The smell of sweat from shoes causes inconvenience not only to its owner, but also to those around him. In addition, such a problem can cause an awkward situation, for example, at a party. It is advisable to know what to do if the shoes stink, how to eliminate the smell of sweat and how to properly care for the shoes so that the smell no longer appears.
Causes of Odor
Before eliminating the smell itself in shoes, it is necessary to understand the reason for its appearance. The reasons may be as follows:
- non-observance of personal hygiene,
- low quality of the material from which the shoes are made,
- fungus of nails, skin of the feet or excessive sweating.
Fungus is a disease that can only be prescribed by a doctor.
In the first two cases, the causative agents of unpleasant odor are bacteria. If you don’t take care of your feet, do not wash them for a long time, pollution and bacteria begin to exude an unpleasant “aroma”.
If the shoes are made of cheap non-breathing materials, feet sweat quickly, it’s wet and warm in shoes, and this is an excellent environment for the growth of bacteria. Therefore, the best solution would be to buy leather, suede, breathable shoes made from natural materials. But not everyone has the opportunity.
Methods of struggle
To get rid of the smell of sweat in shoes, you need to wash your feet daily and buy fumes only from natural materials. These two components are a warning of the problem. But what if the problem has already arisen, but is it a pity to throw away your favorite shoes or sneakers?
You can turn to the folk home remedies. To begin with, shoes need to be washed inside and out or wiped with a weak solution of manganese or hydrogen peroxide. Here are some ways to get rid of the fragrance of shoes:
- Put any pair of shoes for the night sorbent: activated carbon, soda, flour, talc. The substance not only absorbs excess moisture, but also eliminates the smell. The next morning you need to shake the product and vacuum the shoes.
- Instead of sorbent, you can use tangerine crusts. They should also be left overnight.
Smelling sneakers can wash in the washing machine in a special mode. This method is only suitable for sports shoes that can be washed. To do this, sweep the dirt off the sneakers, place them in a special cloth bag for washing and start the program. Wash with a small amount of powder, as it is poorly washed. And shoes, boots, boots and other types of shoes just need to be washed with soap and dried.- Cotton pads soaked in vinegar, put in shoes for several hours. Then wipe the inside of the shoe with them.
- Put a couple in the freezer or, conversely, a large piece of ice wrapped in a bag, put inside the shoe. Remember to unfreeze your favorite sneakers before putting them on.
- As an adsorbent, you can use cedar shavings.
Smelling sneakers can wash in the washing machine in a special mode. This method is only suitable for sports shoes that can be washed. To do this, sweep the dirt off the sneakers, place them in a special cloth bag for washing and start the program. Wash with a small amount of powder, as it is poorly washed. And shoes, boots, boots and other types of shoes just need to be washed with soap and dried.After cleaning the shoes, you can use a special shoe deodorant. This will prevent the appearance of an unpleasant odor of sweat again.
If the recommendations do not help much, and the shoes smell again and again, it is worth considering whether it would be better to throw this pair away and buy a new one, made of better material.
Shoe care
The smell is eliminated, but for how long? What will prevent the smell from reappearing? Be sure to make a rule some useful habits to care for your shoes.
- After each sock, it is necessary to wash and dry the shoes. It is not recommended to dry it near heating appliances. For this purpose, a special shoe dryer is best suited, which is inserted inside and heated to a safe temperature.
- Insoles should be changed or washed frequently. Indeed, bacteria often accumulate on insoles. Can be purchased antiseptic insoles or activated carbon insoles.
- It is better to have several seasonal pairs in order to be able to alternate them.
In the winter season, during the day it is better to change shoes indoors, for example, at work or study. In a fur coat legs quickly sweat.- Need to give shoes ventilate. On a sunny day, place steam in direct sunlight in the fresh air.
- After rain, you need to pay special attention to the shoe, dry it and treat it with any odor control agent.
- For sports, you need to carefully choose sneakers, make sure that the material is breathable and high quality.
In the winter season, during the day it is better to change shoes indoors, for example, at work or study. In a fur coat legs quickly sweat.Personal hygiene
Without proper foot care, it will be difficult to get rid of an unpleasant odor.
You need to wash your legs daily. It is even better to make foot baths with sea salt and treat the feet with pumice. On clean and dry feet, the bacteria will not multiply, which means that the smell will have nowhere to come from.
One more tip: do not wear the same socks and tights for several days in a row. They need to be changed daily. It is recommended to wear socks made of natural fabrics so that the skin of the legs breathes.
Increased sweating
Excessive foot sweating - just a signal about failures in the body. The cause of this unpleasant phenomenon may be hormonal failure, increased stress, diabetes. First of all, you need to find out the exact cause and deal with it. But what if the cause is still not resolved? A great many home remedies for sweating feet. Here are some of them:
- Make twenty-minute baths in a pink solution of potassium permanganate.
Baths with infusion of oak bark. Two tablespoons of bark should be boiled in a liter of water for about 15 minutes. Give the broth to infuse and make a bath: a glass of oak broth with a liter of warm water. Keep your feet in this solution for 20 minutes. Tannins have an antimicrobial and astringent effect, dry the skin, and prevent the growth of bacteria.- Make such a bath: a liter of warm water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of soda, 5-7 drops of iodine. Keep feet in water until it cools completely.
- A bath with sage or chamomile (you can use these herbs together). These herbs have a calming and antimicrobial effect. Five tablespoons of a leaf of chamomile or sage should be poured with a liter of boiling water and kept on low heat for about 15 minutes. Soar your feet for 20 minutes.
Baths with infusion of oak bark. Two tablespoons of bark should be boiled in a liter of water for about 15 minutes. Give the broth to infuse and make a bath: a glass of oak broth with a liter of warm water. Keep your feet in this solution for 20 minutes. Tannins have an antimicrobial and astringent effect, dry the skin, and prevent the growth of bacteria.The bad smell in shoes must be dealt with in the most decisive way.
The unpleasant smell emanating from the shoe gives the owner a lot of trouble. A man whose shoes emit a specific aroma, is ashamed to take his shoes off and shyly squeezes his legs under himself, being in public places. In order not to blush, catching the sidelong glances of others, it is necessary to deal with the most decisive way with the unpleasant smell in the shoes.
Before you set foot on the warpath with the disgusting “aroma” exuded by your boots, try to establish for certain the root cause of its appearance.
Excessive foot sweating
In the case when the cause of the bad smell of shoes is pathological sweating of the feet, use all kinds of home and pharmacy remedies to combat hyperhidrosis, for example:
- antiperspirant sprays,
- deodorizing and astringent pastes, ointments, powders and creams,
- bathtubs with decoctions of plants containing a large number of tannins.
So that the shoes do not have time to soak later, acquire several pairs of the same type of shoes and wear them alternately. In addition, keep a stock of clean cotton socks with you at all times and change them at every opportunity.
Improper care
- So that recently bought shoes do not get a musty smell, take out the insoles from them every evening and hang them on a clothesline, and put the shoes themselves on for airing on the balcony or in another place, blown by a draft.
- If it rained during the day and your shoes are wet, fill them with old newspapers. Dry, thin paper will draw moisture out of the skin, and bad smells will go away with it.
- Buy a special electric dryer for your shoes, equipped with an ionizer and a small ultraviolet lamp. Such a miniature appliance not only effectively dries shoes, but also destroys the bacteria in it, which are the root cause of the unpleasant amber.
Poor quality shoes
Not only worn, but also brand new shoes have their own smell, and it smells not always the same. If expensive branded shoes, as a rule, exude a noble aroma of well-crafted leather, then the trendy oilcloth boots from the market can give off a smell that even skunks will envy.
In the event that you are "lucky" to become the owner of such a bad-smelling pair of shoes, try to derive a specific smell of synthetics and cheap glue as follows:
- For the whole day, put the couple on the balcony or on the windowsill.
- If prolonged airing did not give the expected result, add a few spoons of baking soda to each shoe, shake the shoes so that the sodium bicarbonate crystals are distributed over the entire inner surface of the shoe, and leave the shoes like this all night. Being a strong absorbent, soda absorbs foul odors, you only need to shake out the shoes and remove the remaining soda powder with a vacuum cleaner.
- If treatment with soda did not help, use potassium permanganate. Wipe the lining and insoles with a swab dipped in a thick pink solution of potassium permanganate.
If, in spite of everything, the shoes stubbornly continue to stink, throw them away and buy others, albeit not so elegant, but of high quality and made of genuine leather.
Eliminate the consequences
Sorbents, substances with the ability to actively absorb gases and liquids from the environment, will help you remove the ingrained smell of old sweat.
As such, you can use:
- activated or charcoal,
- talc,
- alum,
- baby powder
- baking soda
- drunk dried tea,
- starch,
- odor absorber for refrigerators,
- granular cat litter.
The method of use of all of the above drugs is almost the same.
Pour 1-2 tablespoons of any of these products into a thin cotton sock or canvas bag and put it inside the boot. Do the same operation with the second shoe. After 10-12 hours, remove the drug bags from the shoes.
For obvious reasons, this odor removal method is not suitable for model leather shoes, but sneakers, canvas shoes or textile sneakers can be washed in an automatic washing machine. To do this, first wash them by hand, then put them in a mesh bag and load them into the drum of the machine along with several old rags. Wash in the “Delicate, no spin” mode.
Disinfectant and deodorizing chemicals for the smell of sweat in shoes
To disinfect shoes and eliminate odors, wipe the inside of the shoes with a swab dipped in:
- potassium permanganate solution,
- table vinegar
- pharmacy hydrogen peroxide,
- salicylic alcohol or vodka,
- ammonia.
When doing this, be careful. All of the above fluids are quite aggressive, so they can dissolve the paint or even corrode the synthetic shoe lining.
How to get rid of an unpleasant smell in shoes? The frost will help!
Oddly enough, this sounds, but the putrefactive spirit (or rather, the bacteria that produce it) can be frozen. To kill the bacilli, wash and dried shoes with a "sweetheart" pack in a dense plastic bag and put it in a low-temperature freezer. After 7-8 hours, remove the shoes from the refrigerator and set them to dry.
This method, although exotic, but very effective, its only drawback is that it is not suitable for processing shoes made of patent and artificial leather.
Reasons for the smell of shoes
Before deciding what to do if the shoes stink, you need to understand the causes of the smell. Let's look at them:
1. The smell of new shoes. In general, any new pair has a specific smell. No wonder the shoe store can be recognized by its heavy spirit. And this is not always associated with cheap or non-natural material. A similar “flavor” can have both packaging material and glue. The rubber (rubber boots) of poor quality has a very persistent smell. It is quite difficult to get rid of such a smell, and sometimes it is completely impossible. And what if the shoes stink of rubber? Some people have come up with a rather non-standard way to get rid of this smell. First they wash their shoes with dishwashing liquid, then they dry them. After wipe with a damp sponge in a window cleaner. Then wash it off using the first dishwashing detergent. After let the boots dry. Thus, you must overcome the fetid aroma of rubber.
2. Well-worn shoes have an unpleasant smell from dust, dirt and sweat. The result is a favorable environment for the reproduction of various bacteria. Even the most clean people can stink shoes and legs. Since absolutely everyone is sweating, and with long walking or playing sports this simply can not be avoided.
3. A bad smell also appears due to wearing shoes made of synthetic materials. In such models, the legs do not breathe at all. Then the process described in paragraph 2 begins much faster.
4. Before you figure out what to do if the shoes stink of damp, you need to understand why this smell arises. It may appear if you washed your shoes or fell under a shower, after which they did not completely dry. A large amount of moisture may be between the sole and the insole. Therefore, a dry insole is not an indicator that the shoes are completely dried. In a humid environment, the processes of decay and reproduction of various bacteria will begin.
5. You can not ignore the reasons for the bad smell of shoes, such as hyperhidrosis - excessive sweating, as well as a skin fungus on the legs or nails that needs to be treated. After the treatment of such a disease, by the way, old shoes cannot be used.
Vinegar and hydrogen peroxide
What if the shoes stink afterwards? You can use table vinegar. We moisten cotton pads in it and lay it inside for 3-4 hours. After that, carefully ventilate the shoes.
You can also wipe the shoes with hydrogen peroxide or potassium permanganate. These substances have disinfecting properties. In most cases, the smell disappears.
Adsorbents
What if the shoes stink? Folk remedies will be appropriate. For example, you can use adsorbents - substances that absorb excess moisture. It can be flour, rice, soda or activated carbon. It is necessary to pour these substances inside the shoe for 2-3 hours, then vacuum it thoroughly.
Special deodorant
What if the shoes stink with their feet? You can use a special deodorant. They should spray their shoes from the inside, preferably in the evening, so that the cavity dries by morning. Although it is advisable to use the product without waiting for sharp unpleasant odors. It can be used for regular maintenance of shoes and shoes.
There is another proven way to get rid of an unpleasant odor - to freeze shoes for the night, after packing in a plastic bag. But remember that patent leather shoes must not be frozen!
So that there is no question of what to do if the shoes stink, you need to properly care for them. How to do it? Now we will tell. You need:
1. Every day after coming home, wash and thoroughly dry and ventilate the shoes. It is advisable not to be limited to one pair of shoes, but to have at least two pairs for the season so that the shoes (or boots) have time to be well ventilated. An ideal place is an open balcony.
2. Change insoles at least 2 times a week. It is possible to use special aromatized or antibacterial insoles, which tend to remove odors.
3. At night, spray the shoes with a special deodorant.
4. It is undesirable to be in one pair of shoes throughout the day. Change your shoes if possible. Probably at work you can have replaceable shoes.
5. Tights or socks must be changed every day. It is advisable to give preference to cotton things.
6. Good hygiene. Of course, the unpleasant smell from the shoes does not always arise from the fact that my feet are rarely washed. But still this point should not be ignored. Experts advise after taking a shower to pay special attention to the legs. You need to thoroughly wash them with ordinary household soap, and then make a bath of salt and soda. Then you should wipe your feet dry and anoint with a special foot cream, in the name of which the word "deo" is used. Such agents have antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Then put on clean socks.
How to remove the smell of sweat
- soda,
- salt,
- Activated carbon,
- aromatic essential oils.
The method of their application is described above.
How to remove a cat smell
Cats often tag their owners' shoes. Removing stench is not easy: the urine of animals needs to be thoroughly washed off, and then proceed with the removal of the smell.
Here will help:
- lemon juice,
- liquids containing alcohol
- camphor and boric alcohol,
- solution of vinegar essence.
How to get rid of the unpleasant smell of new shoes
New shoes, moccasins or boots often have a specific aroma that constantly annoys its owner.
The reasons for its appearance:
- substandard materials
- клей, используемый при изготовлении.
В ряде случаев новенькие сапожки достаточно оставить на ночь в хорошо проветриваемом месте. If the specific aroma remains, you need to treat the shoes with hydrogen peroxide, vodka, potassium permanganate solution, vinegar. Baking soda and activated carbon will also cope with the problem.
