How to clean tennis shoes (WFMW)
Lil’ Duck makes a disaster of his shoes. I am very anti-white shoes, especially for him, so his shoes are dark blue, but they still need a washing now and then. Now, with his shoes, they are small enough that throwing them in the washer isn’t really a problem. With our shoes, I usually put them in a pillowcase or mesh bag, then put some towels in there too so they don’t bang up the sides of the washer.
If you do have white shoes (I think most of you do, judging from the shoe displays I see in the stores 
), you can use that nifty little Clorox bleach pen to clean them right up. I use that thing for cleaning grout in my shower, it’s a beautiful thing.
As for drying them, you really shouldn’t put them in the dryer. Not that I haven’t done it (in a bag on low or no heat), but they could shrink, melt, destroy your dryer, etc. so I really don’t recommend it (so don’t call me if you ignore this and try it anyway ). Putting them on the floor at the foot of the fridge so that the fan dries them usually works (if you don’t have a little guy who takes off with your shoes and it isn’t 100 degrees and dripping with humidity in here….), same idea with putting them in front of an a/c vent or a regular fan.
Just don’t put them outside if it’s hot and humid (I’m thinking cold wouldn’t be good either )….. also check them for varmints if you do put them outside, I’d hate to try to clean the shoes if you squished something inside there, not to mention that is incredibly creepy!!
Be sure to go visit the rest of the Works For Me Wednesday tips for other great ideas!
I don’t even own a pair of tennis shoes….not kidding….BUT i am really liking the sound of that Clorox pen you keep mentioning…got to get one of those…………
Let me think, I do own a pair of tennis shoes, but they’re black. And as for Snuggle Bug’s shoes, he outgrows them before he can really do much damage to them. Now, Oronzo, he has white tennis shoes that I could use the Clorox tip on, so thanks for that! I do love your WFMW tips, they’re always so clever!
I’ve posted a WFMW tip as well, involving instructions on creating blogger categories. Please stop by and take a peek.
I recall my mom making me wash my shoes with a tooth brush and soap. Can’t wait to try that with my kids!
What a great idea about the clorox pen. I never would have thought of that. Makes it so much easier to do spot cleaning.
Good idea. I put ours upside down over AC vents to dry, too — our vents are on the floor, so that helps.
I like the extra fast drying tips. Soccer season is coming up, and her shoes always get WET.
Great idea! yep, the dryer is not a friend to shoes and visa versa!
Thanks for the tip. I LOVE the bleach pen…just one more thing to make my life easier. Thanks for visiting my site!
Oh, smart about the bleach pen! I need to get one of those.
These are very good tips. I’ll keep them in mind.
Thanks for stopping by.
i need to get the mesh sections of my shoes clean and i spent way too much on my shoes and i’m scared that i will damage them. my froggy has all leather adias goodyear tennies and i use a mr. clean magic eraser on them to get the dirt out of the lines. i’ve destroyed multiple pairs of shoes in the washer so i’m rather warry about that. my mother suggested putting them in the top rack of the dishwasher. so i’ll try the bleach pen and then the dishwasher, after all the loose dirt is knocked off of course
thanks again for the ideas!
I used the Clorox Bleach Pen on my Air Jordan Retro 1 Low Top Red/White/ Grey..it turned the ever so clean white mesh part YELLOW? wassup with that…so i have no idea how to clean the mesh part…but definitily not with the clorox pen on mesh..