Shoe Shine

I'm a huge fan of white shoes. I think they're great, and forget the people who say no white after Labor Day. I live in a sunny part of the country, and I will wear white when white looks good.

The problem with white shoes, however, is that they are white. White shows every particle of dust, dirt, and smudge which comes within half a mile of them. I pulled out a pair of my white heels for 4th of July a few weeks ago and realized they were a mess. I've been reading a book about cleaning with basic, natural products ("Zen Cleansing" by De Jong, a review will be forthcoming). De Jong recommends using baking soda to get shoe scuffs off floors. I started wondering if it could also get floor scuffs off shoes.

You can see the results! The top one is representative of the shoes pre-cleaning, and the bottom, post scrub. All I did was dip a damp cloth in baking soda and polish in a circular motion. Then I wiped them to get off the excess baking soda. The shoes look like new, except for a few places where the covering itself had torn.

This is great news if you're thrift-shopping and need to give your purchases a little TLC, or if you have some shoes which need cleaning. Water cleaning didn't do much when I tried it, but baking soda is slightly abrasive, so it does a nice job in taking out dirt without much effort on my part.

The best part is that baking soda is non-toxic and naturally occurring, so it won't pollute the wastewater. It's also a deodorizer, so it refreshes the sent, too. It gives the shoes some extra use-life by not making them look old and worn.

Got favorite clothing refreshing tips? Let me know in the comments.