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Homemade Natural Shoe Deodorizer & Freshener

Homemade Natural Shoe Deodorizer & Freshener

Quick DIY Shoe Deodorizer

If you suffer from stinky feet, or just want to keep your shoes smelling fresh, then this homemade shoe deodorizer is the solution for you to remove odor from shoes.  I personally don’t have stinky feet, but even those with the best smelling feet will end up with stink shoes.

Putting baking soda in shoes is a simple to make diy natural shoe deodorizer that only uses two ingredients, works awesome, and takes virtually no time to make.

If you don’t want to pour powder straight into your shoes I have another post coming soon that solves that very problem, so check back soon, or subscribe to my emails (no spam, I promise) for updates. Click over to this post for a full list of home remedies for smelly shoes too!

Time: 5 minutes (and some waiting)

Related:
Homemade Natural Shoe Deodorizers

– Ingredients –

ingredients for homemade shoe deodorizer

Here’s what you need to make your homemade shoe deodorizer

That’s it!

– Step One –

homemade shoe deodorizer with baking soda

2 tablespoons Baking Soda

Measure out 2 tablespoons of baking soda, and pour it into a small bowl you can mix your ingredients in.

Baking soda is an awesome odor absorber, as you might know from using it in your fridge or somewhere else smelly.  The baking soda is what does all the hard work in this homemade shoe deodorizer.  It will pull whatever nasty odors might be hiding inside of your shoes.

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, 13.5 Pound
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, 13.5 Pound
A natural and gentle cleaner; Resealable pouch; No harsh chemicals; enviromentally sensible
$17.48 −14% $15.00

– Step Two –

homemade shoe deodorizer essential oil

5 Drops of Essential Oil

Pick out your favorite essential oils and sprinkle about five drops of it into the baking soda. You can skip this part if you want, it isn’t essential, it only helps make your shoes smell great.

For mine, I’m using pine essential oil because I love the smell of trees! Other good essential oil options for your homemade shoe deodorizers are lavender or a citrus scent.  If you don’t have any, an essential oil starter set will give you a good selection of oils to experiment with.

– Step Three –

homemade shoe deodorizer stir it together

Stir It Up

Now that you’ve got all you ingredients together, give them a good stir.

Do your best to break up the essential oil as it has a tendency to clump.

– Step Four –

homemade shoe deodorizer sprinkle into shoes

Sprinkle baking soda in shoes

Sprinklin’ time, I like to pour about a tablespoon of diy shoe deodorizer into the heel of each shoe.  Then tilt the toe of the shoe slowly downward to work the powder evenly and completely across the entire footbed (where your foot rests on the inside of the shoe).

A couple of tips:

  • Don’t skimp on the shoe deodorizer, if you don’t add enough in you’ll probably end leaving some smelliness behind.
  • Also, don’t work the powder in, you don’t need to rub it into the shoe. That will only result in more powder being left behind in the shoe when you shake it out. Your results should be just fine if you simply dust the surface of the footbed.

– Step Five –

homemade shoe deodorizer let them sit

Let it Sit

That’s it, let the baking soda go to town soaking up all the odors inside your shoes. The longer you let it sit the better your results will be. I recommend you let them sit for several hours at the least.  Personally I let my shoes sit for a good 24 hours.

– Step Six –

homemade shoe deodorizer shake it out

Shake it Out

Grab up your shoes, hold them upside-down, and give them a good shake over the sink or a trash can. I had to tap the soles of my shoes a little to shake all of the powder loose.

I was able to get most of the powder out of my shoes easily with only a very slight dusting of it staying behind.

How Does It Work?

Super! I just stuck my nose into my shoe and took a big whiff and I didn’t instantly regretting it. My shoes weren’t super stinky to start with, but they weren’t particularly good smelling either.

After using this homemade shoe deodorizer all the stank is gone and I have fresh wonderfully pine smelling shoes now.

As to the little bit of powder that stays behind in the shoe it wasn’t an issue for me at all. If it bothers you a lot you might be able to vacuum it out if you’re careful, but I won’t ever bother with that.

Baking soda isn’t a harsh chemical and it’s safe to use on your body in many ways, such as in a homemade baking soda shampoo and homemade deodorant powder, so it doesn’t bother me.  

Plus it will keep fighting the stink while my feet are in my shoes which is good! If you want to try some alternative shoe deodorizer methods see my full list of diy shoe deodorizer remedies.

Pre-made Alternatives

Hey, we all get a little busy sometimes and don’t have the time to make things ourselves. For a great natural shoe deodorizing option you can also check out my Moso Natural odor eliminator review.

*****

That’s all for this one. Have fun de-stinking your shoes, leave a comment to say hi, and if you liked this post share it on facebook or pinterest!

Thanks for reading,

Lance

Homemade Natural Shoe Deodorizer & Freshener

homemade shoe deodorizer

Make your own homemade diy natural shoe deodorizer with baking soda and essential oils. Remove those smelly shoe odors in no time!

Prep Time 3 minutes
Active Time 7 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes

Materials

  • 2 tbsp. Baking Soda
  • 5 drops Essential Oil (optional)

Tools

  • Small Bowl
  • Spoon
  • Pair of Smelly Shoes

Instructions

  1. homemade shoe deodorizer with baking sodaPour 2 tbsp. baking soda into small bowl.
  2. homemade shoe deodorizer essential oilSprinkle 5 drops favorite essential oil over baking soda. (optional)
  3. homemade shoe deodorizer stir it togetherMix together well, breaking up clumps.
  4. homemade shoe deodorizer sprinkle into shoesSpoon 1 tbsp. of baking soda mixture into the heel of each shoe. Slowly tilt shoe downward to evenly spread the deodorizer.
  5. homemade shoe deodorizer let them sitLet sit 1 -24 hours, the longer it sits the better it will soak up the odor.
  6. homemade shoe deodorizer shake it outInvert shoe over sink or trash can and shake to discard the powder. A couple of good taps to the sole of the shoe will help to loosen the powder.
  7. homemade shoe deodorizerWalk around feeling great because your shoes don't smell!

Last update on 2024-03-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Mart WInch

Saturday 15th of April 2017

I put two or three tablespoons of baking soda into a coffee filter, and then tie or tape the filter shut. I make sure that it is not too tightly-packed, and that I can still shake the baking soda around inside of the little pouch that I just made. I make a couple of these little pouches for each shoe (as my feet are on the large side), and I keep them inside my shoes when I'm not wearing them. The pouches are effective at eliminating shoe odor for a few weeks, until the baking soda starts to get saturated with the moisture that it is drawing out of the shoes, and then I just make some new ones. If you're a cheapskate, you don't even have to throw the old baking soda away; you can just spread it out on something smooth, let it dry, and then re-use it. My feet are fairly sweaty, and I usually have a problem with stinky sneakers, but this 'pouch method' works very well for me.

Mollie

Thursday 23rd of January 2020

Mart, thank you for sharing your experience and suggesting a pouch method! I have recently tried a pouch method out myself and you are right, it works great!

Linda M Wooten

Sunday 14th of August 2016

thanks, a pair of my leather boots needed deodorizing but I don't like the chemical products on the market. I had baking soda and essential oil on hand so I used it and loved it. thanks for the tip

Mollie

Thursday 23rd of January 2020

Awesome! Glad you were able to use stuff you had one hand :) Thank you for commenting!

Teresa

Thursday 7th of July 2016

Thank you my son has real stinky feet, just made this with lavender. Hopefully now my hall will smell lovely and not of his feet 😜

Mollie

Thursday 23rd of January 2020

Teresa! I hope this has helped alleviate the stink in your hall! Thank you for your comment

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