Simple Tips to Organize and Clean your Car

Hey friends! What’s the inside of your car look like? Is it spotless, or is the dashboard covered in dust? If I called right now and needed a ride, would you be embarrassed to pick me up?? If so, I have some simple tips to help you organize and clean your car.

Seems to me that there are three types of people who own cars:

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Lovers- Those that are infatuated with their car and keep it perfectly clean and clutter-free at all times.
Owners- Most people fall into this category. People who see their vehicle as a way to get from one place to another and clean it out occasionally.
Hoarders-Those people that think of their car as a storage unit on wheels and never clean it out until someone steps in and intercedes!

Table of Contents

USE THE 6/P STRATEGY to organize and clean your car

I have a strategy to help any type of car owner keep their vehicle in tip-top shape! It’s called the 6/P strategy. Use the six simple tips below to organize and clean your car! Each tip starts with the letter P, so they’re easy to remember!

PREP

Gather a trash bag, two laundry hampers, vacuum, and cleaning products appropriate for the inside and outside of your car.

PURGE

Remove all the items from the interior of your car (including floor mats) and your trunk. Place each item in one of the following categories:

Trash-Throw away all of the trash: receipts, straw papers, empty coffee cups, in the trash bag.
Relocate-Place any items that don’t belong in the vehicle in laundry hamper # 1
Replace-Place any items that need to stay in the vehicle in laundry hamper #2

POLISH

Take this opportunity to give your vehicle a deep cleaning.

Wash the exterior of the car.
Wash the interior of the car.

PERSONALIZE

It’s time to decide how you will organize the storage spaces in your car. Think about your personal needs.

What do you need in your car? A trash can, first aid kit, place for coins, sunglasses, etc.

PLACE

Now it’s time to place everything back in your vehicle!

Trash-discard in your garbage can
Relocate-take laundry hamper #1 and deliver items where they actually belong
Replace-place items from laundry hamper #2, back in your vehicle in the spot you found for it.

PUT BACK

Get into the habit of removing personal items every time you exit the car. Place all small pieces of trash in a trash can. Remove all fast food items every time you exit the car.

How I cleaned my car

Okay, friends, I must confess I don’t do a very good job keeping my car clean. I keep it fairly organized, but clean is a different story. It’s just not a priority for me, as you will see in the pictures below!! However, I have some great tips for how to organize and clean your car.

Exterior

Rich took the car to the car wash!

When he got home, I decided to remove several old window decals from the back window! This is hard because these stickers have a lot of sentimental value. They represent the boy’s high school marching band and the two colleges the boys went to!

Unfortunately, the Florida sun did a number on our window decals! They are peeling off, so it’s time for them to go.

Someone spraying Goo Gone on a peeling window decal attached to a car window. Showing a tip to clean and organize your car.

I sprayed Goo Gone on the decals and let it set for two minutes.

A hand holding a razor that is scrapping a window decal off of a car window. A tip for how to organize and clean your car.

Next, I scrapped the decal off with a razor blade.

Then I cleaned all the exterior windows. No more peeling decals! It looks so much better! I also cleaned the windshield wipers and mirrors! The exterior is done, so let’s move on to the interior!

Interior

Oh my, I’m a bit embarrassed to share the interior pictures of the car, but here we go! Here is the before picture of my floor mats! Can you tell we had recently been to the beach?

A man using a power washer to clean a car floormat in his front yard. A tip for how to organize and clean your car.

Rich used the power washer to clean the floor mats!

I vacuumed ceiling, seats, and floors

The dashboard was so dusty, I could write on it! I know, I’m ashamed of myself! Maybe this humiliation will keep me from ever letting it get this out of control again!!

Needless to say, I cleaned all of the hard surfaces!

A bottle of Armor All cleaning wipes and a can of Armor All carpet and upholstery cleaner for cars, sitting on a wood table. Tips for products to use when you organize and clean your car.

We used Armor All wipes on all of the hard surfaces and their upholstery cleaner on the seats. Both did an amazing job.

The seats had lots of stains that needed to be removed.

The upholstery looks so much better now!

This was the hardest part of cleaning the car, trying to get all of the dirt out of these tiny cracks!

The cap of an ink pen sitting on top of a car cleaning wipe that was used to clean small indentations in the car. An example of tips to clean and organize your car.

I used the tip of a pen cap and it worked perfectly! It was not hard just time consuming!

The last step was to clean the interior windows and mirrors. It feels so great to have a clean car!! I can’t believe we procrastinated so long to do this project! Now let’s talk about how we organized the car!

How I organize my car

glove compartment

The glove compartment is usually the most disorganized space of the car. Seems like most people just put stuff in there and then forget about it! Below is the “before” picture of our glove compartment.

We keep the car manual and insurance info in a plastic bag, but somehow it was dumped out!

An organized glove compartment that has car manual and papers in a bag. Camper equipment in a bag and first aid kit in a plastic travel soap dish. Tips to organize and clean your car.

I put the items in a new zip lock bag and grabbed a second bag to put the camper items that Rich stores in this area. I have a small first aid kit in the plastic soap holder. Rich keeps a flashlight on a head strap in case he needs to change a tire at night or we have to set up our camper in the dark!

Who would have ever dreamed I would need to store masks in the car?? The past year has changed our lives a lot! I like to keep disposable masks in the car in case someone forgets their washable mask!

console between seats

Another great place to organize items for your car is the console between the two front seats. Below is the picture of our console before it was clean and organized!

Lots of crumbs and sand! I’m not sure why most of the change is not in the change holder, but that’s about to change, lol!!!

An organized console area between two seats in an SUV. Holding change that's organized in a holder, an ink pen and hand sanitizer. Tips for how to organize and clean your car.

Now, that’s much better! No more clutter!

This compartment is under the change holder. It looks unorganized because of all the fast food napkins, but underneath it’s fine!

No more napkins! I keep an umbrella, a charger/convertor for our technology, a travel size pet-roller and an extra hand sanitizer in this area!

A round shaped tissue holder placed in the cup holder of a car door. An example of tips to organize and clean your car.

I just love these round-shaped tissue holders. They fit perfectly in a cup holder. I keep one in the cup holder of the passenger side door! I found these at Target!

Our car looks amazing after implementing our simple tips to clean and organize it! Now, instead of feeling embarrassed every time I get in it, I have a sense of pride! But knowing me, it won’t look this good again until next spring, when “organize and clean the car” pops up on my to-do list! I’m going to try to do better, though! I have a feeling I’m going to have to vacuum more often since we enjoy going to the beach! Sand gets everywhere!