How to polish your shoes at home
How to polish your shoes at home
my shoe polishing kit: shoe shine brush / medical gloves / black shoe polish /
Have you been wondering how to polish your shoes at home while saving both time and money? I know a lot of you out there are wondering this very question!
For well over twenty years, I have had friends and family members ask me in real life how I keep my shoes from getting scuffed up. Well, I polish them at home! It actually surprised me that most people do not know how to polish their shoes at home. I had one friend tell me once that she gets rid of shoes once they are scuffed; she had no idea you could polish out the scuffs! I have to admit, I was shocked to hear her say this!
When I was a little girl in grammar school, I used to polish my shoes on a monthly basis. I attended a Catholic School and our uniforms required brown leather shoes. I owned two pairs; penny loafers and topsiders. One pair was dark brown, and the other was a medium brown color. My Mother taught me how to polish my shoes at home when I was in the third grade; and I have been polishing my shoes ever since.
It is really easy to polish your shoes at home. Not only do you save time, because it is much quicker to polish them yourself rather then drop them off for a few hours or a day at the shoe repair, you save money! Think about how fresh, shiny and new all of your shoes will look once you know how to polish your shoes at home. Your feet, and your wallet, will be so happy!
So, now I will stop babbling, and I will show you the easy steps to polishing your shoes at home. It only takes five minutes to polish one pair. Love that!
How to polish your shoes at home
As you can see in the above photo, my favorite pair of Gucci loafers have taken a beating. I wear them often, so they occasionally look scuffed up; which means I need to polish them. Read on to see how easy it is to polish the scuffs out of your shoes!
How to use a Cream Shoe Polish
My favorite type of shoe polish is the kind you find in a jar. This is cream shoe polish, and it is the highest quality polish on the market. It not only removes the scuffs on your shoes, it conditions the leather so your shoes look newer longer. Love!
In order to use a cream shoe polish, first put on thin, medical gloves. You can find these really cheap at Costco; they come in handy around the house when you need thin gloves. Over the glove, use an old sock. You can spend money on a polishing cloth, or you can re-use your old socks once they lose their color, or develop a hole. I like to use my old socks for polishing my shoes. It saves money, helps our landfills, and they work like a charm!
In order to use a cream shoe polish, put a dab of shoe polish on the tip of the sock, and then gently rub it into the leather of the shoe in a circular motion.
When you are rubbing in the polish with the sock, be sure to cover the entire scuff, and anywhere your shoe looks dull. Also, be sure to rub it all in until the leather has a flat, matte look. Once you don’t see any clumps of polish, and there is a flat, matte look, your leather is ready to be buffed! You can see an example of the matte look in the photo above.
How to shine your shoes at home
Once you are done rubbing in the cream shoe polish, and your leather shoes have a matte look, it is time to buff them into a shiny new shoe! Using a horsehair shoe shining brush, move in a circular motion over the entire shoe. This will buff the shoe polish, creating a beautiful shine. Be ready to tip yourself, your shoes will look like new!
It is important to invest in a good brush. I have had mine for well over twenty years, and it still works like a charm; and it still looks new! Love that!
Don’t my favorite Gucci mules look shiny and new! Well, aside from the creases which occur from walking, the leather looks black, shiny, and fabulous!
It only takes five minutes to polish and shine your shoes at home. It is so easy and quick; you will wonder why you never polished your shoes at home before reading this!
In order to get started, I highly recommend creating a home shoe polishing kit. I keep mine in a clear plastic shoe box. This way I can easily store it with my shoes, in my closet.
Inside your shoe box, you will need an old sock for each color of shoe polish your own. This is important because you won’t want to polish a white pair of shoes using a sock you recently polished a black pair of shoes with. Your shoes will end up charcoal! Eeek! Definitely have one sock for each color of polish, this is a must!
You will also need a high quality, shoe polishing brush. Horsehair brushes are the best, but if you don’t feel comfortable with using horsehair, there are plenty of synthetic versions on the market.
Lastly, use cream shoe polish. These are the shoe polishes found in a jar. I recommend owning one black jar, one leather conditioner jar, and one medium brown jar. You will need multiple brown polishes if you own a lot of brown shoes in different shades. If you own white shoes, add a white shoe polish jar to your collection. Remember to always match the shoe polish to the shoe color.
You can purchase these items at many shoe repair shops, and Nordstrom carries shoe polish in the men’s shoe department. You can also find everything you need online in the shopping widget below:
You are ready to polish your shoes at home! If anyone ever asks you how to polish your shoes at home, you will be ready to answer!
Feel free to ask me any questions you many have.
Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO
Cathy
