Thanks to HomeRight for partnering with me on this post.
After a long winter, my husband is always chomping at the bit to do a car wash on the first pretty day. He’s a car fanatic – he even went to school to be an automotive technician and worked for several years at dealerships, so of course, he’s my go-to guy for all things automotive. It’s been a few months since he got to do detailing during a car wash, so he brought out the big guns and tackled the job with steam.
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He’d never really used a steam cleaner before, and he was pretty pleased with the results.
So here’s six car wash tips to clean the interior with steam:
- Cleaning leather seats: Let’s face it – with kids (and grandkids) hanging out in the back seat, accidents are going to happen. Ours were pretty clean (or so we thought) but he decided to try the steam and he was shocked at all the gunk that came off of the seats. He used the SteamMachine to give the seats a good blast with the brush attachment, then wiped it off with a soft towel. Once all the seats were done he went back and gave them a good coat of leather conditioner to help keep them soft and take care of the leather. Of course, you don’t want to over steam leather, but once a year or so is a great way to keep the grime off and help them keep their luster.
- Deep cleaning carpets/floor mats: Salt from winter plus regular old dust and grime can take a toll on carpets – so he cleaned ours up with steam. First he used a shop vac to clean up lose dust/dirt. Then he used the SteamMachine to clean the carpet, working in small areas. Immediately after he cleaned an area, he used the shop vac again to pull all the moisture from the steam out of the carpet.
- Cupholders (plus all those other hard to clean areas): Coffee spills, gunk builds, and it can all get pretty messy pretty fast. Then all that mess can be hard to clean, but he used steam to get into all those nooks and crannies. Holding a towel underneath to catch drips, he used the nozzle on the SteamMachine to thoroughly clean it, then used the towel to wipe away all the grime.
- Taking care of door panels: I would have never thought to use a steam cleaner here, but he was pretty impressed with how the steam removed grime on the door itself, but also the handle area that is hard to clean inside.
- Making windows bright: Once he got to cleaning with the SteamMachine, I think he kinda went a little crazy cleaning everything in sight. He tried it on the windows and was grossed out by how dirty they were. Just steam them really well then wipe it down, repeat if necessary. He said it took three times to get them “clean”…. I had no idea they were that dirty!
- Door jambs: Of all the things he cleaned, I think this is where he was most impressed. He always cleans them during his regular car wash routine, but this time he tried with steam instead of wiping them the old fashioned way. I’m pretty sure this alone means I’m not getting my SteamMachine back and it will be headed to his arsenal of car wash paraphernalia. Sigh.
Thanks again to HomeRight for partnering with me on this post. All words, ideas and photographs are 100% my own. The opinions of how well it worked belong to my husband 🙂 I have been compensated for this content.
Sue at Blu says
You know how much I love Homeright! And I was itching to use one of these at my store for the area rugs that are narly! I thought I would try it on my van carpets too but cupholders!!??? Genius!