Cleaning White Shoes

I don't know about you, but every time I go out to buy some new pair of shoes, my eyes are always stuck on the classy whites. I pick them up, check them out, and suddenly I realize... they are WHITE!

No matter how much I would love to buy them, there are always two things at the back of my head, they will end up getting dirty very fast, and they would be extremely difficult to clean! Most of the time, I left white and picked up some other color, except for this one time where the shoes were just too good to leave!

As perceived by many, cleaning white shoes can be the most difficult job to do! Though it's not a piece of cake, it is definitely not one of the most difficult things to do as well! You just need a little... yes, just a little patience!

Cleaning white shoes also depends upon the 'kind' of white shoe that you have. Cleaning white leather shoes need a lot of care and caution as the leather may get severely damaged if handled carelessly. There are many commercial products available in the market that makes it possible to clean white shoes fast.

The products like 'Goo Gone, Magic Eraser, KIWI Sport Shoe Scrub off, or Clorox Bleach Pen' come with self-explanatory usage directions and cautions. Therefore, in the following points, we will be focusing on the home remedies to clean your white shoes.

This is one of the most effective as well as popular home remedy! All you need to do is to mix one part of bleach with four parts of water. Most people dip their shoes in this mixture overnight, but I wouldn't really recommend to do so.

Keeping the shoes soaked in bleach can actually harm the inner material of the shoe and your shoes might not last for a long time. So, I would recommend you to dip a scrub brush in the water-bleach mixture and scrub the stain of the white shoes.

Rinse it with clean water and continue repeating the process until the stain is gone! Make sure you clean the shoes properly with clean water as the bleach may stain the fabric of the shoes. Be careful while using bleach on leather shoes as that may ruin the shoe in case the bleach isn't washed off thoroughly!

Using mild soap to clean your white shoes is the safest way to clean them. The lesser the chemicals, the lesser the chances to ruin them! The simple way to do this is to take a mixture of mild soap and water and using a toothbrush (which you don't use) to clean the dirt and stain.

Simultaneously, you can also use a towel to blot the stains. Keep on repeating the process of wetting, scrubbing with the toothbrush, blotting, and rinsing, unless the shoe is clean!

Using a paste like mixture of water and baking soda, and applying the paste on the stains with the help of a brush also helps to clean white shoes. Wait for the paste to dry up and once it is completely dried, use a dry scrub to brush off the remaining residue.

As an alternative, you can also use a mixture of a tablespoon of baking soda mixed with equal amount of hydrogen peroxide and hot water! Scrub it on the stains with the help of a toothbrush and rinse thoroughly!!! This method works well for canvas shoes.

This too is one of the quick home remedies for covering up the stain on your plain white shoes! Application of white toothpaste over the stains with the help of a toothbrush works fine if you are in a hurry. Just allow the toothpaste to dry, and brush off the remaining residue.

Some people also use lemon as a natural way to clean their fabric shoes. All that one needs to do is to squeeze some lemon juice in 4 ounces of water (room temperature). Soak a sponge in the mixture and rub it on the stains after wringing the sponge completely. Repeat the process until desired results. Wash thoroughly and allow the shoes to dry naturally.

When it comes to cleaning shoes that were originally white but have now turned yellow, it is best to clean it thoroughly with magic eraser first, and then polish the shoes with white shoe polish. Make sure that you keep on cleaning your white shoes with mild soap on a regular basis to avoid their chances of going yellow.

The best things in life are the ones that should be really treasured and taken care of. If you really love your white shoes, then make sure you do that!