Tips on maintaining auto carpet

Just as you maintain clean the outside of your motorcar, you need to maintain the interior, specially your automotive carpet where liquids, food, dirt and smells like to make their home. Sometimes, however, you need more than just vacuuming and washing your carpet. Follow this simple guide to keep your automobile carpet looking and smelling good all the time.

Regular cleaning

You can use a regular spray-on carpet cleaner when cleaning your car's interior. This product is readily available and very effective. However, it is easy to over do it and create a serious problem like mildew. Carefully follow the instructions on the product’s label. Use a stiff bristle brush to work the solution through the carpet's fibres to remove dirt particles that have settled deep into the carpet.

Preventing stain marks

Whenever you spill coffee, soda pop or juice onto your auto carpet, try to clean it immediately using tap water and a clean rag. This is a fast and easy way to prevent spills from making a permanent mark on your carpet. However, if the spill mark proves difficult to remove, use glass cleaner and a clean rag. Glass cleaners, says Sandy Lindsey in Road and Travel Magazine, are great for getting rid of hard to remove stains.

Removing stubborn stains

You can use white vinegar very effectively to clean all sorts of stains on your automotive carpet. Add some vinegar to a mixture of hot water and dish detergent, and work the solution into the spots using a brush and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then, dry the carpet spot using clean rags. Avoid soaking the spot that you need to clean with the solution, as this may cause the spot to become mouldy and corrode the metal surface under the carpet over time.

Getting rid of smells

Over time, liquid spills, food crumbs, and other strange objects may find their way into your car and leave their odour marks on your car’s carpet. To get rid of them, cover the car interior carpet with cleaning borax, or some other odour-removal product, following the instructions on the product’s label and let it sit for about 60 minutes. Then, thoroughly vacuum the carpet to absorb the smells off your carpet.