Posts Tagged ‘washing dirty tennis shoes’

Summer fun can turn those bright, white tennis shoes to dingy gray.  But when you are “Making it Do”, you don’t just throw them away… and luckily you don’t need to go around looking grungy either.

It’s “Magic” Shoe Cleaning Formula to the rescue:

This recipe is for a top loading washing machine:

• 1 cup laundry detergent
• 1 cup dishwasher soap (granulated, not liquid)
• 1 cup bleach

1. Set washing machine on lowest water level (mini, small, etc.) and fill with water
2. Add magic formula ingredients, one at a time to the water
3. Put shoes in washer (more than one pair make the formula more effective as they bump into each other and helps make them more clean.)
4. Agitate shoes on the longest wash cycle.
5. IMPORTANT: Make sure to double rinse shoes.
6. Put shoes outside to dry or air dry over a floor vent in your home.  (I recommend stuffing wet shoes (particularly leather) firmly with newspaper as they dry.  This keeps them from shrinking.  The same goes for shoes caught in rain storm.)

I have a front loader washing machine…. and needed to adapt the recipe to work for me.  Front loaders use a lot less detergent generally,  so I halved the amounts of the dish soap and laundry detergent.  And instead of adding everything directly to the tub, I put the ingredients in the detergent tray.  I filled my bleach tray to the max line… but I’m not sure how much that was.  I would guess roughly 1/3 cup.

These tennies don’t look brand new… but they look awesome compared to before.  Another “Make it Do” way to spruce up old tennis shoes is to get new laces.  This really gives them a new lease on life.  Now let’s hit the courts.