Cleaning Nursing Shoes

[sister--*]

My new Nursing shoes were creeping me out. After a couple of weeks they'd been through nearly every kind of body fluid and I just wanted to throw them out...yuck, yuck, yuck! I didn't even want to touch them!

So a co-worker told me that she puts her leather nursing shoes in the washer with detergent and bleach, lets them agitate, double rinses, and then lets them air dry.

I was a little skeptical since they are leather and expensive, but felt I didn't have anything to loose.

Guess what. They came out beautifully and they fit better now than before!

How do you clean your shoes?

[MIA-RN1, RN]

how do the insides dry? I mean, won't they smell or somethign? I have some reeboks I'd LOVE to get clean.

And do you have to disinfect the washer after that?

[augigi, CNS]

The insides dry and don't smell. Have washed running shoes heaps of time with no problems. Don't have to disinfect the washer if you had bleach in there - it's already done!

[can]

Just an FYI, I bleached my white Danskos after having them covered in blood and they turned yellow. It was worth it to get rid of all the germs but now they look bad. I've never tried it, but what about Cavicide whipes?

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Yep...I just used a splash or so of bleach. I had put a space heater close by and a fan to help them dry quicker. No smell.

[prmenrs, RN]

When I had leather nursing shoes, I would clean them w/bar soap and water.

I'd take the laces out and wash them w/soap and water, too. Just washed them in my hands w/bar soap, rinsed, squeezed the water out, and hung them up. For the shoes, I put some bar soap on a wet washcloth, and scrubbed them down, including the place where the soles were attached and the tongue of the shoes. Rinsed them the same way. Then I put the shoes on a paper towel on the counter to dry.

After they were dry, I applied white polish ("Sani-White"--had a woman w/ a nsg cap on the label), let it dry thoroughly, then buffed it w/a dry wash cloth, put the dry laces in. They looked quite spiffy!

I usually did this drill in hte kitchen, then washed the counter down when I was done.