How to Clean Leather

You hustle around in your boots and now they have become covered in dust and muck. While leather certainly seems very rugged, you do need to clean and take care of it. Using the right cleaning products and maintenance procedure can allow your boots to remain in good condition for a long time. Find a step-by-step method for how to clean leather below.

1. First: Determine the type of leather

   Your boots consist of one of two types of leather, either treated or untreated. Water can stain porous untreated leather.

2. Second: Gather materials

   If your boots feature leather, get some moisturizing soap like the kind you would use on your hands. If untreated, you need to use saddle soap. Regardless of whether your boots consist of treated or untreated leather, you need washcloths to clean them, too.

3. Third: Apply the soap

   For treated leather, rub your soap in gently with a damp cloth. Try not to get the leather too wet. Afterwards, wipe away the lather with a different damp cloth. For untreated leather, scrub the saddle soap into the leather using a damp cloth until the saddle soap has produced a fine lather. Afterwards, wipe down your boots with a different damp cloth, and leave to air dry. Do not rinse either type of leather with water.

4. Fourth: Treat your leather

   Finally, after a cleaning, rub down your treated leather boots with a leather conditioner after the leather has fully dried. For untreated leather, use a leather preservative, such as mink oil, as an treatment after cleaning.