hh care: sandal cleaning

If I can find a pair of sandals that meets all my funny requirements to be comfortable, I want to wear them all summer long.  Sadly though, that leads to really funky, smelly, gross sandals.  I mean, really, check this grossness out:

Three pair of sandals that really need cleaning.

 Wet feet means dirt sticks to my feet and my shoes.  Wet feet means that skin sloughs off onto my shoes.  Both of those mean that my sandals get downright sedimentary.  Layers and layers of goo dried onto them in just a few wears.  Ick.

That black stuff on the sole shouldn't be there!

 I find the easiest way to handle this for me is to do one big cleaning of all my sandals about every two weeks.  After chipping off the worst of the sedimentary dirt, I break out my secret weapon: saddle soap.

Saddle soap is glorious.  All hail!

For some reason, I didn't learn about this stuff until a few years ago.  Up until then, my sandal care consisted of occasionally wiping them down with a wet rag and maybe some dish soap.  But it makes sense that a product made to remove all the sweat and dirt from horse tack would work well for my sweaty shoes.  So here's the routine:

The supplies.

First, get your saddle soap and some old WET rags.  Yup, we're fixing the water with more water.

Take one wet clean rag and get as much of the dirt off the sandal as possible.  Get it all damp while you're going.  Not super wet, just damp.

Rinse that rag out, and rub it in your saddle soap.  Yes, I've used this much of that stuff.

Now rub it into that shoe!  It will lather up some.  Really massage it into the shoe and let it sit for a few minutes.  Then use that other clean wet rag to wipe it off and let your shoes dry.

After

And ta da!  Clean shoes!  Notice that it didn't remove the discoloration on the shoes in the middle.  It can't do that.  But if you keep it up, it makes a huge difference.  The shoes on the right are two years old, and even though they're getting to the end of their lifespan, they still look pretty good.

This also makes a huge difference in how the shoes smell.  It can't get rid of really deep funk that's developed over a long time, but if you do this regularly from the beginning, it keeps that from happening as fast.  Saddle soap removes the oil and dirt from leather, and it's those foot oils and dirt that lead to bacteria and then to funk.  So regular cleaning like this goes a long way to preventing the funk.

Happy sandal wearing!