Crazy Amazing Car Cleaning Discovery!

This week we have been on a self imposed quarantine because my poor hubby had the flu. Today he was doing much better, but we stayed home just in case he was still contagious. The last thing I want to do is be responsible for a church wide flu epidemic!

Since Aaron was doing better today and my Dr. Wifey skills were not really needed anymore, I decided to tackle a project that had been ignored for WAY TOO LONG....detailing my car. I spend so much time in the car with the kids that it becomes a moving trash can in almost no time at all. Now and again we would empty out the garbage and vacuum the carpets...but if you moved those car seats...the level of nastiness under there is truly the stuff of nightmares. Melted candy, fossilized chicken nuggets, and substances that have simply baked or fermented for too long to be recognizable anymore! Normally I would just vacuum out what I can and sigh at the residual stains, resigned to the fact that my car interior was slowly being destroyed because I was too cheap to pay $200 to have the upholstery professionally cleaned. But the other day I came upon a link on Facebook that promised to solve my upholstery woes. Here is the link to the original article I found.

The culprits...

Man, they are lucky they are so cute!

 I was skeptical that anything could cut through the mess left behind by my little monsters, but I gathered the ingredients, mixed up this supposedly magical concoction and headed outside to test it out. I removed the first layer of ick with Aaron's trusty shop vac and surveyed the damage...

Next I soaked the seats with my homemade cleaner. I left it to sit for about ten minutes before I returned and scrubbed the seats with a scrub brush. As I scrubbed, the confidence I had mustered up for this miracle cleaner began to wane...I could still see the stains! But I kept at it...scrubbed the seats, rinsed them, and waited for it to dry...and I couldn't believe it!

The stains were practically gone! The seats looked almost new again! I was seriously shocked! It totally changed my life! Well...maybe that's a tad melodramatic...but it certainly made my day! =)

The only drawback to this method of cleaning is the strong smell of vinegar that is left behind...and I HATE the smell of vinegar. (Seriously, salt & vinegar chips are outlawed in my house!) But even as the day wore on it started to dissipate, so I'm sure it will be gone soon enough. I know it might seem weird for me to be reviewing someone else's formula, but I am usually the person who looks at those types of articles and says "Yeah right, that totally doesn't work in real life." But this TOTALLY DOES! So go do it and have a life changing (but slightly stinky) car cleaning experience! =)