The Affordable Bathroom Item That Leaves Shoes Smelling Fresh

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Feeling a little shame about your stinky shoe game? Maybe you walked around in the rain, had a super sweaty workout, or have a particularly non-breathable shoe. No matter the reason, a smelly shoe is no fun to wear — or to be anywhere near. If you've been battling the shoe funk for a little bit by now, you may have tried other remedies to clean and deodorize stinky shoes, from expensive deodorizers that only mask the smell to insoles that may seem to do more harm than good. But there's one more solution that you might not have tried (and thankfully, it's one that's going to be a lot easier on your budget).

Next time your nose gets a nasty whiff, skip the pricey products and poke around your bathroom for a bar of soap. That's right — that little bar does more than just clean. It can also absorb the foul smells and replace them with its own fresh-smelling scent, giving your shoes (and your nostrils!) a new lease on life. Grab an inexpensive and fresh-scented bar soap, such as Irish Spring, to put in any stinky shoes you have, leaving them to sit for several hours to work their magic.

Eliminating shoe odors is super easy and one of the many unexpected household uses for a bar of soap. First, pick out a bar to use. The brand or fragrance doesn't matter — just make sure it's one that you'd like to smell! But it does matter that it's a dry bar of soap, not one that's hanging on to any moisture from previous uses. Bacteria loves moisture, after all. And since your shoe might already be a bit soggy and teeming with bacteria that produces the foul-smelling odors, you don't want to give those tiny stinkers another place to grow. Once you've found a dry bar of soap, all you have to do is stick it inside the smelly shoe. If you only have one bar for two shoes, just split it in half. You can also wrap the bar in a thin sock or mesh to create a barrier to keep any soap residue off your shoes. 

This hack works because soap is porous. Unlike sprays that may just cover up a bad smell, the bar of soap is going to absorb those odors while also infusing the shoe with its own pleasant smell. (It's the same reason that some people may use one bar of soap for a sock drawer, too.) Of course, that absorption means that you're probably going to want to use the soap only for shoes rather than take it into the shower later. But you can use that same bar of soap again and again for absorbing and eliminating odors, making it an affordable and easy way to keep your shoes nice and fresh.