Cleaning Leather The Easy Way

Leather is a common material in luggage, garments and furniture. There are two types of leather: finished and unfinished. Finished leather is the shiny type of leather that you see in shoes, bags, pants and furniture while unfinished leather is the rough type of brownish leather that you see in country outfits. Both types of leather need to be taken care of if you want to last it through time.

Unfortunately, the life of leather is not perfect. They usually incur different kinds of stains in their lifetime so it is very important to clean them. Some people think that cleaning leather is hard but leather is very easy to clean compare with other types of material. Other materials tend to absorb but leather does not. However, the material is very resistant to water and can break if water is allowed to seep in.

It just begins with defining what type of stain and what type of leather (finished or unfinished) does your garment have. Once you have done that, you can easily follow the instructions below.

Ingredients

For the cleaning recipe, you need the following things. First, you will need a leather conditioner. This will bring back the luster in your leather and keep it back in shape. Then there is also the saddle soap, leather protection spray and cleaning kit. You will also
need some damp cloths, sponges and dry towels.

The Cleaning Process

For finished leather, cleaning is a breeze. In fact, you can use a moisturizing soap other than the saddle soap. All you need to do is bring the soap to a light lather and apply it on the stain. The stain will come off easily using a damp cloth. Make sure that the area
is not damped too much though. Water may not break the leather right there but it will crack it through time. Follow the application with a dry towel. Make sure that the area is completely blotted dry. Then apply leather conditioner. This will bring back the original
luster of your leather.

On the other hand, unfinished or unpolished leather which can be seen in country outfits is cleaned in another way. To clean this, you need a damp cloth or sponge. With this, you should rub the leather with saddle soap. Again, work the soap into a lather. After that,
wipe it away with a dry cloth and allow the leather to air dry. And you are done. You can then finish the leather with leather preservative or mink oil.

Be careful with cleaning leather furniture though since a lot of things can happen here. For one, you are dealing with a much bigger surface area and you need to plan which area to do first. I suggest you start with the topmost area and work downwards so you can easily deal with the drips as you go down.

These are just some ways on how to clean leather. If these did not work for you, I highly advise seeking the help of a professional. That way, your leather garment will not be damaged. Remember that we used water in both processes. Leather tends to react to
water. So be sure that you dry everything.

So as you can see, cleaning leather is very easy. So long as you have the right materials and have taken note of the instructions. Then, you can expect your leather to last through the years.