Cleaning Car Interiors as Kids: Becoming an Automotive Detailer

Cars get messy all of the time, especially for families with small children. Most of the time, these people simply don’t have the time to clean out their cars. This gives kids a massive opportunity to earn money. Most households have two vehicles, giving a much bigger chance of earning at each home. All you have to be able to do is clean out a car, vacuum it, and shampoo it (or use canned shampoo products) if necessary.

What Supplies Are Needed to Become a Car Detailer and Cleaner?

In order to clean cars, you’re going to require a variety of supplies. Some rags to wipe down the interior. You will also need leather cleaner for leather seats and dashboards. A nice dash wax will work for standard dash board cleaning. It would also be a good idea to invest in carpet cleaner, as well as stain removers for car carpets. As a final touch, a nice smelling car fragrance would be good to spray in the floor boards once you are finished.

How to Clean the Car

1. First, get all of the big trash out of the car and into the trash bag.
2. Next, do a dry wipe down of the dash boards and seats to get smaller things, such as hair and dust, off of them and into the floor board. You don’t want to have to vacuum twice.
3. Vacuum the crevices in the dash board and center console. Then make your way to the seats. Get in between them where dirt builds up. Next, make your way to the floor boards and under the seats.
4. If there are stains, apply some carpet cleaner to them now so that it has time to soak while you clean other parts of the car.
5. Now, you can begin applying the dash board cleaner, wax, or leather cleaner to the dash board. Clean it from top to bottom, ensuring that you get around all knobs and levers and in the cup holders and cubby holes. DO NOT spray cleaner into knobs or buttons; instead, apply the cleaner to the rag to clean them.
6. IF there are leather seats, apply the leather conditioning cleaner and clean them now.
7. Now that the carpet cleaner has had time to soak, you can work on the stains. Pat them lightly with a dry cloth to absorb some of the dirt that has risen to the surface. Once you’ve gotten as much as you can through patting, begin to rub the stain vigorously.
8. Apply air freshener to the floor boards as a final touch!

How Much to Charge for Auto Cleaning

Depending on how dirty the car is, you can charge anywhere from $20 to $40. For cars that are extremely trashed, you may want to charge $45. A car that is kept in fairly good shape (such as a couple without kids), $20 is good because the cleaning could be done in under 30 minutes. Once you begin to do this job regularly, you will have a good idea of how long each vehicle will take and how much your work is worth.