DIY Shoe & Home Refresher

This past weekend, my husband and our two boxer pups went to the park for a long brisk family walk. While there, we traveled down to the creek beyond where the Disc Golfers hole was to let the pups play in the water.  One of the Disc Golfers threw too far and their disc landed down the hill next to us in the water. I wanted to help out so I tried to walk over the rocks in the water to reach it for them. I slipped and creek water got into my new shoes. If you have ever walked around in the creek in tennis shoes, you know that once they dry they have quite a fowl smell that makes your boyfriend or husbands' man-feet smell like roses. I wasn't having that. LOL

 It may seem a bit unusual but here is what I did:

I took a cleaned out empty spray bottle and filled it with 3/4 lukewarm water and 1/4 cup All laundry detergent. Shake it up a bit to be sure that the contents mingle. You could use whatever type of detergent you'd like. 

What to do: One at a time, take one shoe and lightly spray one exterior side at a time and softly wipe down with a soft cloth. Then do the other side and front and back, following the same directions. After you have done this, lift the tongue of the shoe and holding the squirt bottle about 6in away from the shoe, spray inside the shoe. Quickly take the soft cloth and gently rub all around inside the shoe. Once you have finished the first shoe, repeat the same process with the second shoe.

This worked very well for me. It has been a week and my shoes still smell clean. I also want to note that while freshening up the exterior of my shoes, this did very well to remove much of the muck and dirt that was on them. Clean inside and out. No more stale funky fishy creek water smell. Best of all, no washing in the wash machine! I hate having to wash them because they come out all deformed and never wear the same. 

I also use this laundry detergent and water mixture to spritz throughout the home in the same way you would Febreze.