Sanitizing My Often
Overlooked Car
BY SHANNA O’MARA
Let me start by saying I’m not a
germaphobe. Not that I’m unhygienic,
but I firmly believe
germs build the immune system
and exposure to them is just as vital
as water and oxygen. I wash my
hands like everyone else, but I’ve
never been one to carry around
hand sanitizer and antibacterial
wipes. To be quite frank, I’ve never
cared enough to.
Obviously that mentality
changed a few weeks ago when
the coronavirus struck New Jersey
and the number of positive cases
grew in my town. The pandemic
was closing in on us, and I started
to worry. I took the recommended
precautions, began working
remotely, made a face covering,
thawed out some odd dinner pairings,
and wiped down everything
my family and I touch every day
– doorknobs, light switches, pens,
faucets, phone chargers, etc.
I still traveled a bit, to the grocery store when we needed bread or fruit and
to my parents’ house when they needed supplies or help with the dogs. It was
while driving home one day that I realized I had taken precautions in all aspects
of my life, cleaning all surfaces I come into connect with on a daily basis, but I
forgot one place: my car.
Now it’s important to understand that the cleanliness of my car really depends
on my emotional stability. My passenger seat is empty and my cupholders
are free of gum wrappers when I have my life together. But when I go through a
stressful period, my car shows it. This winter has been incredibly taxing for a variety
of reasons I won’t bore you with, but I will let you in on an embarrassing, little
secret: until last month, I still had pine needles in my back seat. The Christmas
tree came home with me in early December, and the spirit of the holidays had
lived on ever since.
It was now April, and it felt like time to clear out the pointy, little reminders
of a holiday nearly four months past. I vacuumed out my car and threw away any
receipts I had lying on my seats. I began wiping down my steering wheel and all
the interior and exterior door handles. But I couldn’t stop there. I looked at all the
knobs, crevices and buttons I touch every day while I drive and realized I’ve never
taken the time to clean them. What better time than during an international
health crisis to ensure every surface is clean?
Maybe you’ve done this recently. Maybe you do this periodically. Maybe the
giant, navy blue “new” at the top of this page bewilders you. Well, cleaning all
these places in my car was new to me so here we go.
I took off my steering wheel cover and threw it away. It was old and ripping
anyway, plus who knows how many people have touched that over the years –
me, family members who have driven my car, mechanics who have worked on
it, workers at the DMV inspection station, etc. It was time for that thing to go. I
wiped down my steering wheel and the center pad, though I doubt that horn has
been touched more than twice since I’ve owned the car.
Next to clean were the levers on the side of the wheel. Think
about how many times you touch those handles to turn on your windshield
wipers, dispense wiper fluid, illuminate the headlights and
signal a turn. (If you’re one of the frustrating few who refuse to do the
latter, you may have been the reason for my two honks over the years.)
Time was then taken to wipe down under the seats as well. My
driver seat has a small, metal handle below the cushion that you pull
to adjust the seat’s distance from the wheel. That handle is touched
quite often as my short legs can’t reach the pedals from far, and my
6-foot-2 boyfriend basically has to sit in the back to drive.
Lysol went a long way on my seats and headrests as well. I’ve
never done more than vacuum those which is crazy when I think of
how often the cloth is touched. Almost every passenger touches the
seat while lowering into the car, and my uncle always pulls the headrest
out to place on the floor. (He gets car sick and swears he has to
sit in the back but be able to look through the windshield.) Someone
new gets in the car, and the headrest is grabbed and reset once again.
With a few wipes left, I tackled the lumbar support wheel, seatbelts,
radio volume knobs, visors, back of the rearview mirror, window
buttons, door locks, back seat hanger hooks and the front seat ceiling
handle my sister grabs when brake lights come a little too close, a
little too quickly.
This is by far the cleanest my car has ever been and likely ever
will be. But I feel a sense of ease knowing every surface has been
wiped down, scrubbed or sprayed. Now I just hope this feeling carries
over into other parts of my life and all of yours as well. Be well and
take care. We’ll get through this soon.
5588 AMPARYI L2 022002 0 | | T hTehJeoJourunranlaNlNJ.Jc.ocomm AUTOMOTIVE GUIDE 2020
/TheJournalNJ.com