Woman cleaning car's dashboard

How do I clean vomit from car seats?

First of all, we are so sorry. Whether you got hit by an early flu or that second Taco Bell burrito just didn’t agree with you, having your stomach contents anywhere but in your stomach stinks. Literally. And it’s especially unpleasant when you’ve got it all over your Ford truck that you need to take to work every day. Here are a few of the steps to clean vomit from car seats to make sure that that lovely smell doesn’t stick around.

You’ll want to grab baking soda right away, and maybe rubber gloves, maybe a hazmat suit because this is going to get disgusting.

Sop up the vomit with something absorbent

Use clothes  if you have a sturdy stomach and are willing to clean them later (actually, we’ve already established that you don’t have a sturdy stomach, maybe someone else should be doing this) or paper towel. Try not to press the vomit deeper into the fabric of your seats.

There’s going to be solid stuff when you have vomit. That’s just the disgusting way of life. Pick it up with a cloth or a spatula or a stick or a shoe you don’t want anymore. Whatever works.

Apply baking soda, with prejudice

Sprinkle a layer of baking soda over the area that got the barf bath. Make it a thick layer. Maybe dump it on. Yeah, dump that baking soda over ANYTHING that even vaguely looks like vomit. Let that sit for 30 minutes, then vacuum it up.

Man cleaning a car's driver's seat

What you use at this point to clean the seats is going to vary depending on what sort of upholstery. If you have a 2015 Ford F-250 King Ranch trim with the high quality leather seats (we are SO SORRY), you’ll want to make a solution of three parts baking soda to one part water and use that to clean at the stained area.

Cloth or vinyl upholstery (which is more common) you’ll used eight parts water to one part white vinegar and a dash of dishwashing liquid.

Scrub the stain thoroughly using a lint-free cloth. If the disgusting mess has soaked into your carpet you may need to use a stiff-bristled brush to scrub it out.

Rinse with water

If you have leather seats in your Ford, use just a damp cloth and wipe gently until the cleaning paste is removed.

Get a Used Car at Akins FordWith vinyl or cloth seats, use a wet cloth or even a squirt bottle (probably you won’t need a fire hose, but if you have one…). Also rinse the cleaning solution off and out of any carpetting or hard plastics that came in contact with your stomach contents.

Let everything dry

Blot the area dry with more lint-free clothes, open your windows and let the truck air out. When you have a stomach uprising during the winter or a rain storm you can try using a fan or hair dryer to get the area completely dry.

If the smell lingers after the cleaning process (give it a few days to a week to actually dry out completely) you can take your truck to a professional cleaner, or repeat the process, checking the cracks and crevasses. We hate to say it, but vomit can be sneaky and end up places you can’t easily reach.

And if you want to say heck with it and get a completely new car, we have a beautiful inventory of new Ford vehicles that we can guarantee are 100% vomit-free.