A car seat has the unfortunate task of transporting humans and sometimes pets to wherever it is they need to go.
These two beings bring all sorts of mess and accidental spillages along with them.
What we aim to answer today is can you clean your car seats with just household items?
Well, it depends. If you have a particular stain then no. You will need to buy a specific product and potentially even have professional equipment such as a carpet cleaner or steam cleaner. For these kinds of stains, hire a professional car seat cleaner.
What if your car seats just have general dirt and grime on them? Then yes, it's possible to clean the on your own with a few household items.
Steps for cleaning dirty car seats
Pre vacuum the seats
Your first call to action should be to vacuum away any loose debris and dirt on your car seats.
This will prevent your cleaner from being clogged up by the loose dirt but it will also stop that loose dirt from smearing into the seats causing an even bigger mess.
Failure to vacuum away the loose dirt particles will only result in harder to remove stains so make sure not to skip this step no matter how tempting.
Once you have vacuumed the seats completely you can move onto the next step.
Saturate with all purpose cleaner
Now before you do this remember that it's only for general dirt stains and not stains such as food stains like tomato ketchup or carbonated drinks.
In fact using apc on those kinds of stains can actually set the stain in place making it much harder to remove!
But for general mucky dirt stains grab your apc and spray the car seats generously with it.
All purpose cleaner I'd cheap and safe to use on car seats and you will no doubt be stocked with it already in the home.
You need to agitate the cleaner into your car seats somehow. A professional would likely go for his drill brush but a simple carpet brush will do the trick as well.
Apply medium pressure when scrubbing your seats. This should cause them to foam slightly, that's how you know they are ready for the next stage.
Use baking soda
Now that you have sprayed and agitated your car seats it's time to place some baking soda onto them.
Sounds crazy? Well maybe. Baking soda serves to soak up all of the moisture inside your car seats as well as deodorise them.
Baking soda is the cheapest way that is actually accessible to most homeowners. If you had a carpet cleaner or even a wet and dry vacuum then sure it's not necessary, but most Don't unless your a cleaning company.
Vacuum the seats again
Your final step is to get a vacuum cleaner which gas a bag attached to it and vacuum away the baking soda full of dirt and grime.
This should result in a vast improvement in your car seats cleanliness and you just saved yourself at least £40 on an interior valet.
If there is still some dirt patches that you haven't managed to remove then just repeat the process until they have been removed.
Can you still see marks? Those marks could be something that requires specialist treatment. For example hard sweet stains won't go with this method, you will need something stronger.
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