If you’ve been out walking on snowy or icy streets or sidewalks, your leather boots or shoes might be wet and streaked with white from salt residue. Here’s what to do to keep your boots and shoes looking and feeling stylish…

Let shoes or boots dry naturally, away from direct heat and out of the sun. You can speed up the drying process by stuffing them with newspaper (which will absorb odors, too). When your leather (see the next paragraph for suede) shoes or boots are completely dry, rub them with a piece of raw potato—the inside part of the potato, not the skin— then buff them up with a bit of castor oil on a clean rag. Your leather will look and feel much better.

To remove salt from suede boots, create a solution made from one cup of water and one tablespoon of distilled vinegar. Dip a soft sponge in the vinegar-water solution, and gently wipe the stains off the suede. Brush with a suede brush when the boots or shoes have dried from the vinegar-water treatment.

More stain-removal tricks…

 

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