No Need For Lots of Cleaning Products!

Happy Friday! How are you? I'm good. Got an awesome workout at the gym this morning, went grocery shopping, then came home, cooked breakfast and packed a lunch for my husband. It has been productive and it's still early!

Okay back with more cleaning advice. I will get off my cleaning soapbox and move onto some decorating soon but I have been on a cleaning spree this week.

My Car is OLD. It's 14 years old but I love my car. It doesn't normally look like it's loved in its state of cleanliness, more like filth, but we have two little boys who get everything they touch kind of very grimy!



Anyhow I cleaned my car from top to bottom the other night and it took several hours of cleaning. I wish I had taken BEFORE pictures but I didn't really think about it beforehand. Just imagine a filthy car with black grime inside, on all door handles, consoles, even the seat belts... Icky and sticky and just plain gross. I have been taking a lady from church on errands here and there and I was getting embarrassed for her to sit and see the grime! Bleh!

I am pleased to say after lots of elbow grease it is shiny and sparkly clean now. Seriously it makes me so happy. Now, I am one who has a book on using essential oils and natural products to clean but I am out of most of my essential oils and such right now. I didn't want to spend money to clean my car so I used a little mixture of hot water and a little bit of ammonia(already under the sink). I didn't measure just used more parts of hot water to the bottle. I tell you it cleaned my car so well. I swear by using a HOT water mixture when cleaning. It simply takes off what ever muck I'm cleaning!

So I used several microfiber clothes in the process. For some of the nasty dark stains on my carpet, including a red sticky lollipop stain, I boiled a pot of water and dipped a clean cloth in the water. I did the same with the headliner, using light pressure. Use gloves and be very careful NOT to scald yourself. My kids were not anywhere near me when I was doing this. I lightly scrubbed and blotted the stains away. They went away too. For some of the harder stains I sprayed on the ammonia water solution and let sit and then used the boiling hot water to wipe away the dirt. It doesn't take a lot of pressure when you are using boiling hot water either!

Check out these seat belts! YESSSS! Even those came clean. They have NEVER been cleaned before and I used the same method. I sprayed them down on both sides with the ammonia solution (the smell wasn't bad b/c it was so heavily diluted) and then using the boiling hot water I wiped the grime away. Looks awesome. At least one day when it comes time to sell, I know how to detail it!

 

Funny, my husband has been telling me to take my car and have it detailed but I have been trying to convince him I could get it cleaner than any detailer would. I think it's pretty darn clean! A clean car makes me so happy!