Having odorous feet can be a disaster for your social life. Any time you take off your shoes, people shift away. If you have a really bad case of foot odor, you won’t even have to take off your shoes – You’ll be able to smell it even with you sit down with your shoes on.
This makes it hard to make friends, business contacts and go on romantic dates. So how can you get rid of foot odor?
Get an Exfoliating Sponge
Give your feet a bath every night. Using an exfoliating sponge, get in all the nooks and crevices in your feet. Get between each and every toe and make sure to wash underneath each toe.
When most people shower, they only give their feet a cursory wash. After all, it’s quite tough to wash your feet when you’re standing up, since you’ll be standing on one foot.
Perhaps the best way to give your feet a deep clean is to do it separately from your normal shower. Get a tub, fill it with water and soap and spend a good 15 minutes scrubbing your feet. This will get all the built up dirt, sweat and bacteria out from your feet.
Let Your Feet Dry Before Putting on Socks
If you’re putting on your socks in the morning after a shower, putting on shoes then running out the door, chances are that’s contributing a lot to your foot odor.
When you put on socks while there’s still moisture on your foot, you trap that moisture in your socks. That water will then warm up from your body heat. You’ll then have the perfect warm and moist environment for bacteria to grow in.
Avoid this by waiting some time for your feet to dry before putting on socks.
Use a Different Pair of Shoes Every Day
Shoes can store a lot of water. This is especially true of running or sports shoes, as they’re made of highly absorbent materials. Even leather shoes however can absorb a lot of moisture, even though it’s hard to see.
Again, the more moisture you have in your shoes, the more bacteria will grow. Instead of letting bacteria grow, give your shoes time to dry.
Let your shoes dry by using a different pair of shoes every day. It’s as simple as just having two pairs of shoes and using a different one each day. This gives each pair of shoes time to dry before being worn again.
Use Breathing Socks
Buy a few pairs of breathing socks. These are socks that are specially designed to increase airflow.
This will help your feet dry out during the day. Instead of building up moisture from sweat, these socks make it easier for air to get in your shoes and dry off your feet.
Use Socks Only Once Before Washing
Buy ten pairs of socks and use each pair only once before washing them. Don’t re-use your socks in between each wash.
There’s a reason that used socks and newly washed socks smell different. At the end of a day, a lot of bacteria and sweat will have already built up on that sock.
Socks get less smelly when they’re not wet. So it’s easy to pick up a pair of worn socks after a couple of days and think they’re okay to wear because they don’t smell. In reality, once you put them on and they absorb a little bit of moisture, they’ll get a lot smellier.
So avoid wearing the same socks again.
Use a Deodorant
If none of this is working for you, your final weapon is to just use deodorants to absorb the smell.
There are several special deodorants that are designed specifically for foot odor. Some of them come in spray form, some in stick form, some in powder form.
Just apply a bit of deodorant daily to your feet before leaving the house in the morning.
Getting rid of foot odor is really just a matter of changing a few of your daily habits. It might take a bit of adjustment the first couple weeks, but once you’ve made the switch you won’t have to worry about foot odor anymore.
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