How to Clean Your Neglected Heels

The dreaded day that I'm to return to work from Maternity leave has finally arrived. Uggh. I’m not looking forward to leaving that cute little face in the morning. I wish that he would just be a cranky baby.

                          
But with every sad side there is a positive one. Now I get to wear my pretty heels again. After taking a look at my shoes though, I realized that my shoes are in desperate need of attention.

They need just a little TLC. Who am I kidding I have completely neglected them. Well, that stops here. After doing a little online research with my trusty helper (google and Pinterest) I found a couple techniques to give a try.

Suede Shoes

I started with my cloth suede heels. I decided to try a method that I found on Southern Girly’s blog. I had a good feeling about this method since it is very similar to what I do for my microfiber couch (that is awesome).

First you take a bottle of alcohol and a paper towel or light colored sponge would work as well. The alcohol will work with the suede because it dries faster than water. This allows for the cleaning of the material without staining.

Apply the alcohol on the shoe. I used a small spray bottle with the alcohol to make applying it on the shoe easier.  

Than with the paper towel or sponge wipe in a blotting upwards motion. You will notice the paper town get dirty and will want to keep rotating to a clean spot. This will ensure you don't rub the dirt back into the fabric.

Now keep working your way around the shoe and let dry. Mine were REALLY bad so I went over them again, but as you can see it really does work.

Cloth Shoes

I found a couple suggested techniques for cleaning cloth heels. I started with the easiest method first that I found on ehow.com.

First, I took my two pairs of shoes and four pillow cases. I sprayed the right shoe of each pair with resolve fabric cleaner to determine if that worked as well, and so I could compare it to just that cleaned with the laundry detergent.

 I ran the shoes through the delicate cycle and compared the shoes. Turns out the resolve didn’t make a difference, but they both still look GREAT!

 The sole cover inside the gold shoes is starting to lift up, but I believe that was a preexisting problem, but with a little shoe glue that will be fixed.

 I do think that if you are nervous about putting your heels in the washer than just do it by hand. I would probably use a tooth brush and just go slowly in circles. .

[Update: July 12, 2015] 

I thought it was time to share a bit of sadness with this particular pair of shoes and the method through the washer. I did wash two different pairs of heels in the washer and this one is those only pair that shoes any negative results. This could be to manufacturing or the nature of the materials the heels are made out of. These pair felt "softer" after washing them. What I mean by that is that I didn't feel as sturdy on the heels. They were wobbly under me. Now time and time again I have checked over the heels to make sure they aren't falling apart, and they are not! My advise to you is that depending on the material you are safer to not wash them in a machine, but give them that love they so need. 

Patent Leather

I love hand sanitizer!

Yet another reason that I love this stuff it removes scuff marks from my patent leather shoes.

Can we just admit... these are bad

As you can see my pumps are covered in scuff marks. I previously had tried warm soap and water. That didn't work. So I was a little skeptical about the hand sanitizer.

I found many suggested items that remove the scuff: hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, nivea cream, mineral oil or petroleum jelly ….etc. But after reading the comments on Imogen Lamport’s inside out style I decided to give the hand sanitizer a try. Plus I already had some so win win!

The alcohol does work as well, but the hand sanitizer removes it easier less rubbing.

All you need is a paper towel and hand sanitizer. Apply the HS to the paper towel and wipe at the scuff marks.

Voila!  As you can see my shoes are like brand new! I love it!

It amazes me how easy it was to bring my shoes from something that looked like they should be in the trash to my pretty new shoes. Now all I need to do is not neglect my shoes anymore!

Before

After!



Have you neglected your shoes or do you have awesome way to clean them. Please let me know what works for you!