April 1st, 2020 by Sarah Miles

We all enjoy having a nice clean car interior but many of us assume it’s a tiresome job and much easier to take it somewhere for a valet. In fact, there are a number of benefits to valeting your own car interior, especially if you find you have a bit more time on your hands:

• It’s a lot cheaper
  You can pay £10 upwards for a basic professional valet and once you’ve bought a couple of basic items to get you started it costs you a fraction of the price to do it yourself
• It’s more convenient
  A valet obviously requires you to leave your car somewhere for an hour or so while they do it – maybe longer if they’re busy at the time. Doing it yourself saves you the inconvenience of killing time for the duration
• A finish to your own high standards
  Professional valets are good but are they really ever to your exacting standards? Doing it yourself, for your own use, means you’ll complete it to the standard you really want
• You can do it more often
  Unfortunately, car interiors don’t tend to stay clean for too long. Because it’s cheaper and more convenient to valet it yourself, it means you can do it more regularly which keeps your car feeling clean and fresh.

How to valet your car interior

Here’s our step-by-step guide to valeting your car at home. It’s actually much easier than you think.

1. De-clutter

If your car has become cluttered up with the usual detritus like old parking tickets and sweet wrappers, or even food packaging and plastic bottles, the first thing you need to do is have a clear out. Remove all the rubbish and put anything that needs to stay in the car in an appropriate place such as the glove compartment or boot. If you have items in open areas such as door compartments that you do want to keep in there, remove them from these spaces but keep them in a separate bag or box while you get on with the cleaning.

2. Clean the windows

Using a glass cleaner (a general cleaning spray may leave streaks) use a fresh cloth and clean the inside of the windows and windscreen. A clear windscreen is vital for visibility so it’s a good idea to do this regularly. Cleaning the windscreen first means it doesn’t matter if spray drops onto the dashboard as you’ll be coming to that next.

3. Clean the dashboard and centre console

Dashboards get dusty and dirt can gather in the crevices of the gear stick, cup holders and storage areas. Give it all a good clean with a household spray. You can use a toothbrush or cotton bud to get into small nooks and crannies in the console. Clean out door compartments now that you’ve removed your items from them. If they’re quite deep you can always use a vacuum to suck up any dirt and crumbs from the bottom. We’ll come on to vacuuming next.

4. Vacuum

Your standard household vacuum cleaner will have attachments that you can use in your car or you may even have a handheld device but if you really want to make your life easier, it’s worth buying yourself a specialist tool for the job. A portable car vacuum kit is intended for this very purpose with a long hose and different nozzles to allow you to get into all the awkward spaces in a car. This one from Pro-Kleen is only £38.99 so will pay for itself after 3 or 4 uses.

Whichever device you use, vacuum over all surfaces, including foot-wells and seats. Make sure you remove car mats and slide the seats forward to get underneath. Use a thin nozzle to get into the bottom of door compartments. You can then replace the items you want to keep in there.

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5. Wash upholstery

This isn’t necessarily a task that you need to undertake every time you valet your car, but it’s good to do periodically to keep your seats clean and remove any stains such as drinks spills or dirt. Use a car upholstery cleaner such as Pro-Kleen’s Fruity Fresh cleaner which can be used by hand or with a carpet cleaning machine. This will not only remove stains but has anti-soiling agents to protect against future stains. It will also make your car smell really fresh.

The great thing about doing this yourself is you can just go inside and have a cup of tea while you’re waiting for seats to dry out fully. Often when we collect our cars from a professional valet, the seats have to be covered because they remain slightly damp.

Another great advantage to doing the job yourself is you’re much more likely to want to keep it clean in respect of the effort you made so it will typically stay clean and tidy for longer!