Keeping Your Car Clean, Cool and Professional All Summer Long

Summer is here, and that means it’s time for adventure. Whether it’s camping, going to the beach, or just playing in the park, summer is the time for you and your family to get outside and enjoy life in nature. This is the time you love spending quality time with your family. There’s just one thing that doesn’t love summer, and that’s your car. Even if you don’t often go off-roading in the mud and rain (although we recommend it), your car won’t escape this summer without getting sand or mud all over the floor and probably the outside as well.

 

When you show up for a business meeting after a weekend camping in the woods, you want your car to look just as cleaned up and professional as you do. A dirty car covered in sand and cluttered with toys doesn’t exactly make the best impression. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay home! Here are a few easy ways to keep your car looking great even as you make the most of your summer.

 

Make Time for Washing

You may feel like you’re too busy to take an afternoon to wash your car in the driveway or consider waxing it, but you’re always going to be busy. If keeping your car clean is important, you need to make the time to take care of it. If you’re going on a lot of trips or off-roading at all, you might want to wash it at least briefly every week. This means setting time aside to wash the outside with soap and water, vacuum the inside and washing the soft surfaces inside the car too.

 

If you really don’t have the time you can take your car to a car wash as well. The quick car washes sometimes use abrasive chemicals that may wear down your car over time or degrade the paint, but more professional car washes also have lots of helpful chemicals and waxes that you might not have. And whether it’s at a car wash or at home, waxing your car can be incredibly worthwhile. “Waxing your car may just seem like a time-consuming way to make it look nice and shiny,” says Matt D’Souza, vice president of sales operations for Washify. “But that layer of wax can fill in scratches, protect the paint, and even make the next car wash quicker and easier.”

 

Don’t Put Things Off

One of the most important things you can do to keep up the appearance of your car this summer is to respond to issues immediately. When a kid spills a drink in the backseat, don’t wait to respond and clean it up. Every time you get back from a trip, clean up everything and get it all out of the car before you sit down and relax. You’ll already be tired when you get home, but that effort will make sure you don’t forget things later.