyes). ha ha 🙂 Thanks for letting me know I’m not the only one!
You know Kelly, every time I clean my car we start this new rule- no food or drinks at all in the car. It lasts about a week or two and then I find us back in the hustle and bustle of life. We’ll just have a quick snack in the car. Then we are eating breakfast on the way to school. Then someone leaves a sippy cup or a granola bar in their seat. You get it, I am sure.
All of the kids are responsible for getting their backpacks and such out of the car each afternoon. I tell them if you brought something into the car, you need to take it out. All it takes is overlooking a few things and then before we know it there is a stockpile of random things left behind.
The four biggest kids are starting baseball in a few weeks. I know the messes that are ahead lugging equipment, running from field to field and eating in between games and practices. Fun, fun.
I have been waiting for this post! I knew it was going to be a good one. 🙂 I showed Skylar the potion in Nicky’s seat. She said awesome!! 🙂
I am amazed at the before and after pictures!!!! I plan on using your tips for Mike’s old work truck. It is n-a-s-t-y!
I really haven’t found anything too crazy in my vehicles….just the occassional spoiled bottle or sippy cup. That has been years ago though. It is getting easier to keep the car clean now that my youngest is 7. I tell the kids to get their stuff out or it is going to charity. I’ve never done that, but they believe me and get their stuff out!
Another thing we started is having a designated car cleaning day. Every Weds after guitar lessons we head thru the $3.00 car wash and vacuuming is free! It is so easy to zip right in and out each week. I also tossed the carpeted floor mats and switched to rubber. Now all I have to do is take them out and rinse them off. Wonderful invention!
I’ve found gross things in my car, too, but nothing too bad lately. I remember listening to a conversation that the hubs and my friend’s hubs were having, and the friend’s hubs said that he found a whole cheeseburger, still in the wrapper, under one of the seats. He was amazed that his wife didn’t realize that one of them didn’t get their burger.
My sister had a mouse in her console eating the snacks she had stashed for her 3 little ones. (They live on a farm, lots of field mice around)
My best tip to keep our 10 year old Yukon XL with 170,000+ miles on it clean? (Our cars are almost twins!) I make all of my kids leave the car with something to throw away and with something to put back in the house. It helps a little bit! 🙂
Ok confession time. I cleaned out my truck yesterday and took out 1 bag of trash,3 bags of keep stuff! I can’t believe I had that much in my truck!
Jessica- is it not just crazy how much stuff accumulates in our cars?
I also have an OLD (97) Suburban, and I LOVE that thing. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed driving a vehicle more.
As far as how messy it is right now? I’m in full-fledged denial.
LOL! I also love my 10 year old Suburban and my 5 kids trash it just like that. It makes me crazy, I will clean it out and within a week it’s a mess again. I totally understand you on the third row and how it gets dirtier than any other place in the car. Under the carseats are the worst for us, once my DD spilled her chocolate milk and didn’t tell me. I dropped her off at school and headed to work. It happened to be over 100 degrees that day, and the car was parked in the sun. The smell was incredible when I returned 10 hours later. Ugh! I had to scrub the seats forever to get the smell out. So nasty! Oh and as for the little holder thingies in the back row, I figured out how to pop them out using a flat head screwdriver so I can scrub them. I’m always amazed at how much gunk is in there. Eww!
When my son was born, we had a Plymouth Valiant with crushed velour seats (a cool ride in the 70s). After all the spit up, dirt, gummy bears, etc., I thought we had cleaned it up pretty well before trading it in. However, my husband wanted to pull out the back seat in case we missed something – what kind of treasures could have slipped under the seat in the 5 years my son rode back there? The gross-est thing I found turned out to be a baby bottle with 4-yr-old formula/milk still in it. Ewwwww. NO– I didn’t open it!!!!
Oh… oh my… that’s awful. I can’t even imagine!!!
…and I’m really glad you didn’t try to open it!!!! =D
Becki, I am so glad I’m not the only one.
I can say Happy Meal chicken nuggets do not change much over a 3-4 month period of time. In case you were ever wondering.
I am a grandma and finally have a car that doesn’t have cheerios everywhere. UNTIL last week when I took 3 year old Isabelle, her dad put the car seat in and she was in the car a total of 25 minutes and did not eat anything, dad took the car seat out and the next day day , guess what was sitting right in the middle of that back seat?
A CHEERIO!!! It was sorta fun.
Janice- Cheerios are how toddlers mark their territory. Didn’t you know? 😉
Thanks for sharing.
Janice, I agree….I have grandkids too, and we have a different perspective by then, huh? I really thought I would treat them much the way I did my kids. HA! Not even close! Cheerios? No problem……ok – I spoil them….oh yes, I do! 🙂
Here from Blue Cricket Design. My “before” pictures are gross. They’re not as bad now that the kids are older, but still icky. When I saw your before and after pictures, I was amazed. It looks like a new vehicle.
Well, I don’t have any children yet. I also don’t care for driving. So, I don’t really clean out my car. Haha! However, I know my day is coming when my vehicle looks like that.
My van is clean right now, but that’s because we helped my BIL move last weekend 🙂
I just vacuumed my car today and then noticed how dirty the carpet is and how sticky the cup holders are. I’m so excited to try out your tips! Thanks for sharing.
I’d love for you to link up at DIY Thrifty Thursday at http://www.thrifty101.blogspot.com
~Michelle
I’m not sure when my cars were dirtier, when my daughters were little or when I worked in home health using my car to drive to patients’ homes. I’d have to move things just to sit down and feel safe driving.
I remember that milk smell. Nothing worse than a sippy cup rolling under a seat and you find it cuz of the smell!
Thanks for sharing, I didn’t know how well Carpet 409 works, and I think my little Prius could use some extra love!
Would love for you to share at Calling All Crafters, today!
http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com/2011/04/calling-all-crafters-4th-edition.html
OMG! I feel so much better about mine, now! But, I also feel like I should probably go clean it out. LOL!
My hubby is a neat freak so I dont have to clean our van, he does it for me :p My boys try their best to mark their territories though lol.
Just wanted to stop by and let you know I featured your project on DIY Thrifty Thursday! Thanks for linking up and hope to see you again soon! 🙂
Michelle @ Thrifty 101
http://thrifty101.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-thrifty-thursday-13.html
Kids are just hard on everything…but I found rubbing alcohol gets all kinds of stains out and doesn’t hurt the fabric or leave a watermark, because it evaporates so quickly…just an idea. Thanks for the great post!
My mini van accumulates tons of stuff and I don’t know how. We have a two year old and his side is always terrible with crumbled fish crackers or something and what evers.
I have a friend that told me to use scrubbing bubbles on the dash doors cup holders etc. it works wonderful because it foams into the holes and no scrubbing required just wipe away.