It is a daunting task at times to keep your car clean and smelling fresh for yourself and for your family. Kids often leave crumbs of food which stays there for weeks. The same is the case when your pets are in the car and they make it smelly. Also, it is not very safe to use chemical-based air fresheners as these have harmful effects on your pets, kids, and even the environment.
Something that makes air fresheners and deodorizers a little dangerous is the added ingredients like VOCs that stay suspended in the air and give out a pleasant odor for some time. Exposure to VOCs can cause harmful effects on your health and can cause complications while you are driving.
Apart from VOCs, chemicals like formaldehyde, phthalates, triclosan; and quaternary ammonium compounds also exist. To make sure that you are not using an air freshener that has any of these harmful elements, you can have a look at the ingredients used in the products you are buying from the store.
Apart from that, you can get awareness about the environment and the safety of nature, you can have a look at the different programs on channels that you can get with Spectrum Silver Channel lists. For now, you can have a look at the different ways to keep your car smell fresh at all times:
Get a Washable Cover for the Seat Or Cargo Area
If you have a dog or you have a lot of kids and teenagers who ride with you in the car and love to snack on some munchies, then you should get yourself a seat cover or a cover for your car’s cargo area. This cover should serve the purpose, be removable and washable as well. You can simply remove the covers and give them a good wash if you think your car is getting stinky.
Regularly Clean Up The Vents, Upholstery and the Mats
This is one of the most obvious things to do and probably is your initial thing to do if you think your car is smelly. This might seem to be too much work for you. You have to take special care when you are washing your car and pay attention to cleaning the vents of your car. This is where you can accumulate a lot of dirt and many germs exist there too.
These are blown inside your car when you turn the car’s heat on or when you are using the air conditioner. You can use a thin sponge or a cotton swab and keep the vents located on the upper and lower side of your car clean at all times.
Baking Soda Can Be A Natural Cleaner Too
Just like you keep baking soda in your fridge to prevent different kinds of unpleasant odors, you can do the same with your car as well. It is a great way to remove odors and is a good solution for your odor problem rather than absorbing a bad odor and not covering it up.
You can keep a reasonable quantity of baking soda in a mason jar with a lid on it in the car’s cup holders. You can add a few drops of essential oils to make them more useful. Another way of using baking soda to make your car smell fresh is by sprinkling it over your car’s carpet and seats and leaving it there for some time over the night. The next day, vacuum it up and get rid of the trapped smells in your car.
Create A Scent Sachet
You can even get creative and get yourself a scented sachet of your own by using a few things that you might have in your home. To create a scented sachet on your own, you can use a small paper bag or a mesh bag. You can even use an old sock that is clean as well and fill it with something that might give out a pleasant smell. Adding coffee beans might be better as they are known to have deodorizing properties. You can even use other fragrances and elements that can suppress or enhance the way your car smells.
In the end, one can say that there are countless ways to help use gifts of nature to make your car smell good. One of them is using charcoal, vapors of vinegar and other ingredients to make sure that you shouldn’t have to be worried about when you are working around kids or pets. You can select the fragrances of your liking and keep the environment in your car healthy and pleasant.