Life Hacks to Keep Your Shoes Fresh and Clean

It is heartbreaking to see your favourite pair of sneakers go dirty. Well, you can either be sad about it or you can do something to fix it. Maintaining our footwear is initially a task you do with interest, but eventually, you tend to become lazy about it. But maybe it doesn’t have to be that bad. Here are some quick life hacks to clean your shoes.
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Trending: The Washing Machine Therapy
This may come as a surprise, but the washing machine does do the trick. Just put it all in with liquid detergent preferably. Put some of your old clothes in as well so that the shoe doesn’t bang around the walls of the machine. Make sure not to raise the temperature over 40 degrees as it may damage your shoes. Keep in mind that this would be a bad idea for leather shoes. Leather materials tend to get spoilt with the touch of water. Also, make sure to pick out any stones stuck to the bottom of the shoes so that they wouldn’t damage your washing machine.
Manual Toothbrush Washing
Toothbrush serves more than just cleaning your teeth. An old toothbrush is the right tool to clean just about anything. Sportswear like runners and sneakers can easily be cleaned with some liquid soap and toothpaste. Wash away the excess dirt from the shoes and soak them in a bucket with 50% water and soap. Take them out within an hour and brush them just like your teeth. Wash them in clean water and put them to dry away from sunlight.

If you just want to get rid of the tedious work and put them to wash in the washing machine, here are the steps that you should follow to clean your shoes, sneakers, sandals or flip-flops the right way.

Identify the Material of your Footwear:

Check if they are washable. Materials like leather do not react well with water and you might just end up with a worn-out pair of shoes.

Brush out the Excess Dirt and Stones from your Footwear
The stones and dirt stuck at the bottom of the footwear can potentially damage your washing machine. You can use a brush, vinegar or even bathing soap foams to help you clean up. It makes the task easier for machines so that they can do a better job. Make sure to take off the shoelaces as they could have dirt trapped between them
Don't Forget to Throw in an Old Towel

The shoes alone when thrown into the washing machine can create commotion and are potentially bad for it because of the minimum load requirement to run it. In such cases, you can throw a few old clothes along with the shoes so that they reduce the im[act on the walls of the cylinder of the laundry machine.

Stick to Cold Wash Only
You don’t want to try out washing your shoes at a temperature exceeding 20 degrees assuming it would wash away all the dirt. You will end up damaging your shoes. The best setting is to go for a cold wash. Also, remember not to put the machine through a high spin as it could break the lining between the sole and the material.
Dry your Footwear without Sunlight
It is advised by several footwear experts to not dry your shoes out in the sun as the dampness can cause colour deterioration when exposed to it. The best practice is to dry them outside where you can find a lot of air circulation. You can simply hang them outside where there are plenty of airflows to keep the insides fresh. Make sure to remove the soles of the shoe and wipe them with a dry cloth separately as they are capable of retaining the moisture in them.
Here are some bonus points that you never knew about keeping your shoes clean!

To Clean a stuck chewing gum: Rub a small cube of ice on the chewing gum. The ice hardens the chewing gum so that it can be pulled right out without leaving behind any residue.

Sweaty Feet Sweating is a big issue especially in a country like India where we have varying temperatures. Sprinkle some talcum powder into your shoes before you wear them. If possible, use socks so that they can absorb the moisture on your feet. You can even spray dry shampoo on the shoe to prevent your feet from sweating!

Removing Scratches - Did you know you can remove scratches up to a certain extent? All you need is tissue paper and nail polish remover. Pour a few drops of acetone or nail polish remover into the tissue paper and gently press it against the scratches for a few minutes, and then slowly rub it off. The acetone will help you remove the discoloured stains in the scratches.

Bad smell: You can get rid of the bad smell in your shoes by sprinkling some baking soda into your shoes and keeping them overnight. The trick also works with dry tea bags. You will never complain about smelly shoes again!