How to Clean Car Seats at Home

Who else has been staying busy with DIY and home cleaning projects during lock down? There’s not much else to do, right? Today, I’m excited to show you how to clean car seats at home, the easy way!

Turns out it’s actually pretty easy to clean dirty car upholstery. And, my cloth car seats were really gross. In fact, I hate to admit that those chocolate milk stains on my backseat have been building up for 5 years.

In my defense, the car seats have been mostly covering them up. Which just helped me ignore them all this time. 😉

I want to say, I have not been paid for this blog post by Bissell. And, I was not given free product to do this either. I really just bought this Bissell SpotClean and liked the results.

Turns out, I guess I’m a Bissell fan because I just realized that my favorite $100 Vacuum is a Bissell and the Steam Mop I use on my tile is a Bissell too. So, maybe Bissell should pay me. 😉

What To Use to Clean Car Seats At Home
Watch this Step by Step Video
How Do You Get Stains Out Of Cloth Car Seats
How Do You Deep Clean Dirty Car Seats

After checking out this post, you might also like these home cleaning tutorials. On this blog I’ve shared my steps for how to clean marble shower tile, how to install a new toilet handle, and a video for how to easily replace your toilet seat with one of those fantastic soft close lids. You can also find an easy way to clean shower glass without any store bought cleaners.

Written steps and a how to video showing how to Clean Car Seats at Home, the Easy Way with a portable Bissell SpotClean Pro. This even worked on my gross chocolate milk covered seats! — Don’t forget to save this DIY on Pinterest!

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What To Use to Clean Car Seats At Home

There are lots of products that can clean your car seats. But I didn’t think scrubbing old chocolate milk stains would be easy…or fun. So, I went with the easiest option I could find. Here’s what I used.

Bissell 3624 SpotClean Professional Portable Cleaner
Bissell Max Clean + Protect Liquid Cleaner
Vacuum, I use this low cost one
Clean Rag for cleaning hard to reach spots
Optional Spot Treatment – See the Deep Clean section below for recommendations

Watch this Step by Step Video

How Do You Get Stains Out Of Cloth Car Seats

First, read the short User Guide that comes with the Bissell SpotClean. This machine is great for car seats, car floors, stairs in your home, carpet, rugs (see how I clean my area rugs here), and even furniture.

But some upholstery, like furniture with velvet fabric, can’t be cleaned with a power cleaner. So, check the user guide before using this cleaner on anything. 🙂

Here’s the super disgusting before photo, guys. Those seats are covered in years of kids chocolate milk and other random spills. What can I say, I’m not a car person. I keep a clean house, but never, ever think about my car unless I’m in it.

Step One

Start by giving your car a good vacuum. The Bissell cleaner is designed to suck up fluids. So, vacuum up all of that loose dirt first. I use a small dust brush to sweep loose dirt out of any tight spots the vacuum can’t reach.

Step Two

Now that your car has been vacuumed, you can use a Pre-Treat Spot Cleaner on any tough stains that you think might need it. If you watch my video above, you’ll see that I didn’t use one. But, I plan to next time I clean my car to see if it gets a few small spots that still need more work.

Bissell makes 2 pre-treats that they recommend for stains, including one for stubborn pet stains. I’ll go over those in the Deep Clean section below these steps. Let spot cleaners work for 3 minutes before moving to step three.

Step Three

Here’s where the fun starts! Add the hot tap water and 2 ounces of cleaner into the Bissell Spot Cleaner, per instructions. Then start spraying the cleaning solution on and sucking up those stains!

I think it’s best to spray an area and suck up all of that liquid, then repeat until that section looks clean. Lightly push the Bissell attachment you’re using into the area you’re cleaning to keep strong suction on that area.

Also, don’t let the liquid soak in for more than a few minutes on seats. I’m always afraid that will just let the liquid soak too deep into the foam for the cleaner to reach.

I also think that, for really dirty seats, like mine, clean the whole seat. That way you aren’t left with a weird line of dirty water between the area you cleaned and the area you didn’t.

Use a clean rag with a bit of the cleaning solution sprayed on to hand clean any small or hard to reach spots. That’s pretty much it for how to clean car seats at home, guys. It really is pretty simple. BUT, if you have really stubborn stains, keep reading for tips for a deep clean.

Yasss!! These seats are looking a-mazing for the first time in probably 5, maybe 6 years. Before putting the car seats back in, I covered this back seat with a thick beige towel to help protect the upholstery from future stains. 🙂

How Do You Deep Clean Dirty Car Seats

Some stains are a lot tougher to clean than others. Like grass stains, blood, grape juice and pet stains. Luckily, Bissell has some pretreat options to help you deep clean dirty car seats. Though, I can’t imagine they get much dirtier than mine were. LOL.

The Bissell Professional Power Shot Oxy is their top of the line spot cleaner. It looks like the best option for almost any stain. It claims it can get rid of stains AND ODORS in 30 seconds. If you have ever had a pet, you know that getting rid of the odor is actually the hard part. Yikes!

You don’t have to use the Bissell SpotClean Pro with this Power Shot Oxy pretreat. You can just spray this on, per instructions. Let it sit for the recommended time. Then blot up all of the excess cleaner with a dry rag.

How to Clean Car Seats At Home

Here's How to Clean Car Seats at Home, the Easy Way. This even worked on my gross chocolate milk covered seats!

Tools

Instructions

Start by giving your car a good vacuum. The Bissell cleaner is designed to suck up fluids. So, vacuum up all of that loose dirt first. I use a small dust brush to sweep loose dirt out of any tight spots the vacuum can’t reach.
Now that your car has been vacuumed, you can use a Pre-Treat Spot Cleaner on any tough stains that you think might need it. If you watch my video above, you’ll see that I didn’t use one. But, I plan to next time I clean my car to see if it gets a few small spots that still need more work.
Here’s where the fun starts! Add the hot tap water and 2 ounces of cleaner into the Bissell Spot Cleaner, per instructions. Then start spraying the cleaning solution on and sucking up those stains! I think it’s best to spray an area and suck up all of that liquid, then repeat until that section looks clean. Lightly push the Bissell attachment you’re using into the area you’re cleaning to keep strong suction on that area.
Also, don’t let the liquid soak in for more than a few minutes on seats. I’m always afraid that will just let the liquid soak too deep into the foam for the cleaner to reach. I also think that, for really dirty seats, like mine, clean the whole seat. That way you aren’t left with a weird line of dirty water between the area you cleaned and the area you didn’t.
Use a clean rag with a bit of the cleaning solution sprayed on to hand clean any small or hard to reach spots. That’s pretty much it for how to clean car seats at home, guys. It really is pretty simple. BUT, if you have really stubborn stains, keep reading for tips for a deep clean.

Notes

Read the short User Guide that comes with the Bissell SpotClean. This machine is great for car seats, car floors, stairs in your home, carpet, rugs (see how I clean my area rugs here), and even furniture. But some upholstery, like furniture with velvet fabric, can’t be cleaned with a power cleaner. So, check the user guide before using this cleaner on anything.

Well, I hope that helped you decide how to clean car seats at home. Good luck! If you are looking for more DIY Home Cleaning videos, check out these easy DIY Cleaning Hacks on my YouTube Channel.

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That’s it for how to clean car seats at home. Let me know if you have questions. Don’t forget to sign up for the Abbotts At Home email newsletter to get DIY, Remodeling, and Crafty ideas in your inbox.