Things get spilled, that’s just a fact of life. Cleaning your car’s upholstery can be an easy task if you get to it right away, but that isn’t always possible. Knowing how to clean cloth car seats after those stains have set is a must to maintain a clean car.
There is not much you can do if you accidentally spill coffee, soda, or food onto cloth seats while driving. You are driving, after all. Dabbing the spill with a few napkins is an excellent first step to prevent the stain from getting any worse, but you will have to deal with that stain eventually.
While it may be tempting to place seat covers over your car seats to hide stubborn stains, you can just as easily use a stain remover or upholstery cleaner to keep your car looking like new. All you need is a little patience and the right ingredients.
Smart Ways to Clean Cloth Car Seats
Upholstery stains are not only an eyesore but an annoying reminder of a clumsy accident. Fortunately, using the right cleaning solutions, you can remove coffee stains, grease stains, and other stubborn stains with a few simple ingredients. You can even use some of these recipes to clean leather.
Vacuuming Cloth Car Seats
There are specific steps to take before wet clean car seats. If you only spot clean a particular area or are removing a small stain, then you can probably skip this step.
Most of the time, cleaning fabric car seats starts with a good vacuuming. For cleaning the entire car seat, you need to use a vacuum cleaner to make wet cleaning easier and to eliminate stray crumbs and other debris that has accumulated on the seats and in the cracks and crevices.
Deep Vacuuming Car Seats
Use the upholstery attachment on your vacuum cleaner or take your car to a car washing facility and vacuum all areas of the seats to remove dirt and hair. Use a crevice tool to get down between the top and bottom of each car seat and the seams to suck away crumbs.
Cleaning Cloth Car Seats with Household Products
Cleaning cloth car seats with household products is one of the most useful ways to clean. Generally, you’ll have all of the ingredients right in your kitchen.
You can use this vinegar cleaning recipe to clean car upholstery, vinyl upholstery, and leather car seats, as well. For deep cleaning, make a homemade car soap.
To make this homemade cleaner for fabric car seats with easily available household ingredients, fill a bucket with water, vinegar, and a squirt of dishwashing liquid and mix well. Dip a scrub brush into the cleaning solution and use it to gently scrub the seats from top to bottom.
Use a sponge, damp with clean water, to clean the seats of any residue, and dry thoroughly with a clean towel. Allow the car windows to remain open until the seats are dry.
Cleaning Seat Upholstery with Club Soda
The best way to remove stains from car seats has been around a long time. For decades, individuals have used this simple remedy to tackle vehicle stains.
Club soda is water and carbon dioxide and works well at removing stains and cleaning away grime from fabric. This recipe is one of the easiest ways for cleaning car seats fabric yourself, and it’s also handy for cleaning carpeting.
Pour club soda into a bottle and spray the car seat lightly. Use a scrub brush to swab away soiled areas and stains, making sure that you rub the bristles along the direction of the fabric grain. Use a dry towel to wipe away residue and leave the windows open until the seats are dry.
Laundry Detergent Upholstery Seat Cleaner
If you’d prefer not using white vinegar or club soda to clean your vehicle, you can use laundry detergent for cleaning cloth car seats.
Fill the bottle with hot water and add a couple of drops of laundry detergent. Shake the container gently to mix without creating too many suds.
Spray the cleaner in a fine layer onto the car seat and use a scrub brush to clean away any dirty residue. Wipe the area dry using a clean towel.
Deep Cleaning Fabric Car Seats
You can also use this deep cleaning upholstery and seat cleaner for cleaning leather seats. It contains the power of vinegar in combination with club soda and dish soap.
Combine the three ingredients into a spray bottle and gently shake to mix. Spray the solution lightly onto the seats in sections and use a scrub brush to clean up dirt and grime.
Use a sponge, damp with cold water, to rinse all residue away and dry the seats with a clean towel. Leave the car windows open until the car seats are dry.
How to Get Stains Out of Cloth Car Seats
Baking soda is the go-to when it comes to removing stains from many surfaces, car upholstery included. Because it is alkaline, it dissolves and breaks up stains for easy removal. Here’s how to get stains out of cloth car seats by using baking soda.
Combine the water and baking soda in a container and mix. Dip the toothbrush into the solution and use it to scrub at the stain gently.
For difficult stains, use the brush to apply the solution and then let the area sit for half an hour before washing the stain away. Dry the spot by blotting with a clean towel.
Removing Ink Stains from Fabric Car Seats
If you have ever had a pen leak in your pants pocket while driving, then you are well aware of how horrible an ink stain appears on your car seat. Use rubbing alcohol to remove those unsightly ink stains.
If the ink stain is fresh, use paper towels to blot the ink out of the fabric before cleaning. Make sure to use a blotting action rather than a rubbing motion to prevent spreading the stain outward.
Test the alcohol on an inconspicuous area of the seat first to check for colorfastness. Apply some rubbing alcohol to a clean, white cloth and dab at the stain repeatedly until no more ink is visible on the fabric.
Keep applying more rubbing alcohol to new areas of the rag while dabbing. Get a fresh cloth wet and use it to rinse the alcohol residue away before drying with a clean towel.
Keeping the car interior at its best doesn’t mean that you have to take it to a detailer. Take care of upholstery cleaning and car seat stain removal yourself. All you need is the right cleaning recipe, a few simple ingredients, and a little bit of time.
We’re glad that we could show you how to clean cloth car seats using everyday household items, and we’d love it if you shared our car upholstery cleaning tips with your friends and family on Facebook and Pinterest.