When was the last time you cleaned the carpet when cleaning your car? Unfortunately, most car owners overlook the carpet for too long, leaving stains, sticky substances, and unchecked mud.
A dirty carpet can make you uncomfortable because of the stink, especially on a hot summer afternoon. Luckily, deep cleaning is easier than you might think, and you don’t have to do it regularly as long as you remove spills as they occur.
Keeping your car carpet and upholstery clean and looking new doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. You can use the below car carpet cleaning hacks to ensure yours looks clean:
Tidy Up the Car and Prepare it for Cleaning
Having a clean carpet can dramatically change your vehicle’s interior. Whether you have a brand-new or an old vehicle, regular cleaning your vehicle’s carpet is necessary to eliminate debris, dirt, and stains.
Cleaning your car carpet at home isn’t difficult, and you can do it in less than an hour. However, it’s best to clear out the garbage that has collected throughout the car before you start cleaning. For example, you can throw out any drink cups, food wrappers, mail, or anything else accumulated on your car carpet.
You can eliminate garbage buildup down the road by placing a small trash bag or bin in the back seat.
You Can Remove the Seats
If your car carpet is heavily soiled and you have a ratchet and socket set at hand, removing the car seats is best. Garbage and dirt like to accumulate around the seat, and it will be impossible to clean those areas with the seats installed fully.
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Vacuum the Entire Car
Once you’ve removed the trash from your car, remove debris and dirt from the interior. Use the strongest vacuum machine you can get and either equip a brush attachment or a stiff carpet brush to scrub the fibers thoroughly as you vacuum. Unfortunately, doing so will break the dried mud and crust into pieces and disturb the dust lodged between the fibers.
If you can’t take the seats out, get an air compressor to blast around the seats to get dirt and junk out while holding the vacuum at the opposite end. A 12V tire compressor will do the job; however, you can use a stronger one if available.
Spend as much time as you need on this step; your hard work will pay off, and your carpet will look better than it was when you started.
Deal With the Stains
If you spend a lot of time in your car, driving to and from work, hauling kids around, and hitting the road for a relaxing road trip, then stains from food and drinks are inevitable. You will also probably deal with dirt and grease tracked into the car.
You should understand the type of stains you’re dealing with because different kinds of stains require different steps to eliminate them.
It’s best to deal with the stains before washing the carpet; however, most stains should come off easily if you use the right approach. On the other hand, you should remember that some tougher stains require several attempts before getting out.
Here is how you can clean some car carpet stains:
General Stains-Mud, Dirt, Stuck Food
The most common stains on your car carpet will be from mud, dirt, and dropped pieces of food that have been on the carpet for months.
You can remove the general stains by doing the following:
What You Need:
- Water
- A few drops of dish soap
- 1 cup of white vinegar
- Spray bottle
- Old toothbrush
Procedure:
- Mix hot tap water, a cup of white vinegar, and a few drops of dish soap in a spray bottle.
- Shake well and spray on the troubled area while the water is still hot.
- Let the solution soak for a minute, and then spray again and scrub with an old toothbrush.
- Pick up the contents with a rag, and continue rubbing and spraying until the fibers are clean.
- You can use a wet or dry vacuum to pull out any residue that is still attached to the fibers.
Dish soap has degreasers, which can help break down fats, oils, and organic soils. White vinegar has acetic acid that dissolves minerals and kills germs and bacteria that accumulate around organic rubbish.
Remove Beverages Stains From the Car Carpet
It’s not unusual to have coffee, soda, or alcohol stains on your car carpet. However, the easiest way of dealing with these stains is to act immediately. For example, you can do the following to get rid of beverages stains:
- Throw a piece of paper towel on the spot to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Pour some cold or carbonated water on the spot to dilute the stain and keep it from drying.
- Use more paper towels or a rag to blot the area and extract the liquid.
- Repeat several times until the spot fades away.
Remember that rubbing the area will spread the stain, and you’ll have a bigger mess to clean. Don’t worry about any remaining light stains because you can remove them as you wash the carpet.
Grease Stains
If you’ve worked under the hood, then got in the car and went back and forth several times, you understand how easy it is to get grease and grime over the carpet and seats.
It’s even easier to drop your greasy food in between the seats, where it can make a huge mess. However, you can easily remove the grease stains using a degreaser. Here’s how to do it:
- First, mix some dish soap with hot water and saturate the stain.
- Next, dab one end of a microfiber towel in the solution and rub it in the stain.
- Repeat the procedure until the stain is gone.
Ink Stains
Permanent marker and ball-point pen inks are oil-based and notoriously hard to remove. However, you can deal with the stains by doing the following:
- First, apply some rubbing alcohol using a cotton ball.
- Blot the stain; however, don’t rub it because rubbing can spread it around and create a bigger and harder-to-clean stain.
- When the ball is saturated with ink, grab a clean one, and repeat until you pull all ink out of the stain.
Animal and Cigarette Smells
If you smoke in the car or frequently drive pets, it’s possible that your upholstery, including your carpet, will be saturated with the smell.
You can neutralize this car carpet smell by doing the following:
- Grab a box of borax, sprinkle the carpet generously, and leave it overnight.
- Vacuum the carpet the next day, and the smell should be considerably bearable.
You should make a few attempts before the carpet smells better. It would be best if you also considered that the smell is also in the car’s headliner, seats, or any other fabric. Therefore, taking care of the carpet alone won’t solve the issue for the whole car.
Heavily Soiled Car Carpet
You will be challenged cleaning tougher stains, such as colored stains, blood, red wine, or black currant juice, especially on light-colored carpets. These stains are oxidizable; therefore, you can break them down with a bleaching agent.
However, don’t pour bleach on your car’s carpet. Instead, do the following:
- Get a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide and mix it on a ratio of 1:2 with water.
- Apply a tiny amount of the solution to the spot.
- Let the solution sit for a few seconds, and blot it out with a microfiber towel.
- The majority of the stain should come right off.
- You can repeat the procedure to remove all stains, scrubbing with the towel instead.
Remember that hydrogen peroxide can bleach out the colors of your carpet, leaving a discolored stain. Therefore, it’s best to test the solution in a discrete place, like under the seat, before applying it to a highly visible area.
You can also exhaust all other options before resorting to hydrogen peroxide. For example, you can wash the stain with a carpet cleaner, baking soda, white vinegar, or soap and water to try and remove it. If nothing works, try hydrogen peroxide, but beware of the dangers.
Wash the Carpet
Once you’ve cured all the stains on your carpet, you can wash it. The task is simple; however, it requires some elbow grease.
You can make a carpet cleaner using the ingredients below:
- Eight ounces of white vinegar.
- 4 ounces of dish soap
- 8 ounces of club soda
Pour the above ingredients into a 24-ounce spray bottle and shake to mix. Once you have your cleaner, you can proceed to wash the carpet by following these instructions:
What You Need:
- Carpet cleaner
- Nylon carpet brush
- Microfiber towels
- Wet/Dry Vacuum, if available
- Steam cleaner, if available
Procedure
Once you’ve assembled the cleaning tools above, do the following:
Get to Scrubbing
The first step is to get your DIY carpet cleaner to deep clean your carpet. Once you have it, apply a generous amount of the cleaning solution on a section of the carpet, and work in sections to keep the carpet as dry as possible.
Use a stiff nylon brush and scrub; however, don’t use too much pressure. Instead, focus on scrubbing the entire area in two directions, so you upset all the dirt and grime lodged in the fibers.
Apply more cleaning solution if you need to; however, keep the carpet as dry as possible. Once you’re done scrubbing, use a few microfiber towels and slowly drag them over the carpet with medium pressure to extract the cleaning solution and moisture.
Use a Steam Cleaner if Available
If your carpet is particularly dirty, you can use a steam cleaner or a cleaning machine to get an extra deep clean. Alternatively, you can use a portable carpet cleaner with a small attachment to fit inside the car.
The steam or portable carpet cleaner will apply water and shampoo deep into the carpet’s fibers. Once done, they will use strong suction to remove excess water and leave you a nearly dry finish.
Remember that a steam cleaner might not do the magic on a heavily soiled car carpet. If your carpet is trashed, you will need various tools and cleaning techniques to remove the stains and refresh the fabric to ensure it looks brand new.
Rinse
Once done cleaning the carpet, use a damp cloth to wipe off excess water and cleaner. You can try to get out as much of the shampoo as possible.
Remember that oversaturating the carpet might cause water to be absorbed into the fibers and backing. This might cause the growth of mold, which is harmful in the enclosed car space.
Dry the Carpet
Getting your carpet to dry is the trickiest part of washing it. Also, mold can grow in your car when it’s moist and not dry enough.
The drying process is much easier if you have a wet/dry vacuum machine or a hot water extractor to suck out most of the water, leaving the carpet damp but not wet.
However, if you don’t have access to a wet/dry vacuum, you can prepare several dry rags, lay them over the carpet, and press on them with your palms to draw the liquid out and into the towel. This process will take some time; however, you should get the carpet damp if you have enough rags.
After this process, let the carpet air dry. If it’s during the summer, take the car out in the sun and open all doors fully to allow it to dry. If you have an air mover, put it on a chair or box at the level of the carpet and leave it on for some time to promote better ventilation and faster drying times.
If you have a garage, leave a dehumidifier in the car overnight, and close all doors and windows. You want the machine to work on the interior rather than the whole garage.
Once the carpet is dry, run a clean brush over it in a single direction of your choice. This action will rearrange the fibers to face the same direction and make the material look uniform and tidy.
Clean the Floor Mats
If you have rubber mats, wash them with soapy water or a pressure washer and leave them out to dry.
On the other hand, if you have carpet floor car mats, you can use the same procedure as washing your carpets.
Remember that floor mats are often dirtier than the carpet itself; therefore, you should spend more time and effort cleaning them. Additionally, it would help if you washed them with a pressure washer to remove all the heavily compacted dust and dirt.
When you’re done, hang the mats outside to dry.
Protect the Fabric
After you’ve worked hard to clean your car carpet by hand, and it’s looking brand new, you will want something that cuts back on the hassle and protects your carpet from future stains.
One such product is a carpet and upholstery sealant, which will create a flexible hydrophobic layer over the material. The carpet will feel the same; however, if you spill a beverage or water over it, you’ll notice that it doesn’t soak in like before but stays on the surface. Therefore, you can easily wipe it away, and it won’t leave a stain, or it will leave a very superficial one compared to a non-protected fabric.
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Most carpet protectors come in spray form, and all you need to do is to make consistent overlapping passes and give the product some minutes to set. Once it does, apply another coat perpendicularly to ensure complete coverage.
You don’t have to spend much money to ensure a clean and fresh car carpet. Instead, you can use the tips DIY tips above to help you have a clean car carpet.