How to clean car interiors? ABC for beginners

What car interior products are good? How to regularly maintain the interior of your car? Which interior products are easy to use? Here’s what you need to know about car interior cleaning.

Some love interior detailing, others love it a bit less. However, it’s an important aspect of a detailer’s work, especially from the perspective of driver and passenger comfort. Hygiene is also important. That's why we're giving you these 5 simple tips on how to keep your car interior clean with the help of Soft99 products.

Clean regularly, not just occasionally

Wash Mist is our bestselling, versatile cleaner for many surfaces inside the car. We made it compact for a reason – the blue bottle fits into most cup holders with ease. It's the perfect product to always have on hand.

This means you can take Wash Mist with you on any trip. It’s perfect for cleaning the interior, for example, during a stop at a petrol station. In addition to cleaning the dashboard, steering wheel, handles, buttons, or LCD screens, you can even safely wash your hands with it. The product has received the rigorous JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) certification.

Wash Mist was so popular that it got a follow-up edition: Wash Mist Plus. In addition to the core properties of Wash Mist, Plus provides a 7-day neutralising coating. Of course, it also fits perfectly in the cup holder and can be recognised by its distinctive gold label.

Use the right products and accessories

What else is worth having in your car care collection? Depending on your upholstery, choose Fabric Seat Cleaner or Leather Seat Cleaner. Here’s why.

Fabric Seat Cleaner

This product cleans, neutralises odours, and refreshes typical fabric upholstery inside cars. You can successfully use Fabric Seat Cleaner to remove dirt, stains from spilled drinks or food, as well as to care for car mats.

What sets it apart from the competition: inside the package you’ll find a durable brush that helps spread the cleaner and ensures it reaches every fiber of the material being cleaned.

Leather Seat Cleaner

Thanks to its cleaning foam, with Leather Seat Cleaner you can easily clean leather upholstery inside your car. You’ll remove dirt, marks caused by regular use and everyday grime. Why foam? Because it prevents soaking the delicate leather.

At the same time, the spray is full of vitamin E, which nourishes the leather upholstery and adds softness, making it more resistant to degradation and preventing wrinkles.

Accessories, accessories, accessories!

Don’t apply products with just anything. A universal Super Cloth microfibre towel or an interior detailing brush set with natural bristles are essentials that should always be in your detailing stash.

Good accessories are not only about convenience or speed of work, but also about safety for the cleaned surface. Leather upholstery, in particular, is easy to damage by scratching or leaving unsightly marks with brushes that are too rough. 

Don’t smoke or vape in the car

Sorry, smokers. Unfortunately, everything we exhale inside the car inevitably settles on interior surfaces – unless you’re driving a convertible with the roof down all year round.

Cigarette smoke consists mostly of tar substances and leaves an unsightly, yellowish residue that becomes visible only after some time. Apart from the unpleasant smell, it can also stain light clothing. The smell of smoke itself soaks into interior elements, especially fabric ones such as seats, headliners, or carpet linings. This becomes a big issue when selling the car later.

As for e-cigarettes, although they rely on vapour, residue from it still settles on interior elements, especially the windscreen, creating an unpleasant, greasy film. When cleaning it, remember to spray your glass cleaner (e.g. Glaco De Cleaner) onto a microfibre towel, not directly onto the glass. This way, you’ll avoid splashes on other parts of the interior.

Don’t forget the nooks and crannies

When cleaning the dashboard, it’s easy to forget the less visible areas. Regularly cleaning other compartments of the interior is a good idea, not just for the coins you’ll likely find along the way. Prepare a checklist and write down all the most commonly overlooked places.

Vacuum the trunk area, glove compartment, or seat-back pockets. Don’t forget about less frequently cleaned painted parts that become visible only when opening the car, such as door jambs or rubber seals. Once the doors are open, the sides of the dashboard are also exposed, so make sure to clean them too.

That’s it! A thorough interior cleaning will reward you with travel comfort, a pleasant scent, and the joy of spending time in a hygienic, clean space. Of course, it will inevitably get dirty again, so make sure to clean it preventively and don’t hesitate to take your favourite product, such as Wash Mist, along with a trusty microfibre cloth, on your trips.