How to keep a spotless car when you have kids

Cars and kids. They don’t mix. Raisins in the upholstery, crumbs in the cup holders and sweet wrappers under the rugs. You name it – the car is generally full of it. We were therefore chuffed to be provided with a cordless Dyson Total Clean V6 to test out, so we could see how well it tackled our raisin infested Honda. We wanted to find the solution to kiddy car mess troubles not just for ourselves, but for others too.

What is the Dyson Total Clean?

This is a new cordless vacuum cleaner from Dyson which we previewed at an event a few weeks ago. It has a great collection of attachments including the Dyson Fluffy, a new one that picks up both big and small mess. Perfect for the car and under the breakfast table . Designed very much with small people in mind methinks…

Dyson Fluffy, instead of using single bristles and a complete fluffy brush which pulls up large debris, and collects small particles too:

The Dyson Total Clean can be used both as a small handheld, as well as coming with an extension so you can still stand and clean up that mess if you need too.

The attachments include those that work on fabrics, wooden flooring, carpet, upholstery and that cylindrical one you always get for the edges. Something for everyone really!

There is a small see through collection compartment just below the handle of the Dyson Total Clean. This releases when you press a little button nearby.

To power the vacuum, you need to press and hold a button on the handle. This is really easy to operate and doesn’t require too much pressure. The kids, for example, were able to push it down and hold it without too much difficulty.

Our family life means that we tend to get lots of mud, muck and pretty much everything in the car, so using the handheld in here seemed a great way to test the vacuum

The Dyson Total Clean V6 is available from Currys for £429.99 with all attachments.

What did we think of the Dyson Total Clean?

We wrote recently about how this vacuum even got my daughter cleaning…

Even more amazingly though, it got ME cleaning the car. Car cleaning with kids is a faff. Taking the vacuum outside, having plugged it in using a hall socket can cause far too many problems. From kids tripping over the flex, to cats thinking its a mouse, and even some older “children” who should know better using it as a skipping rope! *coughs*

There really wasn’t a better way for me to put the Dyson through its paces than use it to attack our car.

I found it light, easy to use, and perfect for getting those hard to reach places. I had made sure that the Total Clean was fully charged, and it showed no sign of losing its charge completely, and it took me around 45mins total time to finish beautifying the Honda.

The carpet attachment in particular sucked up all that kid related rubbish that ends up on the floor and seats in a car. It even managed to make my sons seat look clean after a trip to football practice!

I was a little worried that the dust compartment would be hard to open. Wrong. It is a doddle. Even my daughter was able to help out; which means she’s got no excuses for not cleaning up the mess after breakfast

The car wasn’t quite as good as new but from this..

..to this…

That’s definitely more than you can hope for with a family car and only 45mins before you have to head off to a friends daughters third birthday! We need to attack it again with a bit of a cloth to wipe those ever-present footprints and hand-prints off, but muddy football prints aside, it was looking an awful lot better.

Overall – 9/10

We loved this product, and our tip for keeping a spotless car – buy one! Joking aside, the key idea is to have a handheld vacuum, and that means that whatever mess you make on your latest trip out with the kids, as soon as you get home – you clean it up.

We have put the Dyson Total Clean as a handheld in the cupboard under the stairs, so that when we get home from our day trips out; there is the Dyson Total Clean to help us out. Keep it charged and ready, and you will be surprised at home much easier it is to keep the car spick and span.

Shove it away, without giving it due care and attention and the car, and probably the house, won’t be looking quite so lovely when you take that next trip.

If you are lucky enough to have another great brand of car (Honda), just like we do, then it, and you, are worth just that little bit extra, wouldn’t you agree? It is rather cool seeing such great technology side by side in the front seat to be honest. Particularly as it means you can take a breather from cleaning…

Taking a breather while cleaning the car – two of the best engineering brands ever stopping for a cuppa @dyson @honda

A photo posted by Helen Neale ~ Kids / Travel (@kiddycharts) on Nov 15, 2015 at 2:34am PST

 
But, don’t make the mistake that this is just for cars, it most definitely isn’t. This was just a great way of showing you what it was capable of, we are more than pleased with it for managing to clean our wooden flooring, carpets in the kids bedrooms, and anything else that we need to tackle fast.
However, the Dyson Total Clean is making it a lot easier to tidy up after them all, to make sure we can keep going to places like this in comfort. ;-)

Beautiful Thames #london

A photo posted by Helen Neale ~ Kids / Travel (@kiddycharts) on Nov 15, 2015 at 6:17am PST

 
We were send the Dyson Total Clean for the purpose of this review/test, but all opinions are our own.

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