Can You Clean Your Car With Baby Wipes? A Quick Solution

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People often reach for garden hoses, microfiber towels, and cleaning sprays when washing their vehicles. However, you might be wondering if you can use baby wipes to clean all of the surfaces inside your car. They’re useful for cleaning multiple surfaces around your home, so can you use them in an automobile?

You can clean your car with baby wipes, but don’t get the wipes on the exterior paint. Use baby wipes to clean your car’s dashboard, seats, floor mats, and steering wheel. Baby wipes typically don’t have harsh chemicals, which means they’re great for cleaning vehicle interiors.

In this article, I’ll talk about what parts of your car you can clean with baby wipes, tips to use them for the best results, and what you should know beforehand.

Do Baby Wipes Clean Cars?

Baby wipes clean the inside of cars, but they’re not suitable for cleaning the outside of most vehicles. LinkedIn recommends keeping a pouch of baby wipes in your vehicle at all times in case you need to clean minor spills and stains.

If the debris is too hard to reach, you can use car cleaning gel to get the job done. These gels are quite handy and efficient. You can keep them in the glove box with a package of baby wipes to do a mini detailed cleaning whenever you’re out and about.

While baby wipes are great for cleaning cars, Tub O’ Towels Heavy Duty Cleaning Wipes are the best wipes for cleaning the inside of any vehicle. They can be used on a multitude of surfaces to remove grime, oils, hair, crumbs, sticky spills, and more. They come in multiple shapes and sizes, too.

If you don’t want to upgrade your car cleaning wipes, it’s a good idea to learn the proper practices of using baby wipes in your vehicle. Below, I’ll break down the steps you need to know in order to achieve the perfect car cleanliness without worsening the mess.

How to Clean Your Car With Baby Wipes

To clean your car with baby wipes, follow these instructions:

  1. Gently wipe the baby wipes on your car’s steering wheel, dashboard, and other parts. Unlike sponges and other cleaning tools, you can’t use baby wipes too abrasively on your car. They’ll break apart, leaving little bits of the wipes all over the place.
  2. Mix one tablespoon of white vinegar with a drop of dish soap and a cup of water to scrub deep stains and debris. White vinegar is one of the most effective home remedies for cleaning the inside of your car. It rips away grime and other sticky substances. Life Hacker shows baby wipes are better for car surfaces that can’t handle harsh chemicals.
  3. Wait until the surface is dry before using another baby wipe to clean your car. Baby wipes don’t work too well on wet fabric or plastic. Once the surface dries, you can use another one. I suggest using chamois or microfiber cloths to accelerate the drying process.

When you’re done cleaning the inside of your vehicle, you focus on the exterior. I advise against using baby wipes on the outside of your car. While some car owners make it work, I prefer sticking to tried and true chemicals on car paint.

Quick Tip: You can use dish soap to clean your car seats by mixing it with a few other ingredients. The solution is much more effective than most car seat cleaners, so it’s worth looking into.

What to Know Before Using Baby Wipes to Clean Your Car

Before using baby wipes to clean your car, you should check the ingredients to ensure there aren’t any harsh chemicals, avoid using them on the wrong surfaces in your vehicle, and wait to use them until your car isn’t under direct sunlight. Also, don’t use dry or used baby wipes in a vehicle.

Here’s a detailed look at what you should know when using baby wipes to clean a car:

  • Check the chemicals in the baby wipes before using them to wash your car. While almost all baby wipes are void of harsh chemicals (for obvious reasons), it’s worth checking their additives. You wouldn’t want to add anything with alcohol since it could dry certain fabrics.
  • Don’t use baby wipes to clean painted surfaces in your vehicle. Again, some people do this, but I don’t recommend using anything that could damage your car’s paint. Stick to using baby wipes to shine the inside of your car and remove stains and dirty spots.
  • Never use baby wipes to wash a car if it’s too hot outside. The cleaning solution on the baby wipes will turn into a residue on your car. It’s better to wait until the morning or evening to clean you car with wipes because the moisture will gradually evaporate.
  • Dry baby wipes won’t clean your car. For this reason, I suggest not keeping baby wipes on the seat or floor of your vehicle. Store them in the glove box or center console compartment if possible. Dry baby wipes are practically useless when it comes to cleaning your car.
  • You can’t reuse baby wipes when washing the inside of your vehicle. The only downside of cleaning your car with baby wipes is that they get dirty very quickly. You can’t reuse them after a few seconds of removing dense grime. However, they work wonders when it comes to removing thin layers of dust.

You don’t always need the best of the best car cleaners to make the inside of your car look nice. You can also use Windex to clean the windows in your vehicle. These small tips and tricks can save a lot of time and energy without causing streaks and stains in your car.

In Conclusion

While you can use baby wipes to clean the inside of your car, they’re not always the most effective. It’s best to stick to traditional car cleaning sprays and solutions. That being said, baby wipes work very well to wash your vehicle in a pinch.

Jonah

Jonah enjoys finding new DIY methods to fix common problems around the house. If he's not writing for one of his blogs, he's likely playing acoustic guitar, listening to audiobooks, or watching movies.

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