Car & Upholstery Vacuuming Tips
Read these 10 Car & Upholstery Vacuuming Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Vacuum tips and hundreds of other topics.
Attacking a Spill with a Wet/Dry Vac Before it Attacks Your Carpet
No matter how many safeguards are in place, liquid and movement will usually result in a spill (and it's usually with a white carpet and cranberry juice!). To keep liquid stains from setting into upholstery, the trick is to take a car vacuum with a wet/dry capacity and get as much of the liquid out as fast as possible before applying a carpet cleaner. You want to make sure there is as little liquid left on the upholstery because this will help keep the stain from setting and further breaking down upholstery fibers.
Vacuum Your Car Fresh!
Your schedule is jam-packed every week and the weekends are devoted to house chores, so who has time to keep your car smelling fresh and clean? If it's going to be awhile before your next interior car cleaning, you can still feel like you're driving around in a clean vehicle. With a little carpet freshener or baking soda on the carpeted floors, use your car vacuum to thoroughly suck it up! It may not have that new car smell anymore, but at least you got a little cleaning done and freshened it up a bit, which makes for more pleasant driving!
Vacuuming Can Make Your Car Look Better than Great
Every time you hit the car wash, do you pull over afterwards and vacuum out your car? By the time you're done, you think you have a shiny new car inside and out. But according to some car enthusiasts, you're wrong. Ask someone who is passionate about cars for vehicle cleaning tips and they are unlikely to recommend using vehicle vacuums at a car wash facility. They are often unclean and lack the proper amount of suction to get thejob done correctly. Instead, opt for a handheld vacuum or better yet, use a unit that has tools found on a furniture vacuum, such as upholstery brushes and crevice tools. These will help give your vehicle a fine, detailed look.
Putting Pet Hair in Its Place
Fido loves to go for a ride with the family and Fido's hair never wants to leave the car! Getting pet hair off of a vehicle's upholstery and carpeting requires more than just the suction of the average automotive vacuum found at a carwash. If you want to get a thorough cleaning, vehicle vacuums with a revolving brush are the only thing that will truly pick up hair that is matted or entwined with carpet fibers. Because of the spinning action of the brush, dirt and hair are dislodged from deep inside the upholstery.
Car Vacuums Need Love, Too!
Using a cordless car vacuum is great for getting under seats. However, a car vacuum requires just as much care as your car does! Before vacuuming out your vehicle, remove all large debris, including change, straws, small toys, wrappers, petrified food and anything else that could cause damage to your vac. Put on a rubber glove if necessary and do a complete search under seats before beginning " Operation Clean Car!" This is a great way to keep your car vac from sucking up something it doesn't want, which helps it last much longer!
Caring for Leather Seats
You probably spent a little more on your car in order to get leather car seats, so why ruin them because you neglected to conduct routine maintenance within your car? To make the most of leather car seats, use the upholstery brush found on a furniture vacuum to gently lift any dust or debris. You should do this before applying any type of leather conditioner. Dust and particulates rubbed into the pores of leather will break down its surface and ruin the look and feel of an otherwise very lovely (and expensive) luxury.
Using the Right Attachments for the Job
There are a thousand places for dirt and dust to build up in a car's interior and finding them can seem daunting. To really get a vehicle up to inspection standards, certain attachments are a must! For car upholstery cleaning, accessories such as a crevice tool and upholstery brush found on most standard vacuums can help make the interior of a car look extra clean and fresh!
Use an upholstery brush: gently on seats (front and back), sun visors, console, dashboard, gauges, vents and headliners
Use a crevice tool: in between seats, in the creases of seats, along door jambs and in between door seals, ashtrays, vents, cupholders and along all the vehicle's seams, a place where dirt and dust like to collect.
Give Your Car Touch-Ups in Between its Maintenance Routine
Cleaning out your car is never on the top of anyone's list of fun things to do. However, it has to be done from time to time, especially if you have kids or drive a carpool. With all those trips around town, your car is bound to collect dirt, debris and maybe even someone's after school snack. For light maintenance until your next major vehicle cleaning, a handheld vacuum is the perfect size for use as a car vacuum. A quick one or two minute touch-up removes dirt, sand and debris that will otherwise build up, then break down the fibers of a car's upholstery. Not only will the carpeting and fabric in the car look great and last longer, vehicles with an intact interior retain a better resale value than those that do not. So it's worth those extra few minutes of cleaning because down the road, it might actually put some money in your pocket.
How to Really Get the Deep Dirt
Dust and dirt love to hide deep down in the base of fabrics and carpets. Some car vacuum cleaners may have good suction and are great for getting at sand or crumbs on the surface of interiors. However, a car vacuum with a revolving brush is great for vibrating dust, pollen and pet dander upwards and sweeping debris up into the vacuum where it belongs. A hand vac is usually a good tool to have for these types of jobs. It's especially useful if you're vacuuming small patches of fabric, like a loveseat or small rug.
How To Clean the Headliner of Your Car
When vacuuming a car's interior with vehicle vacuums, many people often forget about touching up the headliner, or the fabric on the ceiling of the car. It's an area of the car that collects an enormous amount of dust. Since headliners are very easy to snag, use a soft-bristled upholstery brush and go with the direction of the material's weave to loosen dirt and debris stuck in its fibers.
