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#TheGiftOfClean #CollectiveBias
My husband works hard. Very hard.
He doesn’t work the long hours he did while he was in grad school and in his residency, but his days are exhausting nonetheless. On a normal work day he gets up at 5:30 am. He goes to the gym for about an hour before arriving for work at 7:30 am. He is a psychologist with the United States Air Force. From 7:30 to about 5 or 6 pm he sees patients (usually with varying degrees of PTSD), gives briefings, attends meetings, and works on the endless paperwork and documentation that is characteristic of a government job. The Air Force works their health professionals hard, very hard.
He gets about a 30 minute break on his drive home before he is hit with a tsunami of home demands–Play with me daddy! Help me pass this Minecraft level! Can you please get little Z out of my hair so I can get dinner on the table? Dinner. Get the boys their evening meds, vitamins, drinks, story, teeth brushing, and tucked into bed. Whew.
By 9 pm he has a chance to wind down for about an hour before heading to bed and beginning it all again the next day.
And, yet, he rarely complains. He just forges ahead, sometimes tired, but always dutiful.
He gives so much of his time to others that he rarely takes time for things he needs to do (I found a gem for sure). His nice new car–okay, so it isn’t really new anymore, but I still think of it as new–has been badly neglected as far as cleaning goes.
To celebrate Dad this Father’s Day I decided to give The Husband a deep car cleaning. I had it perfectly planned out. Just after our trip to New Orleans last week he took off to have a final job interview in Utah. I had planned on giving his car a full at-home detailing while he was gone.
I’ve always used Armor All Car Care products on our cars’ interiors since I was a kid. My dad was always a stickler about having a clean car, inside and out. Walmart has an Armor All Car Care Gift Pack 10-Piece Bucket for just under $20 that I picked up to use on The Husband’s car. At a $30+ value it was a steal! I found them on a back end-cap right next to the Auto Care Center.
The Armor All Car Care Gift Pack 10-Piece Bucket is awesome. It includes:
- Armor All Orange Bucket with Lid
- Armor All Extreme Tire Shine
- Armor All Original Pump 10oz
- Armor All Ultra Shine Wash & Wax
- Armor All Cleaning Wipes
- Armor All Glass Wipes
- Armor All Quick Silver Wheel & Tire Cleaner
- Armor All Towel
- Armor All Pro Tips Booklet
- Sponge
Almost everything you need to detail your car at home!
Things never quite work out how we plan them, do they?
Instead of detailing his car, I had to take his car in to get a cut on the hood fixed. The shop took the entire 3 days he was gone to fix the car leaving me no time to do my at-home car detail. 🙁 On the upside though, the shop washed the exterior and vacuumed the interior of the car! One less thing I had to do!
Step-by-step Easy tutorial to Detail Your Car at Home:
Interior:
- Begin with the interior: To avoid getting dust, dirt, etc. on already cleaned areas make sure you work from the inside outward.
- Wash rubber floor mats: Get out a bathroom scrub brush and give those rubber floor mats a good scrubbing. I find that dish soap is very effective at getting all the grime off the rubber floor mats.
- Wipe down hard interior surfaces: Using the Armor All Cleansing Wipes wipe down all the hard interior surfaces except for the windows. Don’t forget the steering wheel! Eww!!!
- Clean the dust from buttons and crevices: Using a can of compressed air OR an old toothbrush, blow or brush accumulated dust from the buttons in the dash, steering wheel, and the doors.
- Clean larger crevices with a cotton swab: Some of the surfaces may be too large for a toothbrush to clean effectively and too small for a cloth. For these in-between surfaces, a cotton swab is perfect.
- Protect your clean interior and let it shine: Use your Armor All Original Spray and towel to put an protecting layer on all your freshly cleaned hard interior surfaces.
- Remove floor mats and vacuum car: Vacuum the dash, rear shelf, seats, floor, trunk, and mats. Start with the top (dash and rear shelf) and work your way down to make sure you catch any fallen dust.
- Use a foam cleanser and damp sponge to clean any stains: Apply the foam cleanser to any stains or spots on your car upholstery or carpet and rub gently with a damp sponge or cloth. Allow it to sit for a few minutes and then gently dry with a clean towel. Alternately, if you own a carpet shampooer with an upholstery attachment, you can use that.
- Clean your seats: If you have upholstery, shampoo the seats. If you have leather or vinyl seats, clean with a leather or vinyl cleaner and wipe with a microfiber cloth afterwards. If you have leather, make sure you condition your seats with a leather conditioner product afterwards.
Exterior:
- Clean and shine the wheels: Spray the wheels and tires with Armor All Quick Silver Wheel & Tire Cleaner. After the wheels dry, follow up with Armor All Extreme Tire Shine.
- Wash the car exterior: Tip: do NOT use dish soap–unless you want to strip wax from your car. Dish soap will remove any protective wax layers you have on your car. Instead, use the Armor All Ultra Shine Wash & Wax. Just one oz. per gallon of water will do the trick.
- After rinsing the exterior with water dry thoroughly: Use a squeegee (they’re not just for windshields, folks!) to get off the majority of the water off the car. Then use a towel to dry.
- Clean inner and outer windows.
Now, take a step back and admire your (or your husband’s) amazingly clean and shiny car!
He deserves a freshly detailed car. Just look at all the abuse he has to put up with!
To help you save even more money detailing your car at home click here to download this $2.00 off coupon available for this product at Walmart, *while supplies last!
About Amy @ Oh So Savvy Mom
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