So, my kids are not the best company in the summer. I love them, I do! But sometimes they get a little restless and then it’s a chore to figure out how to entertain them… especially because I have to work in the summertime and they’re out of school for the summer. Thankfully they’re going back to school soon, but I wanted to share one thing I had them do that both kept them busy and helped me out a little bit too. My bright idea? A car wash! Just for my car and my husband’s, but the kids were occupied and we came out of the whole thing with shiny clean cars. Sure, we bought some car shampoo, some paste wax, and had to sacrifice some rags, but the kids loved it and I knew that we were using the best supplies for the task.

If you want to do this too, here are some of my tips for making sure your kids don’t leave your car worse for the wear.

You should probably get some proper car shampoo. I remember my dad used to have us wash his car with dish soap, which gets the job done but isn’t exactly what you should be using as it can strip off the protective wax on the outside of your vehicle and leave it vulnerable to rust and such. We also used a big natural sponge, which was both gentle and effective for cleaning the outside of the car. It’s a good idea to use different sponges for the body of the car and the wheels and surrounding areas as well, just to be safe and make sure that none of the road grit and grease from those areas gets ground into the paint of your car.

We had the kids spray the cars down first, just to get rid of anything that might have stuck, like small rocks and dust. Then the kids washed the car down with long strokes on the body (as opposed to small circles, which can make swirl marks). They got the car shampoo nice and sudsy and then scrubbed the cars down, rinsing the sponges often. We made sure they worked on one section at a time, hosing the car down after each part was done so the soap didn’t dry on the car.

After the cars were clean, we dried them, put on some paste wax (we’d watched The Karate Kid a couple nights before, so the kids really loved this part – wax on, wax off!), and we were good to go. When we dried the cars, we made sure to use gentle microfiber chamois cloths, just like they do in NASCAR (a statement from my youngest) to really make them shine.

This was a great way to keep the kids busy and outside for the day, and I think our cars look better than ever because we used the right stuff. So, if you want to do the same thing, I bid you good luck! And I hope you have the same results that we did.