Stacy Risenmay

Do-it-yourself projects and Home Decor

Steam Cleanin’

By 193 Comments

If you have kids you know how your car can look like a hot mess in a short amount of time. Add in a summer full of camping trips and well, our van was GROSS! Remember when we bought that beater car for Shane to commute to work in? The steam machine worked wonders on it. Seriously, if you missed that post, it is worth looking at.

When HomeRight came out with a new steam machine meant just for vehicles, I knew it was high time I detailed our poor van. They sent me one to try out and I get to give one away!

steam-machine-auto

AutoRight Steam Machine

 

And because I love before and after pics, here are a few of the best!

 

You guys, I don’t even know what is in that cup holder. Eww. Also, I am hating how it gets darker so much faster in the evenings. We almost lost good light for the after photos which is why they are a bit darker.

 

before-and-after-car-cleaning

 

Normally the hardest places to clean are the nooks and crannies like where the seats connect to the floor but the steam machine makes it a breeze!.

 

cleaning-car-with-steam-machine

 

I use several of the attachments, but I have to say that this one is my favorite.

 

steam-cleaning-car

 

The picture on the left is actually an inbetween photo instead of a true before. We scraped off most of the mud before steaming. The carpet looks better in the after too!

 

steaming-car

 

The before picture doesn’t look too bad, but it was sticky plus we had vacuumed the dirt out of it. How does dirt even get in the door handle? Little boys, that is how.

 

before-and-after-of-steaming-car

 

Are you ready to enter to win one for yourself?!

Enter below using the rafflecopter widget.

*You must be at least 18 years old to enter. You must be a resident of the USA to enter. The giveaway will go from November 10, 2016 until November 17, 2016. A winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner will be chosen. The shipping of the prize is the responsibility of the company, in this case, HomeRight. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

This post was sponsored by HomeRight but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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    • Moment of Truth here… I don’t even know what the grossest thing was that I have found in my van. Once someone dumped water and ketchup and probably fast food in the cup holder in the back. It probably sat there for a while also. Cleaning that out was interesting! It would be fun to try out this steamer!

      Reply

  3. I found mold in my car carpet last year after a Christmas ham leaked. I was disgusted! I scrubbed that carpet with anything I could throw at it, except bleach which is what I really wanted to use! I still don’t feel like it’s truly clean and sanitized. =(

    Reply

  4. We bought our van used from a family with 4 children. For the next 3 months I kept finding McDonald’s fries! The seats fold down into the underbelly of the can so every time I opened or closed them, something new would fall out…gross!

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  9. The grossest thing – by far – was when I’d gone grocery shopping and on the way home a yogurt cup rolled out of a bag. I only found it once the package had bloated and then burst….while the car sat in the parking lot on a hot day.

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  12. I found a strawberry my 3 year old had dropped. It had rolled under the seat into a crevice I didn’t even know was there. By the time we found it, it barely resembled a strawberry anymore, it was more like a green fuzzy alien!

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  13. Cup of milk that had been left in the car in the summer, by my precious kiddos. Ugh! This steam cleaner looks incredible!

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  14. Wow, Stacy, your car looks new! I mean sparkling clean! I don’t think it would be better if you had it detailed by a pro. :))) Great machine and you did a lot of work to get it this way!

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  15. My kids leave all sorts of things in my car. I have to say, probably the grossest thing I ever saw in my car was a lollypop that fell on the floor and everything stuck to it. Yuck!

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  16. For me, it would have to be a piece of gum and lollipop gunk that was apparently in the bottom of my son’s seat for over 4 months. GROSS!!!

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  17. The grossest thing I ever found in my van is some kind of produce that had rolled out of a bag under the seat and was not found until it was unrecognizable! It finally smelled so bad that we had to find the ” SMELL”. It was enough to make you cringe!

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  19. We could really use this. Just adopted a rescue from the pound and he loves to ride in the car, but tracks in all sorts of stuff.

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  20. The grossest thing I found in my car was probably a rotting orange that rolled out of my kids lunch. I found it like a month later all green, fuzzy, and squishy. Ugh!!!

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  21. My husband offered to bring the groceries in after a shopping trip, but he forgot the raw chicken left on the rear floor. After four days the smell was pretty awful, thought I’d have to sell my Jeep!

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  22. A peach had rolled out of a grocery bag at some point then morphed into an alien. Gave a whole new meaning to peach “fuzz”

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  24. Hmmmm grossest thing – probably the puke that dripped down the sides of the seats from one of our kids. YUCK!

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  28. A dried up orange. It didn’t resemble anything like what you would expect a dehydrated orange to look like or smell like.

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  29. I have three boys, there are many many gross things that I find in the car. The worst is probably a sucker that was stuck under one of the car seats and had hair and dust stuck all over it. There is now a blue spot on the seat that I would love to try to get out!

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  30. Milk Dud melted into the car carpet. Perhaps not the grossest thing to find, but it was definitely hard to clean up.

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  31. Moldy food (French fries, half hamburger) between the seats. Sticky candy, suckers.
    Thank You for the chance to win!

    Reply

  32. I have two Australian Shepherds, so there are gobs and gobs of dog hair all over my car! Also, mud and all that the dogs pick up during their daily walks in the hills near my house. My car would look and smell so much better after a nice steam cleaning.

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  34. I had found a small bag of potatoes that fell out of the grocery bag and rolled under the seat far enough that I couldn’t see it. Have you ever smelled rotting potatoes??? It still makes my stomach turn just thinking about it!

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  38. Ooh, this machine looks awesome! I haven’t actually found many gross things in my car, but I don’t have kids… yet :). Baby on the way in 2017 though, so I’m preparing for some random nasty finds in the future.

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  41. Well we have kids who get carsick (all 3), and we drive often between Northern Utah and Las Vegas. So that is constantly being cleaned up in my minivan.

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  43. Oh my. This machine would be a dream! I found the seat tracks full of water in our van, thanks to a leaky water cooler. And while that doesn’t sound terrible on its own, after factoring in the summer days it sat there soaking the random bits of food and wrappers….yeah. my van smelled like a swamp! Ick.

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  44. I have a stand up steamer with no attachmentswanted it for my floor tile. But now I realize I can’t do the walls of my shower only floor and am loving your posts want one with all the little attachments!

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  45. It wasn’t my car, but in college my friend’s car started smelling really…unpleasant. He found an old hamburger under the seat!

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  46. Well when my son was little I found a sippy cup with old milk in it under the seat :( Soooo disgusting! I just threw the whole thing away. There was no way I was going to open that thing up and wash it.

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  49. Well I can’t say I found anything in my car cause I have ocd and my house and car is spotless or I go nut’s . But in my sister’s car well that’s a different story we went shopping and she wanted to drive. OMG first I had to put a towel down on the seat before I could sit down and the smell what the heck is it. So I said ok something died in your car what the heck is it? So she went looking well it was some lunch meat she bought fell out of the bag and in between the seats. GROSS omg it was green slimy I couldn’t believe it. Well I told her from now on I’m driving in my car….I’m a neat freak that’s why I would love a steam cleaner.

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  53. We have a large family, 5 boys and 2 girls, and you’d think I have something gross in there. (Kids are all grown?). But my hubby didnt like a dirty van. So we had to always haul everything in after each time we came home. Probably my worst thing was old fries, half eaten hamburger, sticky candy.

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  54. My granddaughter threw up in the car once. I thought I cleaned it all… found evidence months later that I had not. Thanks for the chance to win!

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  56. The grossest thing I found was a Taco Bell hot sauce packet from the day before that I forgot to take out. But I stepped on it as I got in. Gross.

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  58. Over the years of raising and driving 3 boys who are grown now, I have found SO many gross surprizes in my vehicles… But the hardest one to remove was a jumbo, partially chewed up and slobbered on Tootsie Roll, that was smashed into the back floorboard carpet. GROSS! I think anybody who has had kids has probably cleaned puke out of their car? No? Great post, love reading all the fun comments!

    Reply

  60. 5 kids. We just got done building a house. During a lot of the construction (we did a lot of the work ourselves) the van became the kids’ play/snack/meal area because, well, they got tired of being in a construction zone. And the dirt, dirt, dirt from said construction zone…oh man, it infiltrated. I’ve been thinking my van will never be the same; this bad boy might be my one hope!

    Reply

  62. A melted green crayon on the backseat – even after scraping the excess and using a commercial upholstery cleaner on it, there was still a visible stain. I think this steam machine would be just right to zap that stain out of there!

    Reply

    • I’ve not found any gross things in my car. i try to vacuum it periodically. Sometimes a Cub Scout will leave me a candy wrapper with sticky goo.

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  64. The grossest thing I ever found in my car was a diaper in a plastic bag wedged between the seats. It could have come from any one of my friends over a period of year. It was wedged in between the seat and unless you pulled one seat up to pull the back down you would never find it. It was horrid, stinky and slimy. Just gross. And the smell after the seat was flipped up was staggering in the 150 degree car. I’m heaving thinking about it. Yuk!

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  65. The grossest thing I ever found in my car was a diaper in a plastic bag wedged between the seats. It could have come from any one of my friends over a period of year. It was wedged in between the seat and unless you pulled one seat up to pull the back down you would never find it. It was horrid, stinky and slimy. Just gross. And the smell after the seat was flipped up was staggering in the 150 degree car. I’m heaving thinking about it. Yuk!

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  66. did my shopping, stuff put in the truck, got home & the whole watermelon had busted open and the gallon on milk had leaked all over & this was on a very hot day. it took 2 weeks to get the baked on smell out

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  67. Such a great giveaway..love this to get into those small crevices that drive me nuts! Haha.
    Two things.
    One like most people..I found my doggie bag in the back floor board..found me following my nose.
    I smelled it first.

    Two, was not so gross..but a wow..we live in humid south Florida..after a hurricane with lots of rain..ants were look For high ground.
    They found it in my car..again in the rear section..by the time I found the mound..there were millions of tiny tiny ants and eggs too!

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  71. We had gone shopping for groceries on one of the hottest days and weeks of the year and when we got home took out all the groceries from the trunk. Since hubby helped take care of things I wasn’t able to make sure all was inside. A few days later we went to get in the car and there were thousands of flies. We very gingerly opened the trunk and discovered that a chicken had fallen out of the bag and was literally crawling around the trunk! Totally NASTY!!! UGH! Thank god it was a rental car! LOL
    Would love to win this steamer! I have lots of jobs that I would use it for! Thanks for the chance to!

    Reply

  72. A leftover burger! At least it wasn’t a big piece and was wrapped — stuck under the passenger seat from the back seat

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  73. OH MY! Have long lusted after one of these machines! My first job with it will be my bathroom shower!!! Thank you SO much for the chance to win one of these – and my shower thanks you too!

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  76. We bought my daughter a new (used) car from a dealer. We left it there after the purchase so they could detail it, and then picked it up later that evening. After we got it home we found a half consumed bottle of chocolate milk under one of the seats. Super gross!

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  77. I’m so impressed with how clean you were able to get a much loved car. Raising 3 boys and all the car trips with friends, I know how dirty – and smelly – a car can get. I have found 3 day old chicken fingers under the seat; crickets that got out of the bag (they fed them to lizards); spilled Chinese food sauce (still haven’t gotten that stain out!) ; smelly sport socks and more.

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  80. When the kids were younger, I found one of their sippy cups (not sure how long it was there) under the bad seat with milk (okay not so much milk anymore) still in it. Oh gosh it was soo gross and the smell (barf). Thank you for the fabulous giveaway!

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  82. I found some honey with (ewww) dog hair in it along with the dry drool . I think the honey was the worst cause it was so sticky but the dog hair along with it made it much more gross .

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  84. The grossest thing I’ve ever found in my car was a hot dog that had to be at least a month old. Still can’t figure out how it didn’t smell up the car, but thank goodness I found it before it was too late lol!

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  86. Does having someone else’s kid throw up in your car on the way to school count as the grossest thing? Ugh. It was nasty!

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  88. I’m not sure what is the grossest thing I ever found, but I once spilled a whole 44 ounce soda in my car. It was like a tidal wave! I have an older car, and I sure would love to clean it up to look like yours does after you finished! Thanks for the chance to win the steam cleaner – fingers crossed!

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  89. a half eaten green hot dog and bun, with catsup that looked like the arm of an alien or zombie by the time it was found putrid xx

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  90. I found a bag of lollipops that I thought I forgot at the grocery store. They had fallen under the seat and stayed there for an entire summer.

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  91. I once found an ice cream cone, dried and disgusting, under the back seat. Had to scrape if off the carpet. Wouldn’t all scrape off so had to soak it and then scrape some more. Yuck!

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  95. I found leftover dried up vomit from my daugther’s motion sickness episodes throughout her seat area that we apparently missed during cleanup.

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    • oh yea, and my kids found a Big Mac with one or two bites out of it in an arm rest compartment in my brother in law’s car

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  97. Ugh, we found a dead mouse in my car. I knew there was one in there but I couldn’t find it so I had to drive it several days as the smell amplified. After tearing the car apart, my husband found it in the a/c vent under the passenger floorboard. Disgusting!

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  98. This is awesome and would be great to have. The grossest thing I have found was a Publix sub located in my trunk that my dear boyfriend left and it was rotten and the smell was horrendous!

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  102. We rarely have a long car trip where someone doesn’t throw up. There are parts of the van that never look clean!

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  105. We had a gallon of milk roll under the back seat. In July. It expanded and popped the lid off. It was the most disgusting thing ever and I thought we were going to have to get rid of the car. So gross!

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  106. My husband and I went on our honeymoon and left our car in a parking garage. When we got back to it a week later, there was mold in the back floorboard from rotten strawberries! We completely forgot they were in there!

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  107. 3 kids = beyond messy minivan I don’t want to claim as my own. I usually get around to cleaning it before and after road trips, but it’s been too long!

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  109. I found a fruit loop that had been in my car for 6+ years (it was under/in the seats). The crazy thing was that it still looked like a fruit loop, only just a tad shriveled.

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  112. OMG, it is really gross. My car was parked in our driveway when we visited family for 4 days over Thanksgiving one time. When I went to the grocery store and tried to put my groceries in the trunk there was a mouse nest with egg noodles from somewhere not my house. I just closed the trunk and made my husband deal with it when I got home.

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  116. I rescued two baby geese in the middle of a busy road and put them in my car and they pooped before I could get them home safe!

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  118. The grossest thing I ever found was a bag of what used to be lettuce under the seat that at some point my son snuck in the car for a snack :)

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  125. Sippy cups with old milk are the worst! When you drive a big SUV you don’t realize the gross things your kids leave for you to find.

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  131. Well, let me think. It was years ago and I had just purchased some plants. The dog snuck in the back of the van, knocked over some of the plants, ate others then barfed into the whole mess. He was so miserable that he speed then had diarrhea on top of all of it. Driving that mess was bad enough. Cleaning it all up and trying to get rid of the smell was e even worse. I almost threw up when I was cleaning it.

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  133. It was a long time ago but I’ll never forget it. I’d picked up some plants for the yard. On the way home, the dog snuck into the back of the van. He had a lot of fun knocking the plants over and rolling in the damp dirt. Somewhere along the way, he ate one of the plants and threw up all over e r t :) e plants and dirt. By the time we got home he,’d speed and had diarrhea. I was not happy. Then there was the time we were driving up to the cabin. It was a beautiful day – warm and sunny. Gilly needed to get out and we stopped by this nice lake. We didn’t realize until we got back into the car, but Hilly had been lying on this large flat rock and had a gay old time scratching his back on it. In the car we realized t g at the Co c Ker had been lolling on the “fish cleaning rock”. The smell was atrocious. Good thing we loved that dog.

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  139. My family spilled soda and sticky popcorn all over my car on our summer vacation. I’ve tried everything!!! Would love this !!!

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  140. The grossest thing has been food and drinks. Kids are just so messy! Actually I take that back, our cat peed in our old car when we moved, it never really came off, we tried everything, it was so gross! :[[[

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  141. once I left a fast food soda cup in my car way way too long and the bottom totally disintegrated and the whole cup holder was filled with the leftover soda. The shameful part is when I realized it I didnt have anything to get the soda out so I drove around with a soda puddle for a few days. I swear it’s still sticky lol

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  142. I have found whole breakfast sausages under the seats of my car before, yuck! They were hard and shriveled when I found them so they must have been there a while. I have two young boys.

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  144. My last car was 2 years old when I got it. I was cleaning under the seat and found a partially eaten hamburger, which must’ve come from McDonald’s because it was perfectly preserved! Gross!!

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  149. I’d say a baggie with half my husband’s thumb. He cut it off with a table saw and the hospital was not able to reattach. So I left the baggie in the car and didn’t remember it for a few days.

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  154. Gum. Not even the chewed kind – I had some gum sticks and somehow they became moist and hot and melty and oozy. And of course in a spot I can hardly reach!

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  159. The most gross thing I found was an old chicken nugget found in hair. Of course the chicken nugget looked totally fine which makes me think that is even more gross!

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  160. One day I decided to clean the car out. I found a sweet potato under the seat! One must have fell out when we went grocery shopping. I can’t begin to tell you how disgusting it looked! Lol.

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  162. A Pepsi had exploded in my car, which I didn’t know. I wondered what those brown spots were, which tended to get worse the more and more the dog traveled in the car with me. It fed up my husband, who decided to “clean” my car. Some stains just never come out!

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  163. The grossest thing I ever found in my car was from years ago when I was out with friends hitting the bars. Someone puked in the back seat and never said a word. Imagine how nasty that was to find the next day while suffering a hangover. OMG… that was NASTY!!!

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  164. All kinds of things! Maybe an old cheeseburger, that looked exactly like it did moments after purchasing, that’s pretty gross. The worst is dairy when the car starts smelling really bad. :(

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  168. My sister had a gym bag in her car we were cleaning out. It was filled with soiled (read sweaty) work out clothes and a half eaten candy bar from 6 months ago. It was summer.

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  169. Grossest thing? A thermos that had old coffee inside (I always make mine with milk) found its way underneath a seat. I don’t know how long it was in there but it went straight into the garbage. No way I was opening it

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  171. The worst mess I’ve ever had was a latte that spilled off the front seat and onto the carpet. It wasn’t really a “found” mess because i watched it happen in slow motion! But, it was so hard to get out. My car smelled like sour milk for days.

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  175. I had a gas can (picking up gas for the snow blower) that leaked onto the carpet. It smelled awful and driving in the winter with the windows down was not fun.

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  179. My kids call my car “my house on wheels” because we spend so much time in it. Too bad I can’t get it as clean as my home!

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  181. Hmmm, when I was in my early 20’s, I put an open contained of milk in the trunk of my car. I didn’t realised that it had spilled, until days after, when my dad started complaining about the smell, then my mom, then everyone. I checked the exhaust, the trunk, nothing.
    Until my dad lifted the trunk mat, under which I had made the nicest cottage cheese trunk ever.
    It was really really really gross to clean (the grossest diaper now doesn’t even make me wink).

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  184. Well I didn’t really “find” it, but the time my son threw up all over himself, his carseat, and the backseat was really gross!

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  186. Oh gosh…I think the grossest thing was a baby bottle that went under a seat and smelled like death. I have a friend who accidently left a fish in her car and went out of town for a week during the Texas summer…so bad! And how does that even happen?!

    Reply

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