DIY Car Upholstery Cleaner: Make Your Interior Look Brand New!

I have had my car for 10 years now and it has gotten so dirty over that time. As any mom will tell you, kids can ruin your car’s interior. With car seats, spilling food and drink, and getting dirt everywhere, my car had seen better days.

When my mom came over to visit, I knew I had to take that opportunity to clean my car once and for all! It is hard to find time to really deep clean when you have little ones running around.

Post contains affiliate links. I will earn a commission if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you. 

I needed a DIY car upholstery cleaner that was going to be cheap to make and easy to use. I didn’t have time to run to the store to buy a cleaner, so I decided to make a version of my Miracle Carpet Cleaner and see if that would work.

I was very pleased with the results and I plan on using this recipe again in the future. With a three year old, more stains are bound to happen!

Related Posts:

Ultimate List of DIY Household Cleaners

Easiest Way to Clean Microfiber Furniture

DIY Wrinkle Releaser

Like I said before, it has been about 3 years since I have really cleaned out my car so the stains and dirt were really ground into the fibers. You will probably see even better results if your car isn’t as dirty as mine was.

Here is what I used:

DIY Car Upholstery Cleaner

• 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide
• 2 Tbs of white distilled vinegar
• 3 Tbs. of Dawn dish soap
• 16 oz. spray bottle

I mixed all of the ingredients together in the spray bottle and just filled it up the rest of the way with warm water.

Before you spray your whole car with this, make sure you test it on a small area to make sure it doesn’t discolor your fabric.

You can leave out the vinegar if you want, I just put some in to help kill the odors that where caused by the stains.

The first thing I did was vacuum out my car and floor mats really well with a shop vac. Then I sprayed the DIY car upholstery cleaner on any stains that I could find and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

I then took a scrub brush and scrubbed in circles really well. You really have to put some elbow grease into it. It’s a great workout for your arms!

Most of the stains came right up! I was really surprised at how well this worked on the upholstery. The passenger seat did have to get a second spray. I don’t know what got on that seat but it looked like something exploded!

I did the same routine on my floor mats. Three out of the four got really clean but the driver side floor mat needs some more help. My shoes are apparently really dirty!

I think I might try using some club soda on it next to see if I can get it cleaner but it looks a lot better than it did to begin with so I am happy!

My car did smell like vinegar the next day but it went away pretty quickly. I like using the Febreze car vents anyway so that wasn’t a problem.

I like that this DIY car upholstery cleaner cost less than $1 to make and I had all of the ingredients already in my pantry.

I will be using this on a regular basis to keep my car looking like new.