How To Clean White Sneakers👟

I took one for the team, and tested a BUNCH of different methods for cleaning white sneakers!!🤩 The methods range from DIY home tricks to actual cleaning solutions; and I'm here to let you know the results and tell you what works the best!😉

We tried 5 different methods to clean my dirtiest white shoes:

Denture Tablets🦷

Baking Soda🥤

Toothpaste🪥

Magic Eraser⚪️

Laundry Detergent/Stain Remover🧺

Here are the results!👇

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Denture Tablets🦷

Method

1. Begin by removing the laces and insoles to clean separately!

2. Toss a denture tablet in a bucket of warm water!🪣

3. Dunk shoes in and let them soak 10-30 min (depending on the severity levels of the staining!)💧

4. Using a soft scrub brush, gently work the solution into all the stains!🧼

5. Paying especially close attention to the soles of the shoes!👟

6. Repeat this process of soaking and scrubbing until the results are to your liking!🤩

7. When done, you can either rinse them off in a sink or the shower; OR put them in a delicate wash bag, and toss them in the washer for a quick rinse!🚿

8. Then stuff the shoes with newspaper so they hold their shape, and let them air dry to reveal their full color!🤍

Results

After one soak and scrub, the denture tablets were doing a fantastic job of getting off dirt and grime on the shoe!🤩 I went ahead and repeated the process a second time, letting the shoes soak for about 15 more minutes and scrubbing them thoroughly afterwards!

After rinsing the shoes in the washing machine, and letting them fully air dry, I would say these results were almost flawless!! The denture tablets had the best overall clean with the least amount of scrubbing, on the dirtiest shoe!!🤯

Before And After

Rating

• Effort During Cleaning: 7/10🧽

• Ability To Remove Tough Stains: 8/10🫗

• Final Result/White Restoration: 8/10🤍
  

✨Overall Rating: 8/10!✨

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Baking Soda🥤

Method

1. Begin by removing the laces and insoles to clean separately!

2. Throw some baking soda in a bowl, and slowly add water to it until it turns into a nice paste like texture!!🥣

3. Apply paste to the shoe and work it into all the stains and grime you want to remove!👟

4. Continue applying the paste and scrubbing until the results are to your liking!🔁

5. When done, you can either rinse them off in a sink or the shower; OR put them in a delicate wash bag, and toss them in the washer for a quick rinse!🚿

6. Then stuff the shoes with newspaper so they hold their shape, and let them air dry to reveal their full color!🤍
   

Results

The baking soda paste was a little harder to work with as it clumped up pretty quickly. I had to keep rewetting the shoe so it would scrub in effectively. All in all, it just ended up making a pretty big mess. 😅 It did remove some of the bigger, nastier stains on the fabric part of the shoe, but it took quite a while!⏳ However, it did work wonders on the soles of the shoe!!!🤩

Before And After

Rating

• Effort During Cleaning: 4/10 (SO much scrubbing)🧽

• Ability To Remove Tough Stains: 7/10🫗

• Final Result/White Restoration: 8/10🤍

✨Official Rating: 6.5/10!✨

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Toothpaste🪥

Method

1. Begin by removing the laces and insoles to clean separately!

2. Take some whitening toothpaste (I used the Crest Scope Whitening Toothpaste) and slather it on a toothbrush.🪥

3. Use the toothbrush to scrub away stains and grime all over the shoe!🧽

4. Continue applying toothpaste and scrubbing away until the results are to your liking!🤩

5. When done, you can either rinse them off in a sink or the shower; OR put them in a delicate wash bag, and toss them in the washer for a quick rinse!🚿

6. Then stuff the shoes with newspaper so they hold their shape, and let them air dry to reveal their full color!🤍
   

Results

This method actually worked quite well at lifting stains that had been there for months!!🤯 It is a very easy, straightforward method of scrubbing and not too messy! Plus, now my shoes smell minty fresh😋 The one negative is, while it was gentle on the fabric and worked well, it didn't work powerfully enough to fully remove stains from soles of the shoes!😕

Before And After

Rating

• Effort During Cleaning: 8/10🧽

• Ability To Remove Tough Stains: 6.5/10🫗

• Final Result/White Restoration: 6/10🤍

✨Official Rating: 7/10✨

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Magic Eraser⚪️

Method

1. Begin by removing the laces and insoles to clean separately!

2. Take your Magic Eraser and wet it so it is just barely damp!💧

3. Begin scrubbing along areas on the soles, bottoms, and body of the shoes that are stained or discolored!🌈

4. When done, you can either rinse them off in a sink or the shower; OR put them in a delicate wash bag, and toss them in the washer for a quick rinse!🚿

5. Then stuff the shoes with newspaper so they hold their shape, and let them air dry to reveal their full color!🤍

Results

Magic Erasers are usually better for cleaning hard material or white leather shoes, but I decided to try it on the sneakers!👟 It's easily removed the stains on the rubber sole, but as I expected, it was pretty much impossible to use it to remove stains on the fabric itself.👎 I rated this method pretty low because of it's inability to remove stains from the fabric, but it still would be a great option if you just wanted to quickly remove some grime on the soles of your shoes!🤷‍♀️

Before And After

Rating

• Effort During Cleaning: 9/10🧽

• Ability To Remove Tough Stains: 3/10🫗

• Final Result/White Restoration: 3/10🤍

✨Official Rating: 4/10✨

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Laundry Detergent/Stain Remover🧺

Method

1. Begin by removing the laces and insoles to clean separately!

2. Put some stain remover in a small cup or bowl so it's easily accessible to dip a scrub brush in it and apply to a shoe!🥣 (I used Oxi-Clean Laundry Stain Remover!)

3. Wet the shoe!💧

4. Apply the stain remover to the stained, discolored shoe, and use a small scrub brush to scrub it into the shoe.👟It should lather up the shoe quite nicely.🫧

5. Continue rinsing, and lathering the shoe until you the results are to your liking!🤩

6. When done, you can either rinse them off in a sink or the shower; OR put them in a delicate wash bag, and toss them in the washer for a quick rinse!🚿

7. Then stuff the shoes with newspaper so they hold their shape, and let them air dry to reveal their full color!🤍

Results

This kind of cleaner is great for fabrics, but isn’t always the preferred whitening style. However, it did surprise me a bit and did a pretty good job!😍It lathered up the shoe quite nicely and was easy to apply!!🫧 While powerful and quite impressive on getting stains out of the fabric part of the shoe, this one didn't work as well on the sole!😕 But hey, you can always team this method up with the Magic Eraser method and you've got yourself a beautifully white shoe😉

Before And After

Rating

• Effort During Cleaning: 6/10🧽

• Ability To Remove Tough Stains: 6/10🫗

• Final Result/White Restoration: 7/10🤍

✨Official Rating: 6/10✨

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I found each of these methods to be helpful in different ways! For instance, the Magic Eraser did wonders on the soles of the shoe, while the laundry detergent worked wonders on the fabric part of the shoe!!🤩 Don't forget to take that into consideration when cleaning your own white sneakers and deciding which method would work best for you!!🥰

Overall, I found the denture tablets to be the easiest, and most efficient way to clean white sneakers!🥳

Do you have any other methods you use? Which one is YOUR favorite?🤔 Let us know in the comments!!👇

Happy Cleaning!✨

See you next week!

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