How to remove salt from leather shoes?

Leather boots and salt stains are an eerie combination. On snowy ground, shoes are very prone to getting various spots on the surface. This can cause discoloration, multicolor marks on the surface or, in the worst case, cracks and tears. You can, in the end, often change the pair, but there are ways to deal with the situation that will help increase the life span of your shoes for more than one season. You do not need to constantly try to avoid snow, but you just need to take some simple active measures. How to remove salt from leather shoes? - We will talk about this in this article.

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Snow or salt - what's on the shoe?

Do not rush to see the snow as the culprit. It does not contain much salt to spoil your boots. Then how do salt stains appear on them?
Salt is sprinkled to clear roads from snow. The idea is to change the melting point of the snow.

Important! If you try to quickly remove it with a hard brush or some similar tool, scratches, cracks or tears will appear on the shoes that simply destroy the material.

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5 easy ways to remove salt from shoes

To get rid of the salt stain on leather boots, follow the recommendations described in this article. So, how to remove salt from shoes, what means will be effective?

Vinegar

Nothing can be as simple and effective as a mixture of white vinegar and water. Vinegar is available in every home or can be easily purchased at a nearby store. It is also an inexpensive product. To use it:

1. Take three parts of water and 1 part of vinegar, mix them.
2. Take two pieces of cotton cloth.
3. Immerse one piece of cloth in the mixture and slowly rub it on the surface, but in a circular motion.
4. After the stains have disappeared, take another piece of cloth and polish the surface of the skin until it dries.

Important! Even if the salt has only reached a specific area of ​​the boot, do not limit yourself to this field when cleaning stains. Water soaks all the boots, so the rest of the salts are found on the entire surface. They may be less noticeable, but are still on the shoes. It is for this reason that it is best to clean your shoes completely just in case.

Saddle soap

If you are still wondering how to clean your shoes from salt and reagents, there is another good fighting method that very few people know about - saddle soap.

Important! Contrary to popular belief that it is suitable only for tough skin, it is absolutely not harmful to your pair of relatively soft material.

Take a saddle soap kit made by a famous brand and it will work just fine:

1. Take a piece of cloth soaked in water. Remember, it should be simply soaked, in no case wet.
2. Squeeze this piece to remove excess water.
3. Rub it on the soap, and then the boots. Rub quickly - this will help to create a foam.
4. Once a pair of shoes is completely covered with foam, leave it as it is for a couple of minutes and let the soap solution do its job.
5. Then remove it with a moistened piece of cloth. It doesn’t take long, but it will bring boots a new life

Lemon water

In case you can not use vinegar or tar soap, there is another way how to remove salt from shoes from the skin. An alternative homemade ingredient is lemon.Citric acid also copes well with salt and opposes it, thus removing salt stains from shoes.

You need to proceed as follows:

• Squeeze half a lemon and cut it into a bowl.

Important! Remember: you must not allow concentrated juice to get on the skin of the hands, especially if you have an allergy.

• Dip a small rag in squeezed lemon after wetting it in water.
• Clean the surface in a circular motion with a squeezed lemon, and soon the salt stains will be removed. It works wonderfully.
• After that, let the shoes dry thoroughly.

Important! Do not flush citric acid. When the boots are dry, cover them with a protective cream.

Alcohol

Here is another option for removing salt from shoes from leather.

The same procedure can be done by wetting the rag not in citric acid, but in alcohol.

Baking soda

Alternatively, baking soda can help get rid of salt stains on shoes:

1. Just add a teaspoon of baking soda to a bowl of water.
2. Soak a cloth in this mixture and wipe the stains.

Important! It may take a little longer to completely clean the surface, but it works fine.

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What to do after cleaning?

When the salt stains have been removed, it is important to remember that this is not the end of the shoe care work. Some additional steps must be taken to restore the charm of your favorite pair of shoes. Be sure to repeat the procedure from time to time and use special protective equipment for leather boots.

Important! If you use modern tar soap, conditioning steps are not necessary, since tar soap cleanses and nourishes the skin at the same time.

If you use any other cleaning method, you must take some additional steps, such as:

• Your steam is clean but not completely dry - do not put it on immediately. Instead, allow time to dry, or speed up the process with a brush - this will help remove excess moisture. Then give the shoe the opportunity to stay at a warm temperature, as it dries much faster. This is better than removing salt from leather shoes repeatedly. By the way, this is exactly what you will have to do if you do not follow the advice, since the solution will not work until the end.
• Do not use any kind of artificial heating - a fan or a fireplace to speed up the drying process.
• Use a special cream and balm after the boots are completely dry. When the coating is well applied, be sure to use a leather conditioner as it nourishes the fine fibers of the material.

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Suede and Nubuck

If necessary, clean shoes from nubuck and suede, use a soft brush moistened with water. In especially difficult cases, if the salt stains are difficult to remove, washing in warm water with a detergent may be necessary.

Important! Do not forget about the seams. It is in them that the largest number of reagents is collected.

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Stock footage

These were all ways to wash salt from leather shoes. Of course, on the Internet you can find thousands of these, but it is these proposed options that are the most popular and effective. Use one of them, follow the tips, and your shoes will be in perfect order.