shoes can be washed in washing machine

 

A few years ago, when I was learning to sew, I stumbled across a method of caring for shoes that is

 not only better than washing them in the sink and drying them in the sun, but more convenient and much more economical.

 Image source: https://pinterest.com/

The process involves soaking your shoes with a mixture of soap and water before bagging them up like so: 

 

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Then you can slip them into an old pillowcase or sock before washing your clothes and putting everything else into your washing machine.

 

 Image source: https://www.amazon.com/

The pillowcases protect the soles and heels of your shoes and the socks, especially the holes, absorb any additional dirt that causes those surfaces to look dull..

 

 Image source: https://www.nike.com/

In addition, since many people with jobs do not like to wash their clothes on Saturday night or at any other time when they are likely to be asleep in bed, this method also allows you to do it on a weekday morning and still have time for your weekly trip to the gym.

 Image source: https://www.walmart.com/

What this does is remove all of the ugly scuff marks that inevitably appear from walking through gravel or sand without shoe covers. 

 

Image source: https://www.flipkart.com/

It also makes it easy for you to simply remove them from your closet at home and slip them back into place before leaving the house.

 

 Image source: https://pixabay.com/

You could even dry them in your dryer, which all but eliminates the need to air-dry as you would if they were just left out on the clothesline to go through the heat of a summer day.

 Image source: https://www.adidas.com/

At this point, I should also mention that if you live in an area where it rains frequently (as I do), you can also take your shoes outside and let them sit for about 30 minutes, then use a couple of old towels to brush off all of the water as best as you can without ruining the stitching or soles. Then put them back into their pillowcase or sock, place in a plastic bag and put inside another pillowcase before washing all of your clothes.

 Image source: https://pixabay.com/

My wife has always been curious about what the point of this is, but the minute I told her that it helped to keep scuffs off of my shoes, she was interested. The following week, when I set aside some time to show her how it worked, she was shocked at how much dirt came off both my shoes and her much more expensive dress shoes.

After she saw how effective it was, we decided to try a few other things out of curiosity and they all worked very well as well.

 

 Image source: https://pinterest.com/

For instance, if you really need to use bleach, it is not difficult to dissolve a couple of tablespoons of bleach into the water you use to soak your shoes. Then we tried a mixture of baking soda and white vinegar.

 Image source: https://www.amazon.com/

We are not sure what the exact formula for that is, but it also worked well for cleaning off scuffs on shoes which have suede or leather uppers.

 Image source: https://www.nike.com/

When doing something like this you should pay attention to any care instructions on the individual shoe box because

 

  Image source: https://www.walmart.com/

 there are some expensive pairs that will be damaged by anything other than gentle soap and water.

 

  Image source: https://www.adidas.com/

 In most cases, however, this method will work perfectly fine.