This Surprising Car Hack Will Keep Your Vehicle in Great Shape

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For detailing your car’s interior to buffing up its exterior, is there really one small, inexpensive household item that you could be using? Absolutely! DIYers will love that something as simple as a toothbrush (yes, a toothbrush!) has quite the cleaning power for your car. Skip the fancy tools and brush kits, grab a toothbrush and start cleaning!

Plus, check out these unique uses for toothbrushes and floss around your home.

Toothbrush for Detailing

The bristles of a toothbrush are great for digging down into hard-to-reach crevices in your car to get the grime that’s built up out. Just like your toothbrush loosens stuff between your teeth, it does the same thing for your car. Once the gunk is loosened up and brought to the surface, it’s easy to vacuum it up or wipe it off.

Here are 10 cleaning tips and tricks to make your car’s interior sparkle again.

Toothbrush and Toothpaste for Headlights

Fed up with driving around at night with murky headlights? Before you drive to the body shop and spend a fortune on new headlights, grab some household supplies and try this DIY car hack:

• Clean the headlights thoroughly with glass cleaner or soapy water.
• Dry with an absorbent towel.
• Use painter’s tape to tape off around your headlights (to protect the car’s paint at the top, bottom and sides of both lights).
• Apply a dime-sized amount of toothpaste to each headlight.
• Polish the headlights using a soft-bristled toothbrush. Scrub, rinse, dry. With this car hack, you’ll be left with clearer headlights for safer driving.

Toothbrush for Rims

After you’ve cleaned the crevices inside your car and polished the headlights, you can take this car hack south to the rims. Remove brake dust that’s accumulated on the wheels this way:

• Purchase a brake dust cleaner based on whether your rims are steel, alloy or ones with a clear coat.
• Rinse the wheels with water to remove debris.
• Spray one wheel with the brake dust cleaner, let it sit for the length of time recommended.
• Use a toothbrush to gently scrub the wheel’s surface, including between the spokes and around the tire valve stem to remove the brake dust.
• Rinse the wheels with water and dry with a clean rag or microfiber cloth.

Here’s why microfiber cleaning cloths work so well.

Whether you’re road tripping or tooling around town, here are 15 things you should have in your car year round.