How To Prevent Smelly Shoe Odors In Your Closet.

Austin is a great city to enjoy the outdoors in! Even if you take your shoes off at the door 🚪 your shoes still need to be stored somewhere after use. Whether it’s by the front door or a closet, they key factor to smelly shoe odors is usually

non-circulating air and moisture. Have you ever walked into your house after being away for awhile and said to yourself “It smells 👃🏽 stuffy in here” ? Air is circulated by opening doors, windows and running ceiling fans. This however doesn’t help remove the smelly shoe odor, but it ends up circulating the air that’s trapped in the house. These three steps will help prevent the smelly shoe odors that are lingering in your closet.

Every Shoe Isn’t The Issue So Identify The Culprits.

Before you Marie Kondo Challenge your shoes, let’s identify the ones that you know straight up stank the most. 👃🏽
Odors are trapped into soft surfaces so if your shoes are hanging in a shoe organizer like this, you may want to toss it or wash it. Don’t trip on the $19.99 price you got it for at Bed Bath & Beyond. Use your 20% off coupon and buy another one. Your nose will thank you. I mean we don’t want to remove the smelly odors from shoes and house them back in a smelly home! Now that you’ve removed the shoes that smell the most we can move to step two.

How To Remove Odors From Shoes

After providing Home Cleaning in Austin areas for over 23 years, you could say we know a thing or two about removing odors. We’ve chosen to clean our clients Austin homes with a natural based approach mainly because of the facts that we know. Homes are closed boxes filled with scents that linger. So there’s no need to add more scents to cover up the odors. Natural substances that trap the odors rather than masking them are the key to removing odors from shoes.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of Baking Soda inside each insole.
Shake the baking soda around the shoe to let it get into the crevices.
Place the shoes outside on a nice sunny day (a few hours should do the trick) so that the air can mix with the baking soda.
Now shake the baking soda out of each shoe.
Don't restore them yet! Now we have to address where they live.

How to Easily Remove Odors From Closets 

Even if your closet is open all of the time, the scents just linger out of the closet. Remembering that odors get trapped into closed spaces and moisture builds. While the shoes are out enjoying a sunny date with Baking Soda, and the shoe bins are being washed and soaked in a Vinegar and water mix, it's time to address the floor and walls. Yes scents get trapped in floors and walls!
White distilled vinegar is a natural odor eater. You can place a bowl of white distilled vinegar in the middle of the closet on the floor. Do not mop the floors with vinegar! It is too acidic and could ruin the floor!
If your closet has carpet, sprinkle baking soda liberally on the carpet and let it set for at least a few hours. Vacuum it up and empty the vacuum bag, and or debris basket immediately. We don't want the vacuum to hold onto the odors either!
You can also use Activated Charcoal bags that can live in the closet and continually absorb the odors for at least a month. I've blogged on my love for Activated Charcoal use in the fridge as well. Check it out in the archive blog list by typing How To Remove Fridge Odors.

Pennys Personal Tip

If I’m using baking soda, I always add a few drops of my favorite essential oil to the baking soda bottle, shake it, then sprinkle it.
I also keep baking soda in the small plastic bottles in the closet so that it’s within sight and reach to fix the odors before thy set in.