How to clean a dirty cupholder of a car
Have you ever glanced down at your car’s cup holder while driving and noticed how dirty and gross it can be? In my years of experience, I have encountered and cleaned some seriously filthy cup holders. It’s surprising what can end up in a cup holder – from coffee and soda to milkshakes and more. Things get even worse when people don’t bother to clean up spills, allowing dust, dirt, grime, and germs to accumulate. The photo below depicts a dirty cup holder from a 2007 Acura TL that I encountered while detailing a car in Columbus, Ohio. Keep in mind that this isn’t the dirtiest cup holder I’ve seen, but it serves as a good example for this blog post. I’ve cleaned much dirtier ones than this.
The photo above shows me spraying some Optimum Power Clean. After letting it sit in the cup holder for about ten minutes, I used a microfiber towel to wipe out the cup holder the best I could. I believe this eliminated about 75 percent of the sticky grime. Sometimes, it’s a little difficult to get all the grime, especially around the deep edges of the cup holder. Now, it was time to use the vapor steamer. I did not include a photo of the steam cleaning of the cup holder because I couldn’t hold the camera, cup holder, and steamer all at once.
The whole process took no more than ten minutes. I let the cleaner sit in the cup holder for about ten minutes; that took the most time. While the cleaner did its job, I detailed other areas of the car. This proves that with the right products and a (tiny) bit of effort, cleaning a car cup holder may not be as nasty as it originally looked.
