Cleaning

How to Quickly Dry Shoes Using Newspaper

Shoes splashing into a puddle on a city street

Do you have children who just can’t keep their shoes clean and dry? Are you looking for tips on how to dry shoes quickly? Or how to avoid that banging noise that comes from drying shoes in your dryer?

I’ve always used this hack to dry wet running shoes overnight but having kids who can’t resist puddles made me realize just how useful this trick is to have in your arsenal.


Keep reading to check out our easiest hack to quickly dry shoes without using your dryer.


How to quickly dry shoes without a dryer


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How to Dry Wet Shoes


The combination of 3 boys who play sports and are growing up in the country, means there are lots of opportunities to figure out what works best to quickly dry shoes.

I have never been a fan of drying shoes in the dryer even after they have been through the washing machine. Yes, they are clean, but they are still harboring secret odors. Also, I’m a firm believer that high heat isn’t great for the shoe’s plastic parts.


Why using Newspaper to Dry Shoes is my favorite way


Here’s my disclaimer, this method isn’t as fast as if you were to dry shoes in the dryer.

But with this method, there will be no loud thumping coming from the laundry room for the next few hours. Also, your dryer will not have a plastic, smelly-feet odor for several days.

This hack is great for times when school shoes are wet & you need them the next morning.


Great Hack for when you’re away from Home

It’s also great for those times you don’t have access to a dryer. You can do this anywhere you can find a newspaper.

Perhaps you are staying in a hotel without access to a dryer and need to dry your shoes overnight. Or maybe you are lucky enough to be on a camping trip but unlucky a bit that your hiking boots got wet.

Or for cleats at rainy soccer or baseball tournaments. Even if you don’t have enough time to completely dry the shoes between games, it definitely will help absorb most of the moisture.

Let’s take a look at the easy steps to dry wet shoes using a newspaper.


How to Easily Dry Wet Shoes


Easy Steps for Drying Wet Shoes Using Newspaper Print


First, if the shoes are wet, you might as well go ahead and clean them.

Rinse any mud and grass off the outside, trying to not get the inside of the shoe any wetter. Unless of course, the inside is dirty, then you will get to tackle cleaning that out too.

A toothbrush and a bit of dish soap work great to scrub the little crevices around the bottom of shoes.

Rinse all the soap off and pat the shoes dry with a paper towel or rag.


First Step in Drying Those Shoes

Now you have clean shoes, but they are still wet.

First, make sure you unite the laces and pull them out loosely from around the tongue of the shoe. This will help you be able to fit more of the newspaper into the shoe.

Also, if the sole of the shoe can come out, take it out and wrap it in the newspaper as well.


The Second Step in Achieving Dry Shoes

Next, stuff newspaper into the shoe, trying to fill it up to the toe. The more newspaper you can fit, the more water it will absorb.

One option is to also wrap newspaper around the outside of the shoes. If you do this, use rubber bands to secure the newspaper so that it fits nicely against the outside of the shoes.

I’ve never tried this method, but it makes sense that it would dry the outside faster as well.


Here’s the Most Important Step in the Process

Now, after about an hour it’s time to put the new dry newspaper into the shoes.


This is KEY to making this work.


That first newspaper will be saturated and will not be able to draw out more water from your shoes. So, fill the shoes with more newspaper and let the newspaper do its job.

Depending on how quickly you need your shoes, you can periodically check on them and replace them with fresh newspaper as needed.

This method takes about twelve hours for shoes to dry if you replace the newspaper frequently, especially at first. I usually change it two or three times in the first 3 hours.

Also, if you have all those shoes dry now would be a good time to check out our Guide to Organizing Kids’ Shoes. It has tons of tips to organize the shoe chaos around your home.


How to easily dry shoes using only newspaper


Newspaper Ink Concerns

When I suggested this idea to friends, they were curious about whether the newspaper ink would bleed onto the shoes. Yes, yes it will. But just a little.

In the case of sports cleats or work/hiking/snow boots, this isn’t a big deal.

Also, it’s never been a problem with my running shoes or my sons’ tennis shoes either. It’s typically just a little bit of ink, in maybe a few spots, that rubs away with the first pair of socks.

If you are concerned about the ink transferring, you can always purchase blank newsprint paper to keep at home or in your vehicle.

We keep a stack of it hidden in our trunk for when our shoes get wet while we are out & about.

12 Comments

  • Reply Kim March 1, 2018 at 1:43 pm

    This is so helpful! My toddler’s shoes are always wet or dirty.

    • Reply Holly Pete March 1, 2018 at 2:12 pm

      Same here! With 3 kiddos I’m always cleaning and drying shoes. Glad you found this method helpful 🙂

  • Reply Sarah March 3, 2018 at 11:46 pm

    What a fantastic idea!! I am not a fan of wet shoes and typically I would put ours on a heater but this is a much idea!! Will definitely be doing this in the future! Thank you for sharing a Mom-tastic tip!

    • Reply Holly Pete March 4, 2018 at 11:03 am

      Thanks Sarah! It’s been a game changer in my house! No more stressing about wet shoes that we need the next day!

  • Reply Corinne March 6, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    OMG this is genius! Thanks for sharing, I had to clean my son’s shoes the other day and this would have helped so much lol

    • Reply Holly Pete March 6, 2018 at 8:05 pm

      The first time I used it was after my oldest decided to jump in a puddle after soccer camp… and he needed his cleats in like 12 hours for the next round of soccer camp! We didn’t own two pairs of cleats so…. a friend who loves to hike shared their shoe drying wisdom with me and I was so happy because it worked! Hope it helps you out too!

  • Reply Samantha April 5, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    we have a shoe dryer thing that was bought for winter boots, but drys a lot of sneakers. But this will be great for when we are camping or on vacation! awesome!

    • Reply Holly Pete April 5, 2018 at 4:11 pm

      We use it a lot when we are traveling for sports and need to dry cleats!

  • Reply Yiota August 27, 2018 at 4:00 am

    I need my shoes tomorrow, so I’m trying this method along with a fan and it’s already working. Very practical.

    • Reply Holly Pete August 27, 2018 at 5:44 am

      Glad to hear the method is working for you too!

  • Reply Kelsey Mask January 1, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    Couldn’t you just use paper towels?

    • Reply Holly Pete January 1, 2020 at 10:46 pm

      I’ve used paper towels before when I didn’t have any newspaper handy. They just don’t seem to dry the shoes as fast as the newspaper & it takes a lot of them.

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