Want To Whiten Faded Sneakers? Reach For This Household Ingredient

We all have that pair of white sneakers we fell in love with at first sight. Fast forward a couple of walks in the park and a few rainy days, and you'll be left with a dirty mess on your hands. While tossing them out might seem like the only alternative if your shoes look brown more than white, hold your horses and reach for the distilled white vinegar if you want to whiten your faded sneakers.

Distilled white vinegar is ideal for cleaning since it's made up of 95% water and just 5% acetic acid. This makes it powerful enough to remove accumulated grime, stubborn stains, and stuck-on dirt from your sneakers without harming the shoe fabric. Given its antimicrobial properties, vinegar is also a budget-friendly solution for the stinkiest of shoes. To whiten your sneakers, you're going to need a spray bottle, white vinegar, water, and clear liquid laundry detergent — you can even grab a garment bag to wash them in, but that's up to you.

After you've got the supplies, mix water, and distilled white vinegar in a 1 to 1 ratio in the spray bottle. Shake it well and spritz the solution liberally on your dirty shoes. At this point, you can put them in a garment bag if you have one. Place the shoes in the washing machine, fill the slot for fabric softener with white vinegar, and add the detergent to the dedicated slot. In case your machine doesn't have a dedicated slot for fabric softener, use around 35 milliliters of white vinegar added directly to the drum. Now, simply run the cleaning cycle. Once your shoes are clean, let them air dry before donning them.

If your sneakers are extremely dirty, vinegar should clean the footwear but probably won't make them look as good as new. In such circumstances, you can get help from another household staple – baking soda. The process pretty much remains the same with slight additions — after spraying your shoes with the water and vinegar solution, sprinkle some baking soda on top. Put the footwear in the machine, fill the slots as mentioned, and sprinkle some baking soda on the shoes before running the cleaning cycle.