What a summer it has been for you and your car. Most of us have traveled places and many to the beaches, while others have hauled flowers and mulch in our trunks.  After having your summer party, realize summer is drawing to an end and your car needs to be overhauled!

It’s officially time to pull your vehicle’s interior and exterior together before you get into all those school activities.  From cargo spaces to tire pressure, everything has to be ready.  The seasons of craziness has begun and you have to keep up!

My end of summer car care tips help us each summer and we use them throughout the year as well to keep the car in great shape! Now it’s your turn, let’s clean!

End Of Summer Car Care Tips

The Clean Challenge 

Do you drive a minivan? There are a lot of nooks, crannies, compartments, and spaces that get jammed up with whatever kids can stow. Rocks, bottles, pacifiers, bags, shoes, crayons, anything might happen to pop into your in-vehicle treasure hunt.

Jeeps have a nice cargo area, so of course, a lot of us just use that to toss and forget but that eats up that precious cargo space.  Golf clubs to tennis gear, hockey bags, unused layers of clothing from excursions, what are you guilty of chucking back there?

Having yet another space to maintain is hardly exciting, but it must be done. When you pick the kids up at school, backpacks often just get tossed into the cargo space. Can you easily use your cargo space/trunk area? If not you need to dismantle and redo.

Cargo Area & Trunk Care 

Open your eyes and have a trash bag in one hand, a recycle bin on the ground, a laundry basket waiting for dirty layers and this should have you covered. Toss out all the wrappers and bags into the trash. Make certain to toss recycles into the bin.  Next, get all of the clothing and shoes scattered around the car and set them in a laundry basket. Chances are you are making headway fast.

Now that you have unearthed some space, make sure to export all of the sports equipment into the proper at-home holding space.  If it is football, baseball or hockey gear, let the kids clean their own bags out.  Once they smell what they left, they will not do that again, lol! Vacuum the area out and move along.

Interior 

NO matter what vehicle you have, there are floor mats, carpet, seats, seatbelts, and windows. Let’s tackle all of this at one time. I prefer to use Sanitized Wipes on windows, seatbelts, etc.  They disinfect and clean fast and of course are totally disposable!

Vacuum all the areas, including door handles, as you never know what gifts the kids might have left behind in the trays of the door handles.

Front Interior  Compartment 

Open the compartment up, and clean this beastie out. Take out papers, napkins, and loose change. Why are you hauling extra of anything? You can only use one, so get the change into a bag (yes change is still used in parts of the USA for parking meters or toll roads, believe it or not!) Gather excess napkins and place into a zippered plastic bag and then replace into the cavity.

Don’t forget to keep a seatbelt cutter/window breaker in there as well as a flashlight of some sort. You never know when these will need to make a sneak appearance or hopefully never!

Tires/Wheels 

The wheels on the bus go round and round, just kidding, but the wheels on your vans and cars go round and round. Chances are, the summer has left you with a gift of at least 3k in mileage. so rotate those tires. If your tires are worn, you will be replacing tires. After all, the season of rain and snow is coming, and you have to drive, right?

Have your psi checked and make sure your tires are properly inflated.  Additionally, if all is good, clean your tires and rims so that the car will look all-over more snappy once washed. It’s a piece many overlooks.

Windshields

You may or may not have used those windshield wipers tons, but over the year you have. Since rain, snow, sleet, and slush are on the way, make sure your wipers are in great shape. These are a low-cost, easy change so if the wipers need to be replaced, do it now before you need them.

The film on the front window (interior) can be removed again with a sanitized wipe, or a mixture of vinegar and water, followed by a piece of newspaper.  You don’t want a mist on the interior with incoming night lights when night driving. Further, that mist is annoying in the wee hours of the morning with the sun blaring in, so fix it.

Last, make sure the windshield wiper fluid is filled and ready for use. Just because we are transitioning seasons does not mean you will retire your windshield wipers. Indian Summer is coming and the heat continues to swelter, so be prepared. With sweltering heat comes cooling rain!

Wash Up, Clean Up, Go! 

Your final piece of exterior clean up, is a great car wash and a wax. You are kind of sealing the deal, of cleanup.  Wash your vehicle (not in the sun), dry it, then as long it is cool and still in the shade, apply a coat of wax to really bring out the shine.

Fast fixes to summer’s use are what you have captured in a few hours or less. The vehicle is your destination getter, and your families bridge between your home and their lives. Make sure your bridge is ready from the inside out for another exciting season!

This is a sponsored article.