Leather Bag Cleanup

I have something to admit. I am a bit of a leather snob. When it comes to what's on my feet or what I am carrying on my shoulder, I won't buy it unless it's leather. No man-made materials for me. Sure a man-made vegan leather might not scratch as easily as an animal's hide but you are also losing the classic, real-leather feel. I love that feel. Cleaning up stains on fake leather is also a much easier process but I am willing to put in a little extra time to cleaning up spots for my real leather goods.

Real leather isn't cheap which is why when I am investing in a product, I try to make sure that I will be able to take proper care of it and do my best to make it last a little longer and look a little better. Leather naturally softens and scratches with age and that's fine but I don't want to have stains all over my stuff. This can be tricky when looking for leather goods secondhand. As you may should know, I am all about a good bargain and do the majority of my shopping secondhand. I am going to share a little secret on a place where I will go to look for clothes, shoes, and accessories from time to time.

ShopGoodwill is Goodwill's free, online, auction site. They have everything from home decor, clothes, shoes, jewelry, and furniture up for sale on this site. It can be a little tricky to dig through because you cannot filter your original search like you can on other auction sites like eBay. So you do have to do a little digging through various sizes, prices, and the like but you can get some really good deals on here. If you haven't checked it out already, I encourage you do so! Tip: click the shipping and handling estimate before you bid. Sometimes their shipping and handling prices are a bit high and it's good to know that before you win an auction. Like eBay, there is proxy bidding; you can put a maximum bid in but it won't go up to that amount until someone else bids it up that high. You can read more about bidding here.

So anyways, I won this Dooney & Bourke Florentine Bag for less than a third of its retail price. It's still a current product! I love the three pockets and my small Fossil cross body that I got in high school started to tear. I wanted another small bag that is good for going out or on days that I don't need to carry around much. This bag was an ideal choice. It is in stellar condition for a used bag besides a two super small stains on the front. There inside is spotless which was an added bonus.

What you'll need:

- Bar of Dove Soap

- Microfiber cloth

Directions:

-Dampen cloth and rub with soap

-Gently rub the purse with the cloth. Your purse will look worse at this point because it's wet. 

- Let dry and assess how the bag looks. At this point for me, some of the polish had been removed when I washed it but the stain was gone. 

- Apply a leather oil to the spot. After doing this, the spot that was stained and then lighter was now the same color as the rest of the bag.

Source: Ask Anna