Save Money Cleaning Your Car
Here’s some frugal tips for how to save money cleaning your car.
Dryer sheets are great car fragrance enhancers. Put a dryer sheet under each of the front seats of your car to make it smell fresh.
Ugly old bumper stickers? To remove, first heat the bumper sticker with a hair dryer to make the adhesive soft, then use a credit card to scrape the sticker off. Don’t leave the hair dryer on too long or the paint will get ruined, or use any metal objects. Once you’ve gotten the top part of the bumper sticker off, use a solvent like Goo Gone to get the rest of the adhesive off.
Remove window decals with baby wipes or baby oil. Spread on the wipe or the oil and let it sit for a few minutes. Then scrape with a credit card to remove.
Baking soda is great for removing tar and anything else from your car exterior. Save money cleaning your car by using it instead of an expensive spot remover. It won’t hurt the paint, cleans chrome well and is very cheap.
Need tire cleaner? Bar keeper’s friend, a cheap household cleanser, will clean your tires better than expensive care tire cleaners. Make it into a paste and allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes. Then rinse off.
Oven cleaner also removes dirt and grease from chrome wheels.
Keep your backseat clean with an old bed sheet. Tuck the bed sheet into the upholstery, and then take it out and throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty.
Use a car shade for your front windshield. Keeping the inside of the car cooler will make it so that you don’t need as much gas to air condition the car when you get inside. Over time this adds up. Also, the car shade will keep the windshield from heating up and cracking, which will improve the look of your interior.
Gas cap gone? Don’t give up hope if you leave your gas cap at a gas station. Go back and ask inside at the counter. Worth a try, and also if you don’t see yours, grab a few to see if one works. It is likely a lost cause to the owner and you need one anyway.
Does your driveway look like an oil slick? To clean up oil spills in your garage or driveway, pour some cheap kitty litter on it. Then do the stomp all over it to make the kitty litter absorb the oil faster.
Winter Car Tips
Frozen doors? If your car doors are frozen shut, bring a cup of warm water outside and pour it around the locks. Usually this will free them up.
Defrost your windows. To keep your windows frost-free in the winter, clean your windshield with mixture of three parts white vinegar to one part water. Repeat to keep your windows ice and frost free all winter.
Keep some of the cheap kitty litter in your trunk in the winter in case your car gets stuck in the snow. Put the litter in front of the drive wheels to increase traction.
