The wet and windy weather is always a threat to shoes and sandals… When you come back from the rain, if not properly cleaned and preserved, the shoes will be soaked, quickly moldy and easily damaged. To keep your shoes clean, dry, and beautiful as when you first bought them, when you come back from the rain, remember the following small tips to clean and preserve your shoes.
1. Place a stone tray at the door to absorb moisture and keep the house clean
When you enter the house from outside, our shoes often pick up a lot of dirt, and on rainy days they will also absorb rainwater. If you leave them messy on the floor, it will make your house dirty and lose its aesthetic value. Moreover, if the shoes are wet, leaving them like that will also take longer to dry, causing them to deteriorate faster.
Therefore, to keep the floor clean, and to catch all the moisture and dust on the shoes when coming back from the rain, you should place a stone tray at the door to put the shoes on before doing other things.
It’s very simple! You just need to spread the stones in a tray and place it near the entrance door like this.
Make sure to pour them evenly into the tray!
When you come back, place the shoes immediately. The sand under the soles of the shoes or the absorbed rainwater will fall down. If you have more shoes, make a few more trays like this and place them on different layers of the shoe rack!
2. Clean
This is the first thing to do with the shoes after coming back from the rain.
– You should remove the shoe insole to dry it as if you leave it inside the shoe, the shoes will take longer to dry and will also emit an unpleasant smell.
– Use a wet cloth to wipe away all the mud and use a dry cloth to wipe it again. Be gentle when wiping leather shoes because being too harsh can scratch the outer layer of the leather.
– For fabric shoes, you can wash them, but don’t immerse the entire shoe in water, just wet the brush and scrub them with toothpaste to make it easier to clean.
3. How to dry shoes
– Dry the shoes with salt: Heat the salt in a pan and use a sock to hold it. Then, put the sock in the wet shoes. You can repeat this process depending on the wetness of the shoes.
– Use rice: Put the shoes in a box and pour rice into it, then close the box. Leave it for about 2 hours, and the rice will absorb all the moisture in the shoes. However, this natural drying method can be a bit costly.
– Use newspaper: This is a gentle and quick drying method for leather or suede shoes and hard-soled boots. Find a newspaper, skip the pages with black ink or pictures because sometimes the ink can bleed onto the shoes. Roll the newspaper into small balls and stuff them into the shoes tightly. Use a large sheet of newspaper to wrap the shoes to absorb moisture from the outside of the shoes, and place them in a dry place.
– Use a fan: This method is suitable for durable leather shoes or sports shoes. Suede shoes may need to be dried more slowly.
Use a desk fan or a standing fan that is taller than the length of the shoe. Place a towel under the front of the fan to absorb water from the shoes during drying.
Take out the insoles and dry them separately with a dryer or a heat sink for a few minutes if they are not made of leather. Take an old clothes hanger and use wire cutters to cut a 15cm section and bend it into an “S” shape. Bend one end smaller to hook onto the fan and the other end to hook onto the shoe.
Remove the shoe laces, expand the shoes for the maximum airflow from the fan. Turn on the fan at a medium to high setting for 1 to 2 hours to completely dry the shoes.
According to Giadinh.net
