Saturday’s In Syracuse: Valet Auto Wash Syracuse

Struggling with a messy car has been an ongoing, continually frustrating part of my life basically since I’ve been an adult. At age 18, the mom of the toddler I babysat told me that the way she was able to keep her car clean at all times was by maintain the “Carry In, Carry Out” rule. Anything she carries into her car has to then be carried out when she leaves (if the phrase itself wasn’t self-explanatory). I have never managed to actually follow her rule, try as I might, but my dirty car is something that I often battle with. Like, quite literally, weekly. I will go once a week to the car wash and get the outside cleaned then clean the inside myself using Armor-All wipes to wipe down the interior, the car wash’s industrial vacuums to suck up the maaaannnnnyyyy crumbs my car has accumulated over the week and (my favorite) bin sorting system of “to be returned to the library”, “to go in the house”, “to go into the dirty laundry”, “to go into inventory for work” and “to go into the garbage”. Except, in this case, the ‘bins’ are actually reusable grocery shopping bags. And at least half the time, all of the bags go into my trunk while I clean the interior of my car only to never see the light of day again… until I clean my car again. But that’s a problem for another day.

My mission for the month of April is to conquer, once and for all, my car-messiness woes. This does not need to be the story of my life (although it is, quite literally, currently the story of my life). I am going to take this month to implement the Carry In, Carry Out rule (complete with a sign near my 11 year-olds spot in the car so he doesn’t forget because he has ADHD and does so much better with written reminders… and a sign near my spot in the car so I don’t forget because I have ADHD and do so much better with written reminders… more on that later) and given the whole “it takes 21 days to form a habit”, if I can keep this practice in place for the entire month of April then by the end of the month I should have kept my car so clean that it is now a habit.

One part of the messy car dilemma that continues to intrigue me is that I NEED to have a lot of stuff in my car at all times. For example, I keep my makeup bag in my car so that I can do my makeup after dropping my kids off at school/daycare but before I have to be seen by anyone in a professional setting. I keep my skincare in my car (face wipes, morning moisturizer, evening moisturizer, toner) in my car for the same reasons and also because if I do my skincare in the evening on my drive home then it actually happens but if I have to get up out of bed and stop watching tiktoks to do my skincare… ain’t a chance in hell. I keep my medicine in my car. I keep a lot of various cleaning supplies in my car (in the trunk). And, probably the biggest issue of them all, I keep healthy snacks in my car since I can’t eat out this year and often will go right from job site to job site without time to stop home for lunch in between meals.

I believe I can eradicate the above listed issues with some proper organizational items. I would love for getting an organized/clean car to not become a capitalist agenda seeking to promote products no one wants or needs however I will share the items that I get (to let you know if I find them useful or not) as well as where I got them from and how much they cost. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking maybe some sort of pocket for the back of my seat to hold snacks (I have seat pockets but they’re so thin/taut that I truly can hardly open then), and then maybe a divider for my center console so I can at least neaten it up some. I guess we’ll have to see what the world wide web recommends.

On another note…

I do think that I need to have my car professionally detailed in order to start this journey on a clean slate. I spent over an hour cleaning my car myself at the Syracuse Valet Auto Wash over by Destiny and it still had crumbs stuck in the carpet and stains on the seats. Even if I just go with one of the inexpensive drop-in options that Delta Sonic offers, I think that’ll make it easier for me to maintain the cleanliness of the car. It’s like when we first start cleaning the home of a new client that is going to be recurring for us. If we start with a deep clean it will give us a blank slate so that moving forward, every week when we’re cleaning we’re not cleaning up years worth of dirt and grime in addition to the past two week’s worth. My car needs a deep clean so that we can start this from ground zero but that’s a topic for a future Saturday In Syracuse post.

You can watch the video reviewing the Valet Auto Wash Syracuse car wash on our Tiktok. Here’s the breakdown of how I would score this carwash compared to others I’ve been to.

Staff- 4 out of 10- I suck at driving and didn’t get the car lined up on the tracks to enter the car wash correctly. The guy was clearly mad at me and then continued to have an attitude for the process of realigning me and directing me to put my car in Neutral and take my foot off the brake. Bro, it’s not that deep.

Cleanliness- 10 out of 10- Both of the vacuums I used worked. They have their vacuums INSIDE which is sooooo nice for cleaning your car during the winter. This was seriously an amazing idea on behalf of the owners of this place. I’d pay more for a car wash any day if I can vacuum my car afterward in a heated building. They have a ride-on auto-scrubber for cleaning the floors of the space which tells me they mean business because only our accounts that care the absolute most have an auto scrubber always on site to ensure the floors are always pristine.

Amenities- 10 out of 10- The wash itself was like every car wash I can recall. They actually had working vacuums in their vacuum area which are far superior to any type of cordless vacuum you might use at home. They had a plethora of clean rags to dry your car with in the rag bin.

Cost- 8 out of 10- I paid $16 (not their lowest car wash but I wanted the under carriage of my car sprayed because of the salt on the roads). Their least expensive option was $13.

Location- 10 out of 10- Right near the Farmer’s Market and the mall. Kind of equidistant between all of the things I have to do on the weekend (kid activities, often job sites) and my home. I have always cleaned my car on Sunday’s so I love to go to the farmer’s market and then go clean my car.

Hours- 5 out of 10- I wouldn’t have an issue with their hours if they were open when they say they’re open. They had soooo many times over this winter that they would have a sign up saying they were closed due to the weather yet it wasn’t even snowing. Super frustrating that there’s no way to find out if they’re closed from their website so you have to drive there to find out.

I chose Valet Auto Wash Syracuse as the first for this series reviewing local car washes because it’s the location that I am familiar with and already attend quite often. I plan to spend the entire month of April reviewing different car washes in the area and will compare them all using the above listed criteria. I love this place because the staff leaves me alone and I can stay warm while I’m cleaning my car out. I’m excited to see if there are other options in the area that I’m unfamiliar with but could end up being a game changer for features they offer that I haven’t even realized I need.

I can’t wait to be a person with a clean car all the time.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

-Jade