It’s like the smell of a new car. You open the door, slip behind the steering wheel and absorb that scent of fresh leather. As time goes on you can still smell a little bit of that new aroma and then one day you jump into your car and realize its gone. Unfortunately, its typically replaced by something much less pleasant.
Our car is particularly stinky after the six hour drive from Maryland to North Carolina. I can’t exactly describe the foul odor. I suppose it’s some combination of fast food, sneakers and plain old sitting-in-the-car-for-six-hours stink.
I typically air the car out the day after we arrive. I roll down all the windows and hope some of that salty ocean air will permeate the seats and dashboard. When that doesn’t work I run into the laundry room and grab two dryer sheets and proceed to tuck them in between the sun visors and the roof of the car. The problem with this solution is that the sheets fall out any time you actually need to shield your eyes from the sun, which is not exactly ideal.
I figured there was a better solution to keeping my car smelling fresh and clean without having to roll down the windows for hours on end or use products from my laundry room, but I didn’t know what to try. Eons ago I used those Christmas tree shaped air fresheners that hung from the rear view mirror, but I never liked the way they rocked back and forth when the car moved and I always thought the scent just out of the package was much too potent.
It turns out there is a better solution to covering up the unpleasant odors that build up in your vehicle. Febreze Car Vent Clips attach easily and work immediately. Unlike those old hanging air fresheners you can select the level of scent intensity. You can dial up the notch to produce a lot of fragrance or dial it down for a subtle aroma. When you adjust the dial to a lower intensity the clip will last for a longer period of time, typically up to thirty days.
While I want to cover up any unpleasant odors in the car I don’t like overpowering scents. In fact, around the house I typically use fragrance free products. I like being able to adjust the intensity of aroma. I want a subtle clean smell, not an overpowering, spritzed by the perfume girl in the makeup department scent.
Unlike my dryer sheet solution these clips attach securely to the vents in your dashboard. Once installed they stay in place until you remove them. I suggest attaching them to a vent that you don’t adjust often. I put mine in the middle most vent of the dashboard, which we never seem to move.
Febreze Car Vent Clips are a great way to keep your car smelling fresh and clean. In fact, if you love that new car smell as much as I do you can buy a clip with the New Car Scent.
Find Febreze Vent Car Clips at your local Walmart and take freshness on the go. They last up to 30 days and help you take the comfort of a fresh-smelling home on the road. Look for a buy-one-get-one free offer in the 3/1 Sunday brandSAVER available at Walmart.
SheSpeaks would like to provide one lucky winner with a $25 Walmart gift card to use towards the purchase of Febreze Vent Car Clips or anything else you might desire.
Enter to win by leaving a comment below. Tell me about the longest amount of time you’ve been stuck in a smelly car, what you do to prevent odors on long road trips or a time you accidentally forgot something smelly (gym clothes, fast food wrappers) in your vehicle. A winner will be selected on March 20th!
A winner was drawn and the random number selected was #36! Congratulations Lucy.
This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Febreze.
I try to keep the car vacuumed and clean to prevent odors in the car. I have never been in a very odorous car, musty smells are the worst I have encountered.
jslbrown2009(at)aol(dot)com
I’m surprised you like these clips if you find the trees too strong. My bf got one for his truck, and on the lowest setting, months after he started using it, I still find it unpleasantly strong when I get in the truck.
The worst smell in a vehicle for me was when I was a kid. My mom went shopping (in the summer) in her minivan and bought milk. One of the gallons of milk rolled away from the rest of the groceries and got lodged under a seat. It also got a small crack in it and slowly started leaking milk. Soon we started to notice a smell. It just kept getting worse and worse. The milk was pretty far under the seats so we didn’t find it right away, and kept taking other things out thinking they might be the problem, old clothes, shoes, dirty cups from cupholders, etc.
When we finally found the milk, more than half the jug had leaked into the carpet of the van, and the whole thing was permeated with the smell of rotten, sour milk. We rented a carpet cleaner, used all kinds of products, and eventually even cut that section out of the carpet, but the smell never fully left, and hot days would always bring it out again.
I was stuck in a smelly car for a few hours until I could get home and take the kid’s sand buckets out of the back and see what they had in them! I now look through whatever they want to bring home.
I once left my daughter poopy diaper in the car. I was changing her in the back of my svu and forgot to take it to trash when I got home. The next day the car smell so bad that I have to air out for a long time to get rid of the smell.
The longest trip ever was out west and it rained so we had smelly dogs. Uck Uck Uck
When my son was in diapers I always felt like my car smelled like a dirty diaper. I will sometimes spray perfume in my car when I know I’m going to have people in it just in case!
We try to keep the car well ventilated, have a little pack of baking soda in the trunk to capture unwanted odors , use air freshener and we check every now and then for surprises my kids might leave behind
The longest I have been stuck in a smelly car is when I was younger and my family would take family vacation across borders to different states and our family van didn’t smell too great haha.
I don’t usually get stuck in a smelly car. All you’d have to do is open a window or get out of the car. We really don’t leave trash or anything smelly in our vehicles, but I’d love to try the Febreze fresheners.
My husband has left some nasty food in his car. Not on purpose — he just forgot!