Ever received this kind of call from your husband? "Honey, change of plans.
The bosses wife can't pick us up from the airport.
Can you find a sitter and pick us up at 2:00?" Do I have a choice? There I was, in a state of sheer panic thinking about the condition of the inside of the car and what his boss was going to think.
Being a stay at home mom I am always on the go.
Just off the top of my head I knew there was a melted green crayon on the back seat, spilled soda or coffee in every cup holder and an all-day sucker stuck to the floor mat.
Every window was covered with doggie nose prints, kid's finger prints and My Little Pony stickers.
The odor of sour milk permeated the the entire interior.
Does anyone need reminding of what spilled milk smells like - especially in a hot car? OMG! I was sick to my stomach and racking my brain.
How I was going to convince my husband's boss that we don't live in the car? Because right at the moment, it certainly appears that way.
Once the panic subsided I turned to my go-to, tried-and-true, save-my-life-every-single-time friend...
my steam cleaner.
I had never been disappointed before but this car detailing was going to be the ultimate test.
While my steamer heated up, I took out the loose trash, the baby's car seat and vacuumed.
I found $3.
67 in change, the misplaced receipt I'd been searching for and my long lost bracelet under the seat.
Oh, and uncovered the awful smelling spoiled milk source under the floor mat in the back - yuck! I put a cloth on the diamond brush and steamed every inch of the interior upholstery until not a stain remained.
I was amazed at how fast and easy it got that melted crayon off the seat...
it was completely gone in 20 seconds! I steamed the doors, dash, console and armrests then removed every sticky mess with a clean cloth.
I also used the nozzle to blast the french fries I couldn't reach with the vacuum out from between the seats.
Crumbs and dust got steam-blasted out of every nook and cranny.
By the way I think my steamer's got the perfect attachment for every job.
Next I needed to attack the spoiled milk and get rid of that horrible smell so I steamed the carpeting fiber by fiber.
The heat actually killed the germs and bacteria that caused the odor, not just covered it up with a perfumed carpet cleaning chemical.
Last I gathered my glass microfiber cloth, my squeegee and went after all those doggie and kid prints on the windows.
The heat melted the glue off the stickers so they came off the windows with no problem.
WOW - no filmy streaks and I could actually see through the windows again! I took a step back, looked at my "new" clean car and vowed never to let my kids back in it again.
The real kicker was when I got to the airport and the boss asked when we had splurged on a new car! The look on my husband's face was absolutely priceless.