How to Clean White Shoelaces? – Tips, Tricks and Hacks

We all love our sneakers, don’t we? Well, we do, when they are clean and shine like new. After a while of usage specifically for white sneakers, they just start appearing dirty and gross. And end up staying in the back of the closet. 

I remember back in school, we had to wear white shoes but the rains, playing sports, or just wearing them daily really made them dirty and left brown stains and often the laces were the worst. The shoes could still be cleaned but the laces never looked as good as before.

I have since, tried so many hacks and tricks, and tips to clean white shoelaces. These tips and tricks for cleaning white shoelaces come from my own experience and lots of hits and trials. I’ve gone through multiple online video tutorials and followed so many Facebook hacks! In short, I have done it all!

The following article “How to Clean White Shoelaces?” is not a basic piece of information but the best methods derived from years of experimentation! These tips and hacks will make sure that not only are your sneakers white, but also the laces are clean and look as good as new! So, if you are ready to give your shoes, and especially laces a makeover, read ahead!

How to Clean White Shoelaces?

Common Lace Stains

Your laces can get dirty or stained by so many things a few common ones out of all of them include

• Dirt and mud; it is basic day-to-day wear and tears 
• Spillage of any beverage on the shoe: specifically, wine, coffee, and other beverages with artificial color
• Water stains if your shoe gets wet: a slight yellowish stain, mostly because of moist fabric/material

White Laces Cleaning Hacks that do not work!

1. Soap and scrubbing hack- it destroys your laces. You are left with tattered threads hanging loose.
2. Shampoo wash hack- it does not target the stains
3. Seltzer water soak hack- it does not do anything except remove superficial stains
4. Baking soda and vinegar hack- since the surface area to be covered is large but the reaction is very fast, it is impossible to do both places before the reaction is over. And using the flat mixture will not do anything.

How to Clean White Shoelaces – Method

The methods mentioned below are two of my favorite hacks. Follow step by step and you will surely have the cleanest white laces in no time.

For lightly stained laces you can follow this method:

Method 1: The Washing Machine laces cleaning hack

This is the first thing you can try which requires minimum effort and 9 out of 10 times, works perfectly. For the other 1 of one 10, you can try the second hack.

What will you need?

• A mesh lingerie bag
• Detergent liquid

1. Take the laces out of the shoes and rinse them with cold water
2. Put the laces into the lingerie bag (this works best if you wash a hand towel with it!)
3. Add this to any load of laundry

This should clean any lightly stained laces

For heavy stains, you can follow this method:

Method 2: The soak and wash method

The first part of this method is very important and does 50% of your work already. This step is a detergent soak. Follow the step one by one, in the exact proportion

What will you need?

• Detergent powder
• Lukewarm water
• Clean towel
• Blue Detergent liquid
• Bleach
• Pair of Rubber gloves

1. Take a small container and add ¼ scoop of detergent
2. Add to it ½ cup of lukewarm water to activate the detergent.
3. Fill up the rest of the container with 1½ cups cold water.
4. Do not use hot water for this process, as it might further push the stains in the fabric of your white lace
5. Detangle your laces and slowly dip them in the detergent-water mixture leaving them in the container one by one
6. After soaking the laces for over 1 hour remove them soaking wet from the container
7. Take a clean piece of towel and grab one end of the lace with one hand and the other for wrapping the towel around it in a pinching motion
8. Pull the lace through the towel grip as such that it pinches away the excess water from the lace.
9. Repeat this thrice till the lace feel almost dry
10. Let the laces air dry

At this point, your laces should mostly be clean, if it isn’t you can continue with the following steps

11. Add a cup of bleach to 2 cups of lukewarm water
12. Add one cap of blue liquid detergent to this mixture
13. Soak the laces in this mixture for 5 minutes
14. Wearing gloves on your hands, work through and rub on the laces with your fingers
15.  Especially, concentrate on areas that have tough stains
16. Soak them in cold water for 5 minutes after this
17. Wash the laces thoroughly with clean water and repeat Steps 7 through 10

A little goes a long way. Doing these cleaning steps not only makes your laces as good as brand-new ones but is also very satisfying to do. The discarded water gets muddy, and that is when you know you have removed all possible dirt you could have. A cool fact, the end of a shoelace is called an aglet. Sometimes these aglets may wear off after a prolonged period of intense use. After cleaning your white shoelaces, you can also wrap clear tape around one of the edges to make an aglet!

I hope this article “How to Clean White Shoelaces?” helped you with your shoe cleaning needs and helped you make your white shoelaces white again. Let us know in the comments if this hack worked for you. Also, tell us which bogus hacks and fails did you try before finding our amazing lace-cleaning tips?

Which of the two hacks worked for you? For more such fun cleaning and washing tips and other amazing life hacks, follow our website and try various other tips and tricks! You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get early access to updates and lots of other great articles! Thank you for reading this article!

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