Shoe Spring Cleaning!

Spring is FINALLY upon us (kind of...because it's totally hailing outside as I'm typing this...). When spring comes along, to me, it also means de-cluttering and reorganizing time. 

For your closet, this means taking care of your clothes and shoes (that winter jacket that needs to go to the dry cleaner?), getting rid of things you haven't touched over the last (minimum) 6 months to make space for new things and rediscovering old items tucked away last season. 

I'll start with the shoes. At the end of every season, I like to clean up my shoe closet and give my shoes a good scrub to make them super clean for summer. 

Unlike products that cost an arm and a leg sold to you by retailers at the local shoe store or cobbler, I use everyday items to do this and it works like a charm for me. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Baby wipes
• Vaseline
• Cotton Swabs (Q-tips)
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Bobby Pins (or paperclip, whichever you have handy)
• Cotton Pads (or towelette)

1. I like to start with baby wipes just to get rid of the first layer of dirt. So, using the baby wipes, go over your entire shoe. Make sure to test it out on a small spot before wipe the WHOLE shoe, just to make sure the product doesn't damage the leather (you shouldn't have this problem with PU shoes) or discolor your shoes.
2. After the baby wipes, I'll dab the cotton swabs in rubbing alcohol to get rid of any tough stains. If you don't have any, just go over with cotton pads with rubbing alcohol. 

For all leather shoes (not suede) I like to use Vaseline to clean it up. It does a surprisingly good job!

• First of all, it gets rid of ALL calcium build-up (and dirt) from the winter.
• It leaves a beautiful shine on your shoes (you can see in pictures, the right foot boot is MUCH shinier than the left foot)
• It's a little nasty slapping on Vaseline on your shoes at first, but once you rub it all in, it's not greasy at all
• It makes your boots a little more waterproof in the winter time.

Lastly, for your boots to stay standing up like in my pictures above, just bobby pin (or paperclip, make sure it won't damage the leather!) the two together. Not only will this help hold the shape of your boots, it will also let all your boots dry properly so that the humidity don't ruin them!


To see how I store them, check out my YT video and skip to the end:

How do you take care of your shoes?

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