The Essential Guide to Caring for Your Clothing and Footwear

It is important to keep clothing and footwear looking as good as possible. When you look after your footwear and clothing, you save it from heading to the landfill. A lot of poorly cared-for products end up in the landfill, and often they still have plenty of life left in them. Caring for your clothing and footwear can take a little time, but this invested time will be worthwhile, especially when you get clothes and footwear that lasts you for years and not just months.

Always Follow Care Instructions and Garment Labels

The first thing you need to do is always follow garment labels and care instructions. These are available for both footwear and clothing. You can often find them sewn onto the label of the clothing. With footwear, you can often find the care instructions on the soles or inside the box. When it comes to following care instructions, you need to use the correct products too. So, if you are caring for suede shoes, you need to use a suede cleaner and not just soap and water.

Clean Shoes Carefully and Add a Layer of Protection

All shoes have to be cleaned carefully, and they have to be protected. You need to use a Saphir protector spray after cleaning shoes, as this will help to protect your footwear and help repel those pesky stains. When you are cleaning shoes, you need to use soft and non-harsh products. You will often find that you have different products for leather and suede footwear. Cleaning shoes with warm but not hot water is essential. Also, using cleansing towels and specific products will help you avoid getting watermarks.

Remove Stains and Marks as Soon as You Can

Dirt and muck can often be harder to remove on footwear if it is left for longer. So, it is essential that you clean footwear after use, this means wiping mud off the bottom of your shoes, and it means getting off those greasy marks before they leave behind residue and a stain. Some spot stain removers can be effective for daily use, and others can be applied less often, such as on a weekly basis. When you remove stains and marks as you go, you find that you invest just a few minutes into cleaning and caring for footwear, and this is time that is easy to find daily.

Don’t Overexpose to Heat

The hot weather and hot environments can wear shoes faster and leave them looking worn sooner. Therefore, where possible, try and keep footwear away from excessive heat. Overexposure to heat is not good for man-made, synthetic, or natural materials. For example, you can find that excessive heat can leave suede shoes looking creased and dry. You can also find that too much heat can leave synthetic shoes looking like plastic.

Daily Maintenance

Creating a daily maintenance and cleaning routine for your shoes will mean that you can rotate footwear and keep each pair that you own looking (and feeling) like new. This may take some time to form into habit, but you will benefit for a long time to come if you dedicate this time daily.