The thrills and spills of long car journeys

With the summer on its way, millions of British motorists are planning to take the family to theme parks, zoos, National Trust properties, beaches and other destinations. Most of these days out will involve a substantial car journey which, as most parents will know, will most probably be filled with tears and tantrums if there are one or more exited children in the back.

However, tantrums aren't the only thing likely to be flying around the back seats on long car journeys. Drinks, sweets and snacks provided by well-meaning parents who are simply hoping to keep their children occupied for a few minutes are all liable to get spilt and smeared horribly across the car's seats, windows and carpets.

It is easy to get distracted from driving when you realise the little darlings have just spilt Coke all over the back seat of your car. However, both your family and your car insurance company will appreciate you keeping your eyes on the road rather than that awful fizzing mess behind you. If possible, get the kids to mop up the mess with some tissues or some other absorbent (and non-essential) material.

If you are to have any hope of restoring your pride and joy - the car that is, not the children - to its pre-day-out good looks without the need to use a valeting service, then you need to go armed and prepared. Stains are best dealt with sooner rather than later so, if you have the energy after your family day out, you need to get down the shops and buy yourself some upholstery cleaner as soon as possible.

There are a lot of different brands of upholstery cleaner on the market so it is sensible to choose one which claims to help you with your particular brand of stain. Most upholstery cleaners are relatively gentle, which means that they may not work should you have the misfortune to be tackling a particularly persistent stain. However, they are ideal for treating the majority of straightforward food and drink stains (excluding anything red) so should suit your purposes perfectly.

If you are wondering why red food or drink is an exception, the reasons are complex and scientific. Whilst red wine is the most well-known example, parents often come across the same problem with red dyes which are used in children's food and sweets. If you have a red stain on your car's otherwise lovely cream upholstery, going to the pros is probably your best bet as they will have special equipment to deal with it.

However, if you are dealing with any other variety of stain, you may well be able to deal with it yourself. Before you set to work on removing the strain though, remember that you should always read the instructions on the bottle, heed any warnings on it, and test out the cleaner on a small (ideally discrete) part of the material to check that it isn't going to cause further damage.

When tackling the stain, one thing that you do have going for you is the fact that car manufacturers bear in mind spilt drinks when choosing materials for the interior. As a result, many car seats and carpets are coated with a special fabric protector which acts as a stain repellent. This means that fluids wipe up rather than soak in, and gives you a much better chance of a stain-free car seat if some or all of the offending substance was soaked up soon after it was spilt.

When you are cleaning a car seat or carpet, it is generally advisable to clean a larger area than that which the stain affects. If you only clean a very small area, you may end up with a tide mark effect that is caused by the movement of dirt when you cleaned it.

Next time you are off to enjoy a day out, remember that spillages are inevitable when you are travelling with energetic children at speed in a vehicle that jiggles and jerks around all the time. The possible consequences of such a distraction range from the not-so-serious loss of cheap motor insurance to much more serious injuries, so it is best to avoid the issue altogether.

One way to safeguard your upholstery and your car insurance rates is by stopping regularly for food and drink breaks rather than keeping provisions in the car. Alternatively, if you know that spillages may occur, it might be worth covering the seats with an old rug or throw which will catch any food and help to soak up spilt drinks.