How to Clean & Disinfect Your Car
Remember to disinfect your car at the end of every journey, regardless of whether you’re an e-hailing driver or an ordinary car owner. The priority is to eliminate any Coronavirus (COVID-19) that might be in the car. Even without the COVID-19, having a fresh and clean car lightens your mood when you’re driving.
Protect Yourself
Disinfection means you’ll need cleaning agents to get the job done. When you’re handling cleaning agents, you must handle them with extreme care. If not correctly handled, it may pose a danger to your health. Wear disposable gloves and a mask to avoid breathing in the chemicals found in cleaning agents.
Ensure that you’re following the disinfection procedures correctly, as stated on the instruction labels. Ensure there’s enough ventilation during the disinfection process. If you’re feeling light headed, it’s a sign of inadequate ventilation. At this point, you should get some fresh air.
Prepare to Disinfect Your Car
There is a wide range of disinfectants on the market but it’s common to use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol solution to disinfect your car. Bear in mind, this disinfectant is not friendly to cars with leather surfaces.
List of cleaning supplies for disinfection:
- Car Vacuum (to get rid of visible dirt)
- 70% Isopropyl Alcohol solution (disinfectant)
- Microfiber Cloth (for dry and wet cleaning)
- Warm water and dish soap
- Leather Conditioner (leather aftercare)
The Cleaning Process
Interior
Before disinfecting your car, you can start by vacuuming. Since you’re going to disinfect the whole car, you might as well clean away that debris! Ensure to get rid the dirt stuck between the seats, door sides, and under your car mat. You’ll be satisfied seeing them disappear before your eyes! If you’re interested in doing car spring cleaning, you can consider decluttering your car!
To make the disinfection more manageable, you can start by cleaning all touchpoints. The door handles, steering wheel, seat belts, shifters, headrest, rearview mirror, and even the radio/infotainment system are some of the touchpoints. If you bought coffee recently and placed them in the cupholders, you’ll need to clean that too.
Leather
Mix a bucket with warm water and dish soap. Why dish soap? Dish soap consists of mild cleaning chemicals which won’t cause damage to the leather. Avoid using an overly damp cloth when you’re wiping leather surfaces. In time, this may cause the leather to become brittle. Afterwards, you may go for a leather conditioner aftercare.
Fabric
Similar to cleaning leather, squeeze out excess water before wiping the fabric surfaces. If you skip this process, you will end up with a musty smell lingering in your car. Subsequently, this will encourage mold growth. I wouldn’t imagine you’d like to breathe in such funky air while you’re driving right?
Don’t forget to open all car doors and windows to speed up the drying process.
Finishing Touches
Despite the limited time spent using your car, you should consider getting a car air purifier. Don’t get those that are meant for homes, instead get the portable ones. Having one will help air filtration and circulate fresh air for you to breathe when you’re driving. At the same time, the car air purifier will act as an odour absorber, great for smokers.
Soon after the disinfection, immediately dispose of the used glove and mask. Follow through with proper handwashing to remove any germs or dirt on your hands. Wearing gloves doesn’t guarantee your hands are clean. It only lessens the possibility. Read this guide on proper handwashing.
