It's more than 30° but you still lace up your runners and head out to work up a sweat. Your feet will thank your for that cushiony comfort but an annoying side effect of the heat is that they can get too warm after your workout, leaving your feet sweaty, smelly, and altogether unpleasant.
Reddit user superfluousapostroph recently discovered an easy trick for freshening up your shoes when they start to smell funky, and shared their findings in r/lifehacks. The secret ingredient: hand sanitiser.
"When my shoes start to smell, I pull the soles out, smear a dollop of hand sanitiser on the inside bottoms, & let them dry overnight. They smell better in the morning," they wrote in their post.
It may sound bonkers-hand sanitiser is meant for your hands, after all-but when you think about it, the trick makes total sense. The nasty smell that sweaty shoes develop is really indicative of bacteria living in your socks, shoes, and feet, running coach and Ironman triathlete Luke Lombardo told Runner's World previously. "Not only is it important to get rid of that nasty smell that is on your shoes, but it’s also imperative that you kill the pesky bacteria living in your shoes."
While washing your shoes with soap and water will always be the number one way to clean them, hand sanitiser may work in a pinch after all. Research has shown that sanitisers containing between 60 and 95 percent alcohol are more effective at killing germs. And while alcohol-based hand sanitisers are pretty good at eliminating the vast majority of germs on a given surface, they won't erase all kinds of germs. To ensure you're sanitising your shoes as much as possible, it's important to use enough hand sanitiser and let it dry completely, rather than wiping it off.
Some commenters also recommend other disinfectants, but whatever you try, make sure you allow the product to dry completely before wearing.
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