Cleaning an art car is an involved business. I guess everyone has their own method, but this is what I do:
- hose off the car.
- wash all the flat surfaces, beads and carpet with a sponge and bucket of soapy water.
- rinse off with the hose.
- fire up the steam jet cleaner. do yard work while steam cleaner is heating up.
- spray all the toys with Tilex.
- clean each toy and mah jongg tile with steam cleaner.
- rinse again with hose.
I should have probably washed it again with the sponge to get rid of the residue left by the steam cleaner, but as it was the process took all afternoon. I'll take some Windex and paper towels for a quick clean-up when I get to the show. After all that I was pretty much wiped out. Georg took care of dinner, and he even surprised me by going to another Target and getting more bubble juice! Four more bottles; now I definitely have enough.
I still had to do laundry and pack, but that wasn't hard. This is the easiest time I've ever had of packing for an art car trip: I don't have to pack food or plan clothes for any special events, if I forget anything I can ask Georg to bring it, and I'm not messing around with web cams. Normally I have to take my computer bag and a separate equipment bag, but this time the equipment (battery chargers and the like) fit in the computer bag.
Now I'm almost ready. Just have to go to Stoneline this morning since I can't go this evening, go to the bank, write out Thirteen's medication instructions for the kennel, and decide whether to give her a bath or have them do it. On the one hand, it would be nice not to worry about it. But on the other I don't know if they have the sensitive skin shampoo that Thirteen needs.
2 Comments
If it's a matter of the shampoo and not of saving money by doing it yourself, I'd bet you could bring Thirteen and the shampoo in and they'd wash her using your shampoo. When we board rats, our vet will give them special food and even medication they don't have on hand but we bring in.
Wow, I never even thought about washing an art car. I am now imaginign using a steam cleaner on all the dusty open shelf-boxes of nick-nakcs around the house! ;-)
That is a wonderful suggestion, thank you! I already have to send a bag of Thirteen's meds and supplements with instructions, so I just added her shampoo to the bag.
The steam cleaner is a wonderful thing, although there might be a problem with knick-knacks: you can't put your hands too close to the steam jet. So I think it would be difficult to use it on something small that isn't anchored in place. Also the steam cools down and leaves a fair amount of water around. Not a drenching, but still more than normal cleaning. That might be a problem on wooden shelves.
On the other hand, it's great at things like cleaning around the knobs on sinks or scrubbing out the bathtub. Which I hardly ever do, even though I have the steam cleaner!