You are maybe one of those who neglect cleaning the car’s interiors. It might be that you had a hectic schedule, so you’ve had to take your breakfast in the front seat while you’re driven to your next location. Throughout the journey, maybe you let some crumbs drop there, spilled some juice or coffee, or throw some trash on the carpet. This really happens to some!

Over time, these things all build up. Stains, crumbs, mold, dirt, and mud from your feet on your pedals and around your footwell might not the things you want to see going on in the back. If you have kids, they smear their food in hard-to-reach places or some passengers there who ate too and didn’t think about cleaning up.

So, now your car interior is filthy and it smells awful! A simple standard vacuum, or spray, or air freshener just isn’t going to clean it easily. We need some drastic measures to get it looking, smelling, and feeling great again.

After all, nobody likes having to apologize to people when they get in your car. So, here are the five tips on how to clean the dirty car interior.

Step 1 – Retake a Look at It.

A great way to isolate the main areas of serious dirt in a dirty car is to retake a look at it. Some parts will clean easily, and you won’t need to come back to them.

For this, you need an excellent all-purpose interior cleaner. Choose an interior cleaner and leather cleaner that are pH neutral. When it does, it means that it’s right on all surfaces and is an effective cleanser. With that kind of product, you can remove dirt, oil, grime, and stains from plastics and upholstery.

Another thing also is that it should not leave residue on your leather and smells of Febreze. The product should penetrate your leather and work from the inside to lift out dirt, oil, and grease and preserve the quality without residue or deterioration.

If you keep your interior consistently clean, you might not need to go beyond step 1. But then since we’re talking about a dirty car, so we must proceed to step 2.

Step 2 – Sort out the fabrics and upholstery

After sorting out the less dirty parts of your car, it’s now time to focus on other worst things.

So, we’re talking about car mats and other parts. Car mats are where the worst of the dirt sits. This is not surprising anyway, as it’s where your feet go.

You might be searching for the best product here. Firstly, you want something that doesn’t need you to use a hose and clean your carpet first. A product should generate a great lather and lift dirt out from deep within your carpet fabric.

Search for a product where you’ll only need to spray, scrub, and wipe away the dirt. One product I can recommend is Benchmark Fabric Cleaner if you want to achieve fantastic results in a short time. Benchmark Fabric and Upholstery Cleaner is a leather cleaner designed to lift and remove stains, debris, and odors from your carpets, fabrics, and upholstery.

The product is ammonia-free, bleach-free, and solvent-free. This way, you can clean and protect the interior of your vehicle at the same time. It restores the quality of your fabric and leaving you with a good-as-new look to your interior.

Now, you’ve got spotless carpets and upholstery. The third step is to deal with your leather. However, if you don’t have any leather in your car’s interior, you can just move on to step 4 now.

Step 3 – Leather

Leather doesn’t just absorb dirt, and it also absorbs odors. It even cracks, fades, and wears. It’s designed not to need replacing even in that kind of state. But since you still want it to look its best, we need to maintain it.

Using Plush Leather conditioner reduces the ability of oils and grease to attach on to the leather surfaces. It has been formulated to protect and preserve your vehicle’s leather seats without adding a greasy film to them. This also helps to reduce future staining.

Step 4 – Plastics

It’s now time to get your plastics looking shiny and new. To save yourself from costly repairs on damaged plastics, you should use a cleaner that protects plastics from UV damage and warping. 

Use a product like Interior Satin Finish Protectant for this. It is designed for dashboards, door panels, consoles, door moldings, and vinyl. One application is all you will need to leave your surfaces supple and protected against damaging UV rays. In a matter of seconds, you can see a beautiful matte or satin finish on surfaces.

So, we’re done with our cleaning now! It’s time to give everything an excellent spray, to get a nice-smelling interior, just like a new car.

Step 5 – Scent

For this step, you’ll need scents that aren’t overwhelming for your interior and don’t smell like chemicals.

In this case, it’s advisable to use a light mist spray that doesn’t overpower. To use, simply spray into the air around your dashboard or directly on to your leather seats to eliminate unwanted odors. This replaces them with the wonderful smell of new leather.