How to clean white sneakers easily at home: A step-by-step guide

I’m a huge white sneaker girl.

Honestly, a white shoe girl. Even my Crocs are white!

But white sneakers get dirty so fast.

I have a tried and true method for keeping my sneakers white and it only takes three products to do it. You might even own all (or some) of these products, too.

You just need:

1. Dawn Powerwash – Not the liquid, this needs to be the spray
2. OxiClean White Revive
3. A toothbrush you don’t care about

Once you’ve got those, you’re good to go. Oh, you’ll need a little patience too. This can take up to 24 hours. If you’re a visual leaner, you can see all of these steps in the TikTok video below.

How to keep white sneakers white

Keeping white sneakers white isn’t very hard, it is just kind of a hassle depending on the time of year. Sometimes I can go three months without doing this, other times I feel like I am doing this two to three times a month.

It all depends on how rainy it gets in New Jersey and how much I care that my shoes are bright white.

Here’s my step-by-step guide for cleaning white sneakers

1. First, you’re going to take the laces out of you sneakers and soak them in very hot water with a little bit of the OxiClean White Revive.
   1. You can either use the cap of the OxiClean, as long as you don’t care that the liquid detergent will be open for the rest of this or you can use a mug you don’t drink out of. Also take the soles out of your sneakers at this step.
2. You’re going to spray every part of your shoes that are covered in dirt with the Dawn Powerwash, even the bottoms.
   1. You’ll want to put either paper towels or a rag under your sneakers at this point.
3. Wet your toothbrush, then scrub everywhere you put the Powerwash, again even the bottoms.
   1. You might need to repeat this step two more times, depending on how dirty the bottom of your shoes are.
4. Let that sit for up to 15 minutes.
5. You’re going to then put OxiClean in the same exact spots on the fabric part of your shoe (no need to do the bottoms).
   1. You’re going to also scrub these areas with a wet toothbrush!
6. Let that sit for up to 15 minutes.
7. After the sneakers have sat on a paper towel or rag, you can lightly rinse off the bottoms and throw them into the wash. Don’t forget to wash the laces, too!
   1. I run my sneakers on a speed wash cycle with either towels or blankets. You can use regular detergent at this stage.
8. Do not put your sneakers in the dryer! Instead, let them air dry for up to 24 hours.
   1. I typically put paper towels stuff inside the sneakers during the drying process and swap in fresh ones once the paper towels have soaked up a lot of moisture. I also try to put the sneakers directly in the sun during the drying process.

And that’s it! Your sneakers should be perfect and white at the end.