Car-Interior Cleaning Tips for Busy Parents

Help keep your family car clean, tidy, and organized with this guide.

Sami Haj-Assaad | 

Jan 27, 2025 | 4 min read

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Here are a few car-cleaning hacks that may help speed up the process and enable you to keep your family car nice and tidy.

Protect Your Car Cabin From Messes

Protecting your vehicle's cabin is the first step toward keeping it clean. There are various accessories available that are intended to help prevent long-lasting stains on hard-to-clean materials in the car.

For example, rubber or plastic floor mats can go a long way in protecting a vehicle's carpets from mud, salt, and other messes from boots. Some mats, such as those from TuxMat or WeatherTech, are specially molded to your vehicle's floor.

Seat covers and protector mats can help keep higher-visibility upholstery clean. Seat covers often fit around the whole seat to protect it from stains or messes and are particularly useful when traveling with pets.

A child seat protector mat, meanwhile, slips under the child seat and can help catch any messes or crumbs the little ones make. These mats are also meant to protect your car seat from damage from the child seat, which can scuff upholsteries and leave compression marks. For both ease of installation and safety, it's wise to search for a child-seat protector that does not obstruct LATCH anchors and seat belt buckles.

Keep Essential Cleaning Supplies in the Car

If you travel with children long enough, a mess will eventually appear. It helps to have the right tools for the job in the vehicle. To clean kids, you'll likely need things like wipes and tissues. For cleaning the vehicle interior, you'll probably want some automotive-surface wipes, paper towels or microfiber cloths, and an automotive all-purpose cleaner.

There are wipes you can buy that are specifically designed for in-cabin plastics and other surfaces, or dirt on leather or cloth upholstery. Test these wipes out in a small, unobtrusive place to ensure they don't cause any damage or stains.

It can be helpful to keep all your wipes and cleaning materials in an organizer. Some organizers drape over the seatbacks, while others are bins that can stay in the trunk. You may also consider an in-car garbage bin or a plastic shopping bag for stashing things like wrappers and used wipes in a central location.

Tough Car Stains May Need Specialized Solutions

Some messes need more than wipes — crumbs, for example, can find their way into just about every corner of a car's cabin and may exceed the ability of a wipe to get rid of. A portable hand vacuum is a great tool to deal with these annoying messes, especially one with a crevice attachment for those tight spots.

Consider using an adhesive remover, such as Goo Gone, for stickers or gum. Crayon stains can often be dealt with using a small bit of WD-40 and dishwashing liquid. All-purpose or glass cleaner can also work wonders on sticky cupholders.

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Sami Haj-Assaad

Sami loves writing about cars and diving into their high-tech, innovative, and exciting features. He's been an automotive journalist since 2012, having written feature stories, reviews, and performing on camera for AutoGuide, Driving.ca, TechSpot, AutoTrader.ca, NUVO Magazine, and Car and Driver. He's won a number of awards from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada, including Journalist of the Year in 2020. You can hear him weekly as one of the hosts of the Unnamed Automotive Podcast.