When did you last clean your shoes?

Friday afternoon I cleaned a pair of suede boots.

I am about to clean another pair of boots before I go out for the day.

But suede only needs a brush, no polish?

The shoes I wear these days, most Pavers and Sketchers, don't require the traditional cleaning. I brush them with a stiff brush, and wipe with a wet-wipe when necessary.
I do have one pair of leather boots that still need polishing, so I quite enjoy doing that.

I wear white leather trainers most of the time (I've awkward feet and they're comfortable). I tend to wash them with saddle soap and put them in the washing machine if they look a bit too sad.

OTH we use traditional shoe polish and ancient, but still serviceable, brushes for all leather footwear. Our small contribution to saving the planet and not filling landfill with plastic..

Cabbie21

But suede only needs a brush, no polish?

The boots I am about to clean are knee length black leather, they certainly need a Polish.

I never put dirty shoes/boots/trainers back in the downstairs shoe cupboard or in their boxes upstairs.

Have a full shoe cleaning box, complete with brushes, leathers, polish, protection sprays etc.

I never clean them like my mum or dad used to clean ours.

All laid out on newspaper in front of the hearth each Sunday.

In my schooldays I severely hated having to whiten my (scuffed) tennis shoes with this thick white paste stuff that came in a bottle and was a real swine to apply.
It went all over the place, but the shoes looked pristine - until I put them on. This stuff formed a crust as it dried and the moment I took a couple of steps it cracked and flaked mercilessly.
And I was rubbish at tennis.

Whenever I prepare to go out.

Our shoe cleaning box is just that, a decades-old wooden box, but it holds such memories!
The red polish, that was for DD's Clarks summer sandals, ditto the blue.
Suede brushes from when we had suede footwear.
That now infamous (and unrepeatable) shade of dark brown.

I looked after my young nieces a few years ago, while their parents were abroad😎.
Requests to locate the 'shoe cleaning box' were met with blank looks. (Ditto 'Have you got a clean hanky?', but that's another story).

My father and DH would clean all the shoes at night and leave them lined up for the school run.
No kit inspection tho'!

My go to outdoor winter casuals are a pair of leather clogs which I do clean and polish when necessary.

Two of ours are on newspaper in the kitchen as I type.
My husband kindly cleaned and polished (with wax, brushes and my dad's velvet pad (!)) two muddy pairs on Friday.

Yes we still do it.

I only ever wear Skechers, and if they get really messy I stick them in the washing machine.

ixion Our shoe-cleaning box sounds just like yours.

I have several ankle boots of different colours and polish them as needed..

Sometimes I chuck my sneakers in the washing machine and then hang them out on the line to dry. Mostly sketchers, they wash well.

Oops, apologies to Babs03, just saw your post !

We still have a shoe-cleaning kit with some ancient brushes that were used by my Dad. I use it for my knee length boots and one pair of walking boots. My sister has a similar kit, complete with a piece of soft brown corduroy for final polishing which is from the leg of my Mum's Land Army uniform!

I’m fussy on my shoes and boots, I still use Kiwi parade gloss which is a traditional polish, to keep them clean as that gives the best shine I think. I’m lazy though, I’ve got three pairs of black leather boots of various heights and ages,, and when they are dirty I put them on the shoe rack in the utility room, and only clean them when all three pairs need doing.

Reminds me of the frantic phone call from DIL one Monday morning, 8.30am.

“Are GS’s school shoes at your house?”

(GC had been at ours on Friday night, gone home Saturday)

I looked, yes, said shoes on shoe rack, had obv gone home in his trainers.

Granny hot footed it to their house with school shoes.

When I told DH about this, I said that would never have happened with our own children, did he know why?

He thought about it, and said “You would have been cleaning their shoes at the weekend and would have realised they were missing”.

Don’t think the GC’s shoes were cleaned very often.

Our ‘box’ is an old Tupperware lunch box. Just bought some new polish. It gets used frequently. When I was at school my siblings and I had a rota for cleaning shoes every morning and my father would send his back if not polished properly.

I used to do my girl's shoes quite a lot, because a proper polish brings them up, fills in any bald patches, then I could get longer out of her wearing them.

Quite regularly. My DF was ex army, shoes had to be polished the night before school and set near the kitchen fire.
I do notice unpolished shoes.

MissAdventure

I never clean them like my mum or dad used to clean ours.

All laid out on newspaper in front of the hearth each Sunday.

Yes, MissAdventure - that is exactly what I used to do every Sunday when my children were small. Despite being very hard up (My husband had MS), we managed to get every child only 'Clarks Shoes'. Just one pair each, these had to do for parties, school and play, etc. Every Sunday, I would get them all to bring them to me in the kitchen, on the table which was covered in newspaper (plenty of that back then), and I would put polish on them all and then buff them up beautifully. With seven children that was a lot of work, but so worth it.

I still have a box with brown and black shoe polish in it and brushes. But all my outside shoes get soft wear as I use a mobility scooter or an electric wheelchair when I go out. So, have got into the habit of only polishing my winter shoes when I pack them away in the Spring. Summer sandals get nothing at all.

Cabbie21

But suede only needs a brush, no polish?

They come up smarter if you hold them over steam when brushing. My mum taught me that. We were both lovers of black suede stilettos.

About two weeks ago, a pair of burgundy leather boots. However, I couldn't find the dark red cream so I had to use neutral.
There were several tubes, some a bit dried up, in the shoe-cleaning box.

My Dad used to clean my shoes 🙂