I’m one of those people who believe you can’t have enough of shoes. There should be shoes for every event and colours to match with your outfits. As much as I love shoes I do admit that there have been times when I neglected taking care of my collection of shoes. As the year is coming to an end, I decided to make a resolution to take care of my shoes. So how to care for your shoes? More on that below.

Aside from ensuring the longevity of your shoes, taking care of your shoes helps in preserving their look, feel and smell. You wouldn’t like to be caught with your shoes smelling in the hallway, would you?

If you’re just like me and feel like you need to also start showing more love to your shoes, here are some tips I have found pretty useful so far.

Alternate your shoes

Now this hack may seem a little too obvious but I know that there were times when I fell in love with a comfy pair of shoes that I ended up wearing several times in a row.

It turns out that wearing the same pair of shoes over and over without giving breaks in between will wear out your shoes fast. Giving your shoes a break gives them the opportunity to dry. Keeping your feet in your shoes for a long time makes your shoes get moist due to sweat. So alternate away. Another reason to shop for my shoes, like you need any!

Get your shoes polished or sprayed

Not every pair of shoes can be treated the same way. The material the shoes are made of goes a long way in determining the kind of care you should show your shoes. For example, leather shoes need regular polishing. Aside from getting your shoes looking shiny, polish helps to prevent your leather shoes from drying out. This helps to elongate the lifespan of your leather shoes.

However when it comes to suede shoes, you need to give it a different kind of care. Every time you want to use your suede shoes make sure you give them a good brushing. You can also apply suede spray to help maintain the suede material and colour.

Add a layer of rubber to the soles

Do you remember those old pair of shoes you have? When you look under those shoes you’ll see that the sole of your shoes began wearing away. Some people use such shoes so much that the whole sole gets worn out to the end. This happens a lot to shoes with leather soles.

To help keep the soles, get a cobbler to add a rubber sole to your shoes so that as you use them the original sole won’t wear away.

Clean and spray the insides of your shoes

Sweat in your shoes gives out a foul odour so each time you take your shoes off make sure you spray the inside of your shoes with a shoe spray to get rid of the bad smell and also disinfect your shoes from bacteria.

Don’t just limit your shoe cleaning routine to the outside of your shoes. Clean the insides as well. Remove dust and dirt that may have found its way into your shoes.

Use socks or shoe liners

Constant friction created by wearing your shoes regularly can wear away the cloth in the inside of your shoes and cause a little hole. To preserve your shoes, wear a pair of socks or shoe liners. An added bonus to wearing socks or shoe liners is that it helps to keep the odour out as well.

How do you take care of your shoes? Please share your tried and tested tips below.

Thanks for reading.