You need to clean your body and you have to maintain your home. That’s enough effort to invest in cleanliness, especially if you’re lazy. However, those who are not diligent get their automobiles dirty too and that requires added effort. If you want to save time and energy regarding car care then don’t be lazy in executing the following.
Wax It on Occasion
This seems counterintuitive yet waxing the car intermittently will make it easier to clean. If you don’t feel like doing it yourself, you can take the car to a detailer but it will cost. You’ll have to decide whether you would rather have more time and energy to yourself or money in your pocket.
Don’t Eat in There
It takes effort to collect all the fallen fries from between the seats and to get the ketchup stains out of the Shear Comfort seat covers. However, if you don’t eat in your car at all, you don’t have to worry about spills and stains. Plus, the interior will be easier to maintain. Remind your passengers about your ‘no eating or drinking’ rule.
Take Your Shoes Off
Wearing your shoes in the house tracks in dirt, the reason why some people make family and friends take them off. You can achieve the same dirt-free results in your car, which will make it cleaner and save you the added time in keeping the rugs and interior looking like new. Keep a pair of slippers in the car and wear them while driving. The slippers will never touch the outside of the car so the car’s interior will remain clean.
Pack an Action Kit
If you have kids or messy friends, your car’s interior is bound to suffer a spill or two. However, if you’re ready for the inevitable then you won’t have to worry about permanent stains and you can quickly clean up the mess rather than do it later. Plus, you can make the one responsible for the spill be the one doing the cleaning – assuming it isn’t you!
Keep It In the Garage
Assuming you have a garage, keeping the car inside will keep it a lot cleaner, which will make cleaning more infrequent. Alternatively, if you live in the city, you could pay to keep your car in a garage, though that may be more expensive than getting it cleaned each week, depending on where you live. You may have to find another place to store your tools, yard equipment, and bicycles, yet parking your car in the garage will definitely keep it cleaner.
Bring a Trash Bag
It’s such a simple solution yet how many times do you notice people keeping a trash bag in their car? Bring a trash bag along for the ride and you won’t have to worry about finding wrappers from years ago under your seats. Plus, it delivers the message to occupants that you run a tidy ship and you don’t appreciate your car getting messy.
Hire a Neighborhood Kid
Today’s kids are industrious and want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, so give them a taste of entrepreneurship and pay them to clean the inside and outside of your car weekly, bi-weekly, or once a month. It takes money out of your pocket but you’re saving time and effort and you could be inspiring the next CEO of the world’s most-popular social media platform.
Spend Ten Minutes Per Day
Alternatively, you could keep the car clean yourself. Rather than wait until it gets unbearably disgusting and then have to spend a long time cleaning the interior and exterior, allocate ten minutes each day toward cleaning. Dedicate one day on the outside and the next on the interior. Doing a bit at a time will keep it clean and you won’t feel as if you’re spending a lot of time and effort all at once.
Harry Chapman is a salesman who is often on the road and away from home during the week. He has started to put his overnight stays to good use, by writing articles which appear on business and auto blogs.
