TikTok's Toilet Paper Hack Has Our Sneakers Whiter Than Ever

Just like white couches and walls, white sneakers tend to get dirty and fast. Whether they're canvas shoes or leather sneakers, keeping them pristinely white for long is hard. They usually end up with scuffs, dirt marks, or a dingy gray cast after a week or two. If you find yourself battling to keep your shoes white, you might be ready to give up and buy a more manageable color. However, you don't have to throw in the towel just yet. Rather than trying an endless parade of cleaning products, you can instead use TikTok's viral toilet paper hack to get them looking like new. 

Toilet paper is used to make them extra white after scrubbing them, and it's a great hack to try since every household has a spare roll in the bathroom or pantry. You don't need to go out and buy specialty items to try this solution, making it convenient and budget-friendly. Here's how to utilize it.

You will need several household items to pull off this cleaning hack. You'll need a washing bin or bucket, a scrub brush, Dawn dish soap, and toilet paper. To begin, fill your washing bin with hot water and let your shoes soak in it for a few minutes. This will begin to loosen the grime and dirt off the material, making it easier to scrub off. Remove the shoes from the bin and pour Dawn dish soap over them, using the scrub brush to clean off the dirt. While the above video recommends putting bleach directly on spots that are still dirty, you want to avoid this. That's because mixing bleach with dish soap is toxic and can create chloramine, which is extremely dangerous, as per KHOU. 

If they're still looking gray-cast, put water and a few drops of soap into the bucket and let the shoes soak in the solution. Once done, remove them and cover them with toilet paper. Lastly — and the most important part — as they're wrapped like a mummy, put them outside in a sunny spot. This will help whiten them, making your shoes look brand new.

At first glance, this cleaning hack might seem weird. If you scrubbed the shoes thoroughly, why do you need to add toilet paper into the mix? Surely it's the soap that makes the shoe white? While that might be true, the toilet paper isn't a gimmick. Instead, it soaks in any yellow stains that would have settled into the fabric after rinsing. This gives the stain a different material to embed on, leaving your shoes crisp and white. 

This also works for any remaining grime as well. If yellow stains aren't your issue, but your shoes are still left with a dingy gray cast, the toilet paper will also help with that. It works similarly in that it will absorb any lingering dust and dirt on the fabric, ensuring it gets transferred from the shoe and onto the paper as it dries. It's an easy way to make your shoes whiter and brighter without much effort.