Cleaning site boots is essential to maintain their condition and longevity, especially after working in muddy or dusty environments. A crucial first step, as highlighted in cleaning guides, is to prepare the boots before applying any water.
Step-by-Step Site Boot Cleaning
Here’s a breakdown of how to effectively clean your site boots, ensuring you follow best practices starting with the essential initial preparation:
1. Initial Preparation: Removing Laces & Dry Mud
- Remove the laces: Begin by removing the laces from your boots while they are still dry. This allows you to clean both the boots and the laces thoroughly.
- Handle the laces: Once removed, chuck the laces into a bowl of soapy water to soak. This gives them time to loosen dirt while you work on the boots themselves.
- Brush off dry debris: Before you introduce any water to the boots, use a dry brush to sweep off any excess or clumpy mud. This prevents turning dry mud into a harder-to-remove paste. Knock out any loose dirt from crevices.
2. Wet Cleaning (Following Dry Cleaning)
(Note: The provided reference focuses specifically on the initial dry steps before wetting. Standard boot cleaning would typically involve washing the boots after this initial dry step, but the reference doesn't detail that part.)
After completing the dry brushing and soaking the laces, you would typically proceed to wet cleaning the boots themselves using water, soap, and a brush, followed by rinsing and drying.
3. Cleaning the Laces
While your boots are drying (or being further cleaned), the laces that have been soaking can be scrubbed clean, rinsed, and left to dry as well.
By starting with the dry steps mentioned in the reference – removing laces, soaking them, and dry brushing mud off the boots – you create a much easier cleaning process for the subsequent wet stages.
