WFMW: How to clean your car mats for free

A week or so ago, I took advantage of the warm weather and tackled a task that must be done semi-regularly around here.

I cleaned the minivan floor mats.

And yes, it was as scary as it sounds.

I sent the girls outside to empty everything out of the car that wasn't bolted down. I worked the vacuum as hard as it could go, then I pulled all the floor mats out. Thankfully, our van has mats that cover 90% of the floor because the designers were obviously moms with small children.

I laid out the worst mat (the one that goes under the girls' feet) and felt compelled to document its grossness.


Impressed? Wait, here's a close-up.


And this is the part that's under the *oldest*, who should be past all the drips and spills.

If I were made of money and knew a good car cleaning place, I would have just surrendered the whole van for disinfecting. As neither of those are true, I had to come up with my own solution. I soaked the mat with the hose, poured laundry detergent over it, and scrubbed it with a hard scrub brush. I scrubbed and scrubbed. I then hung it over the trunk of the car and sprayed it with the hose for a long time. This was the final result.


Isn't that awesome? It's not perfect, but it is an infinite improvement over what it looked like before. Now my car looks better AND smells april fresh. You can't beat that.