Cleaning your vehicle is one of the maintenance practices that every driver should undertake frequently. Car floor mats are very crucial in the protection of your vehicle’s carpet from spills and other debris that come through your shoes.
That said, you should give your car floor mats a good wash after 1 or 2 weeks depending on the amount of dirt accumulated on their surface. Floor mats are made of different materials and therefore some may require a deeper cleaning procedure.
In this article, we are going to give a detailed washing procedure that applies to all kinds and types of vehicle floor mats.
Table of Contents
1. Preparation
Before you start cleaning, here are a few things to do for a successful operation. Firstly, it’s good to organize your car by collecting and placing all the valuables and other objects by picking them from the floor and place them in a safe place.
The second step should be to remove the mats from the car to ensure that you have enough space to clean them. Also, you have to ensure that the inner parts of your car such as the brake pedals are kept free from getting moisture.
Finally, your water source, detergent, soap, or washing chemical should be ready and near your vehicle. Additionally, the area in which you shall scrub the car floor mats should be clean to protect them from getting mud or grass on the underside.
2. Removing the Loose Dirt
After making sure everything is ready to clean, dust off the floor mats to remove the debris and dust. If the floor mats have mud, you may require to pick a stick and remove the huge layers. This will make cleaning easier as the surface between the water and soap will be close to the actual floor mat surface.
More to that, if your floor mats are made of fabric, it’s very recommendable to use a vacuum cleaner to remove all the dirt that may be trapped on the inner parts of the floor mat.
3. Washing the Floor Mats
Sprinkle a good amount of water on the floor mats and wait for a moment for them to soak in completely. This enables the stains to become loose and hence making the cleaning easier.
After 2 minutes, mix a handful amount of the washing detergent and water in a bucket and mix thoroughly until it produces foam. Add small amounts of foamy water to the floor mats. Using a cleaning cloth, scrub the mats for some time until they are clean.
In case the stains aren’t completely removed, repeat the process until you get your desired results. However, if the stains aren’t going away you may need to use baking soda or vinegar to remove both the stain and bad odor.
4. Removing Stubborn Stains
If regular washing soap or detergent is not enough to clean the stains from your car floor mats, you may have to use baking soda or a vinegar solution to remove them.
Using warm water in a bucket, add some baking soda or vinegar to create a solution. Using a scrub brush, dip it into the washing solution and clean your floor mats until the stains have been absorbed from the mats.
The vinegar or baking soda solution shall be great for your car since it shall remove the bad odor from the mats.
5. Rinsing and Drying the Floor Mats
After you have given your floor mats a good clean, use a hosepipe with water to rinse the soapy water or the baking soda/vinegar solution until they look fresh and new.
After rinsing, you will have to ensure that you have placed them in a clean area for drying preferably out in the sun. You may use a coat hanger to enable both sides of the floor mat to dry up evenly.
The mats need to dry up completely before returning them to your car since they may be prone to attracting stains if they’re wet. What’s more, the car floor mats may start forming mould and mildew which causes them to get discolored and smelling bad.
Final Thought
Car floor mats are very essential in keeping the interiors clean and looking good at all times. Stains make them look quite unattractive and untidy and have to be cleaned regularly.
The most important thing to consider before deciding which products to use for cleaning your mats is the stubbornness and kind of stain to be washed.
Loose stains can be removed easily by using regular washing soap or detergent whereas the difficult stains need to be removed using a baking soda or vinegar solution. We hope that the tips we have provided in this article shall be of help when you are cleaning your floor mats. All the best.