When the old ways are still the best!

I always remember part of getting ready for school as a child involved polishing my school shoes on a Sunday night, ready for the week ahead. I used find it a real chore but as an adult with my own children, I see why my mum made us do it: spending what amounts to very little time and effort in using proper polish and a bit of elbow grease to polish up Sophie's school shoes each Sunday night ensures the shoes look good right up until her feet outgrow them.

It does make me feel somewhat old-fashioned, since I haven't yet met another school mum who does this: if they clean their children's shoes at all, they use the instant shine stuff! But doing it properly works! First day of school with brand new shoes and home she came with the toes all scuffed. And if your child is anything like my monkey then it's not just the toes that get scuffed but the sides as well from gripping any pole she can climb.

After ignoring Sophie's new shoes for the first few weeks and the toes getting worse and worse, I pulled out the good old Kiwi black shoe polish, rubbed a healthy amount all over the shoes and left them for ten minutes. A quick polish with the buffing brush and they gleamed like new.

So no matter whether it's old-fashioned or not, the very fact that it works is why the shops still sell proper shoe polish and shoe brushes and I'm not forking out every term for a new pair of shoes! And it isn't just school shoes that benefit from a bit of polish...

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look