Saturday, December 03, 2011

Muddy, Black Water

Do normal people shampoo the floor mats in their cars?

Maybe I've been perpetually neglecting a basic task. I've been getting the van ready to sell: finding the loose change, removing the myriads of maps, cleaning out the glove compartment, vacuuming. While vacuuming, I noticed some doozy stains on the floor mats. I'd really like to advertise this old van as "clean." So it crossed my mind to use some Resolve stain remover and then to wash them. Scrub brush. Bath tub. Lots of water. Black black black water running down the drain. (I hope I didn't plug up the septic system with mud!) Lather; rinse; repeat. Squeegee the water off the mats. Sore muscles and tired arms.

How many years will it take for these things to dry?

And the $64,000 question -- Ought I do the same thing for the middle-aged cars before they get old, before the mats become even dirtier than they are now? And if I ought, ... will I?

8 comments:

  1. I do! I do! Or, rather, I did! I used to do this regularly, at least during the warm/dry months. I have been a lazy slug for, oh, 4 years now, and just this fall decided I had to do our car. Too much has been spilled in there! fortunately for me, it needed some body work, after I was hit in October, and my cousin's body shop also does detailing...So I bailed and paid for it. I won't anymore! He did a great job, although we did find a spot under a seat where something had eaten through ?? the carpet. (By that, I mean something chemical, not biological.) But I can do as well with elbow grease, a ShopVac, and a sunny day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sound like a good idea, whenever I beat the rugs before vacuuming them it's always really nasty.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have power washed them on the driveway...it is awesome. Now that I have my own, I will have to do it yearly. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melody, I think it sounds like a great plan, but I don't want to spend money detailing a car that I'll be lucky to sell for over $1500.

    Laura, your plan sounds a lot easier and more effective than my plan of a scrub brush in the bathtub!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, Susan, I'm regretting paying for it. But I did say I wouldn't do THAT again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I do it once a year in the summer. They have car mat hangers at our local wash-it-yourself car wash. I use the brushes at the car wash to clean and follow with the power hose to rinse. They look great after I'm done. The mats are hung on the clothes line to dry on a hot day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Melody, I thought you meant that you wouldn't be doing the washing yourself anymore now that you'd found the detailing. Gotcha -- the "that" referred to the paying.

    Karen, now that you mention that, I've seen those at some car washes. I don't have a convenient car wash around here. At our old house, I would wash one or two cars every week during winter when I went to town for my paper route. I need to figure out a similar plan here, so that we don't rust out our vehicles. I do think the drying would work better on the line on a hot day though. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have spun the excess water out of car floor mats by placing them in my washer, spacing them evenly, and putting the machine on the spin cycle.

    All that elbow grease will pay off. Clean cars sell better!

    ReplyDelete