Weird Cleaning: Car Floor Mats

So the other day I had promised Hubs I'd detail our (super duper cool) minivan. While I was vacuuming it out, I noticed that the floor mats looked really grungy, so I figured "Hey, I bet that I could clean these. And not only could I clean them, but I could clean them while I was INSIDE. WITH AIR CONDITIONING." 

In preparation of this deep cleaning, I splurged an extra 75 cents to vacuum each one of them super well. From what I've read, some people just bang out the dirt, but that was both far too much physical exertion and I really didn't want the dirt that came off of them to blow onto my newly washed van.

Step 1: Take the before picture. Cat photobomb probably isn't necessary, but unavoidable in my house.

Oh Bear Grylls, you're a nut.

Step 2: Realize you don't own any carpet cleaning agents whatsoever and decide that dawn, vinegar, and hot water will almost definitely work. Or at least probably not bleach out your floor mats.

Ready for action.

Step 3: Add Dawn and vinegar until you get something that looks like blue Gatorade, or approximately 5 tablespoons of Dawn and 1/2 cup of vinegar.

But it's not blue Gatorade, so don't drink it.

Step 4: Add the hot water.

Foamy!

Step 5: Put some of this mixture into a long, shallow tupperware container (the one your turkey comes in), grab the sponge that you're about to throw away, and get scrubbing.

You can tell it's the drivers one because of the massive hole in the fabric where it's been worn away by our heels.

It should be noted that the use of cleaning gloves would almost definitely prevent the fact that the entire top layer of my hand skin peeled off the next day. Live and learn.

EPIPHANY/AMENDMENT: At this point, I remembered that my neighbor had left me a huge tub of OxiClean when they moved, so I used a scoop of that, mixed with two tablespoons of Dawn, into my quart bottle. Do this instead.

Close-up

Step 6: Realize your back seat mats have mysterious orange stains. Pre treat these with your new OxiClean mixture.

What are you, orange stain?

Use an old toothbrush to clean the edges and to scrub out the tough stains.

Step 7: Attempt to rinse off the mats in your shower/bathtub.

 

Step 8: Realize this is never going to work. At the same time, gag a little bit because the water that's rinsing off is SO GROSS.

Step 9: Make a shockingly large mess dragging your (now soaking wet, still heavy and awkward) mats downstairs to the basement, shove them in your washing machine, then do a rinse and spin cycle with 3 rinses. Figure this is pretty much as good as it's going to get, then go have a glass of wine or a cookie or something, because that was exhausting.

Step 10: Have Hubs bring them outside to dry in the sun. Because let's face it, it's really all the sun is good for. Also, if he asks why HE has to take them outside, say that if you have to wrestle those things one more time you're going to freak out. Use knife hands to make your point clear.

Step 11: Take your after photo!

Again, the cat photobomb is optional.

You can tell from the picture that the OxiClean mixture (of which I made approximately 4 quarts) did a way better job than the vinegar mixture (the small mat on the right was the vinegar one). Then again, it was also the drivers one, so maybe it's just way dirtier than the rest of them. 

Overall, this took about 3.5 hours to do all four. The hardest part was having to carry them around everywhere. Cleaning was fairly easy, plus I was inside so I stayed cool and was able to binge watch the half dozen or so Watch What Happens Live episodes I had on my DVR. 

This could've been much easier had I actually owned carpet cleaner. However, you can see that I have wood floors, and these are kinda what's everywhere, so I don't.

Try it for yourself, without making the same mistakes I did! Tell me what you think in the comments.