You will likely own a car someday, and it will surely need cleaned regularly. 

As I said in the Domestic Arts section, keeping your house clean will gain you respect from respectable adults. 

So will keeping your car clean. 

Young women should be careful of young men who don’t keep their cars clean. 

It’s a clue of a man who won't respect a woman's housekeeping efforts. 

And a girl’s dirty car is a sign that she probably isn't interested in housekeeping. 

Cleaning the outside of the Car: 

Cars can be washed in the driveway, or at a self-service car wash, with a wand, or at an automatic car wash. 

At home is the least expensive, but if you live in the ‘snow-zone’ where salt is used on the road, you should use the automatic wash at least once in the Spring, with the undercarriage wash, to get the salt off the underparts of the car. 

To wash the car at home, with your Adult's permission: 

1) Prepare a small bucket with very warm water, then add dish soap after filling the bucket, so the soap doesn’t foam. 

    A regular wash cloth is fine for washing the car, but pick an old one. 

2) With a pressure attachment, wet down the dirty car, using the water pressure to loosen any chunks stuck to the body. 

    (If the car is real chunky-dirty, and pretty new, your Adults might prefer to use the self-service car wash, 

    because washing-by-hand might make unhappy little scratches in the car’s paint.) 

3) After rinsing, the car, wet your cloth with soapy water, and start at the top of the roof, thoroughly washing each side, 

     then rising that portion off before going to the next area. 

    I always work from the top down, and leave the area closest to the road (all around the car) for the very last,

    to keep as much grit out of my rag as possible. 

    Squeeze out your rag often, onto the ground, not back into the bucket, before you reload your cloth. 

4) A lot of folks dry their car with a chamois, (say: shammie) to make the finish spot-free and keep it cleaner, longer. 

This ‘top-to-bottom’ method is also how you use the self-service car wash with the power wand with no cloth. 

Actually, I prefer the self-service car wash over hand washing, but will sometimes rinse the car with my garden hose if the car looks dirty, but I don’t have time to go to the car wash. Car washes are busy places on weekends on nice days, especially after a long, sloppy cold spell. 

Cleaning the inside: 

1) As with your bedroom, remove all the trash 

2) As with your bedroom, remove everything that doesn’t belong. Mail and receipts belong in the house or in the trash.  

3) Spare coins kept in the car should have a container. 

4) Out-of-season clothes can be removed. 

5) Get rid of the unneeded stuff in the trunk. 

6) Wipe the loose dirt off the upper areas before vacuuming. 

7) Vacuums at a self-service car wash usually work well. 

     Some people clean out their cars at home, then go to the self-serve car wash, vacuum the car carpet, then wash. 

8) If you rent a carpet cleaner for your home, the upholstery attachments will clean the seats and carpets in cars too. 

9) Wipe off the hard surfaces with a clean cloth or a special vinyl treatment. 

10) Finally, wash the windows. And, a squirt of air freshener is a good thing too. 

And there, you have a pretty, clean car. I won’t get into waxing cars and that kind of stuff here. This is about the basics. 

Eric J Rose

middlegrademysteries.com

photo: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5721065/Internet-users-share-photos-filthy-vehicles-piled-high-rubbish-car-dirtier.html