apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We were in the same boat, except we keep our shoes in a small closet (and my husband is a skateboarder, not a runner). I put some baking soda in old socks and put those in his shoes. You can mix in alum or corn starch to absorb moisture. I've even thought about adding a dried spice.. maybe sage... to the mix.

Before added the baking soda socks, I spritzed the inside of his shoes with alcohol to try to kill odor causing bacteria. It is working so far.

I have the same skateborading partner problem as Swan (and ok fine, my shoes may contribute to the shoe smell in the closet). I'll try Swan's and any other ideas people have!

I'm not sure where you can get one - but I saw this on my feed reader the other day:

http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2007/07/japanese_shoe_p.html

Where do you get the shoe cabinet?

I like the alcohol spritz idea, I am going to try that.

I have been using 3 inch diameter round cedar blocks from the dollar store. I have a stash of about 20 of them in the shoe cabinet, and when we deposit just worn shoes into it, we put one or two of the blocks inside each shoe. The smell of cedar is quite strong, but that is definitely preferred to the stinky shoe smell. I think I will need to re-oil my cedar blocks every 6 months or so.

I wad up old newspaper and stuff them into shoes while they're not in use. Seems to work pretty well, the paper absorbs moisture/odors.

I'm using small net bags with lavarocks (similar to cat litter)
in closets.I got them from Bed , Bath and Beyond.It works. They need to be dried out ( recharged) periodically outside under the sun.

The Container Store sells a product made of volcanic material called: All-Natural Freshener. Basically it looks like a mesh bag filled with pumice stone. I've used it in my own shoe cupboard and it's removed all the standing odor. I like the product so much I have it in all my closets (I live in an old flat that gets musty smelling.)

Of course it's best to get to the root of the problem. Once a month I take the insoles out of my sneakers and wash them either in diluted chlorine bleach, or, hydrogen peroxide-- depending what I have on hand. I rinse the insoles well and let them dry in a sunny spot.

While the insoles are drying I put baking soda into the shoes and let it work it's magic. As soon as the insoles are ready to be put back in I tap out any excess baking soda (though leaving a little in the shoe isn't cause for concern).

BTW: Never mix chlorine bleach with hydrogen peroxide-- or any household cleaners for that matter.

Wishful Thinking - the shoe cabinet is from ikea. i have the same one and it's great.

I put used dryer sheets in my shoes--works nice, you can just jam as many as you want in there. Beats throwing them away. also, i think i've read somewhere that both coffee grounds and charcoal are better at absorbing odors than baking soda. If you want your shoes to smell like coffee, that is!

edgertor - Coffee absorbs odors really well, which you might notice if you brew coffee that wasn't stored in a air-tight container (not that I would have ever done that...) I think the secret to keeping your shoes from smelling like coffee if you use grounds is to use stale coffee.

All leather shoes should have shoe trees in them for 48 hours after wearing. Cedar trees will absorb moisture and odour, and kill micro-organisms.