Everyone enjoys the feel of a spotless and wonderfully clean car, the smell, the touch, the space etc… however nobody seems to actually keep a clean car for themselves. In the next few minutes I hope to give a few extra ideas to detail how you could keep your vehicle clean without changing much of your daily routine.

So my first point is for families, the easiest way to keep your kids from cluttering up the vehicle is to enforce a “carry it in, carry it out” rule in which your kids are responsible for everything they bring into the car and that they have to take it out when the car ride is over. You can make this rule much easier to enforce by limiting them to carrying things in a book bag which is easy for them to throw all of their junk into at the end of the car ride.

Next you should always have a trash bag on hand, not just one of those plastic bags that the baggers at the grocery store give you, but an actual kitchen trash bag. You should keep the bag in the back and out of the way but be ready for lots of fast food and garbage to be tossed out which you can then tie up. With small children, try to minimize spills as little as you can the sippy cup may sound stupid but it is a wonderful invention that keeps your kids from staining everything you own. This is especially important in a car which you could be trying to sell in a couple of years and a big stain in the carpet would not help. You should always stop to eat, one of the worst things for the vehicle is to eat lots of fast food in it. The smell will ruin the wonderful new car smell that cars come with and most importantly even if your car doesn’t smell new it will make the car smell greasy and flat out bad.

For small stains keep a small stain remover with you because the quicker you act the easier the stain will be to remove, so there are certain items you can by that are specifically for removing stains and you can even get a white not gel toothpaste to do the job (and leave it smelling minty fresh). One of the best investments I ever made was getting a set of rubber mats to put into my car, the carpet can be so easily stained and start to smell so quickly that rubber mats were perfect for easy cleaning and protection. My final bit of advice is that you should keep everything in your car well organized; don’t just throw things into the glove box that will get in the way later. If you have to use the restroom when you get home and don’t feel like taking your debris out of the car go back and do it after you do your business because you will be much happier with the cleaner car you get to step into the next day.