The BEST Ways to Deodorize Smelly Rollerblades

When I was about 5 or so years old I received my first set of rollerblades. They were a rather mysterious-looking purple (I had wanted a terrifically flamboyant hot pink that would have literally made Barbie herself envious, but the store sadly didn’t have my size, as it would turn out)-- nonetheless, the purple made me happy, and the rollerblades themselves made me very happy.

I’m telling you, I had an absolute blast with those purple rollerblades. I would start out on the deck, pick up just a wee bit of speed, and then launch myself over the edge and into the grass– much to my poor, distressed mother’s chagrin. Later, I finally picked up the courage (and skill level– there was many a crash in the backyard, btw) to go rollerblading in the street with some friends (and under my mother’s supervision– as aforementioned, the roller skates tended to make her just a bit nervous about her kid’s safety).

I mean, what human being, lil’ kid or otherwise, doesn’t absolutely adore horsing around with rollerblades? Or, I mean of course there are professional rollerbladers that are out there being WAY cooler than I ever was with my tiny wee set of skates– of all ages, of course!

What those professional rollerbladers and I definitely have in common, however, is that sadly enough ALL of our rollerblades can get stinky super, super easily and quickly.

It’s not like we can just chuck said rank skates into the washing machine or anything though. I mean, how the actual freakin’ heck is someone supposed to get rid of the stank in those particular sets of shoes?

But don’t you worry, because any of the following quick shoe deodorization hacks can totally help you to fix your stinky rollerblades ASAP and with all manner of success.

  

1. Lemon or Lime Peels

 

Let’s talk about lemons, first of all– and also limes! Alright, we’re actually going to be talking about lemon and/or lime peels, but there’s a totally good reason for that. Yes, yes, I know that you may or may not think (and reasonably, I’ll grant you) that lemons and limes belong singularly in lemonades, meringue pies, and the like. Those are all great things! Like, really, REALLY great things! Lemons and limes are utterly fabulous ingredients to use in the kitchen, there’s literally no doubt about that– I’ve always been a bit of a fiend for lemon bars myself, truth be told. 

But there’s more to lemon and lime peels than just some culinary uses, trust me on this.

See, it all has to do with just a wee lil’ bit of science. So, that shoe stank we’re going to be trying to eliminate for our rank rollerblades? All of that really isn’t your smelly shoes’ fault, as it so turns out. It’s actually the fault of some stinky bacteria which just so happen to live on your feet, socks, and in your shoes (they’re literally everywhere– the McDonalds or Starbucks of the microbial world, if you will– you’ll turn around and BOOM there the bad-smelling bacteria is again!).

Said stinky bacteria thrive and jive off of the moisture from your sweat (sorry, we’ve all, unavoidably, got feet that sweat, and that’s totally ok– it’s just natural) and also off of the dead skin cells which generally slough off of your feet pretty regularly.  

So, in order to take on the dreadfully terrible stank, we’ll be wanting to take on the dreadfully stinky bacteria. Lemon and/or lime peels are really, really quite awesome for this because of their natural acidity (which the stinky bacteria isn’t a huge fan of– meaning that we are HUGE freakin’ fans of it!). 

You can easily use lemon or lime peels to quickly and successfully deodorize your stinky rollerblades in just a few steps. Shred a couple of either lemons and/or limes (enough to get several tablespoons worth of the peel) and then evenly spread out the peels across the floor of the rollerblades you’re hoping to deodorize (just make sure to cover the spots where one’s feet would regularly go). Leave the peels inside of the stinky rollerblades for at least overnight, and perhaps just a bit longer, although you’ll want to make sure to take the peels out sooner rather than later, given that they’re literal bits of food, and you wouldn’t want them to go bad (making your shoes even MORE rank– not for the win, alright?).

2.  Newspaper

 

If you’re worried about rotten fruit making your fave set of roller blades even stinkier than you started– a valid concern, of course, if you end up forgetting that the citrus peels are in your (hopefully no longer) funky footwear. The citrus peels ought to be able to take on the dank stank in your fave set of skates, but if you’d like to be ten kinds of extra careful that your shoes don’t get any smellier, then we totally have several more easy shoe deodorizing hacks for ya’ and your poor pungent peds.

Newspaper for example, believe it or not, can fix all kinds of shoe funk easy-peasy and ASAP as well. You see, newspaper is actually kind of interesting because of a sort of glaze that printers use on it. This glaze, more commonly known as “sizing,” absorbs water like an actual sponge. I know, I know, that kind of seems counterintuitive to our goals– like, don’t we want to get rid of all of the moisture in our smelly shoes? 

I mean, yes, getting rid of the moisture in our shoes is totally the goal when it comes to taking on the terrible stank in our rollerblades. See, the sizing is actually really rather useful for that because said sizing slurps up a whole lot of that moisture and then doesn’t let it go. 

Newspaper printers use sizing so that the words and pictures on the page won’t get all blurry from anything like rain or snow; sizing is basically what makes it so that your daily rag doesn’t look like a tie-dyed shirt every time there’s any kind of drizzle or storm. Sizing absorbs moisture like a sponge, and if that moisture can’t get to the printed ink then you’ve got to trust me when I say that all of the moisture probs won’t be making it to hungry bacteria.

And hungry bacteria that don’t eat won’t be able to stink up your feet! Or the skates!

So you can use newspaper to fix smelly rollerblades super easily by just crumpling up a couple of balls of newspaper and then stuffing them straight on into your stinky skates to leave overnight (at the very least) or even longer– unlike the citrus peels, newspaper won’t go rotten on you if you happen to forget about it. Anyway, the longer you leave the newspaper in there the better-smelling those rollerblades of yours will be!

3. Corn Starch

 

As we’ve just chit-chatted about, moisture from all of the sweat just naturally hanging out in your fabulous (albeit funky) footwear is a MAJOR key ingredient for the stinky bacteria’s smelly success. Essentially, if we can manage to deprive the dank-smelling bacteria of said key ingredient, then badda-bing-badda-boom ma’ beloved readers, you’ve got your rollerblades back to smelling literally better than ever!

And that’s where corn starch comes in. You may or may not know it as one of the best things to have hanging out in the back of the pantry for when you need to thicken up puddings and soups, making pies gel up properly (Thanksgiving SAVED!), or even for when you want to make your fried chicken coating *that* much more crunchy (a lil’ extra dash of corn starch in the flour dredge is all ya’ need btw, if you were wondering). All of that, ma’ rank readers? The work of corn starch– it’s totally nigh-on magical.

Beyond all of that, corn starch can also totally help to deodorize your stinky rollerblades! As mentioned earlier, depriving the stinky bacteria of the moisture they so desperately need to thrive and jive is one easy way of fixing your funky footwear for good.

Corn starch is actually rather good at that– depriving the bad-smelling bacteria of moisture, that is. Corn starch can absorb liquid quite well indeed, which is how it does all of those amazing culinary feats in the kitchen that we were talking about earlier.

Deodorizing stinky rollerblades with a super amazing absorber of moisture such as corn starch certainly couldn’t be any easier. All you’ve got to do to start is dash a couple of tablespoons of the stuff straight on into those stinky skates of yours. Alternatively, if you’d like to ensure an easier cleanup for your future, funk-free self (and I know that’d be me, if you were wondering), then simply put the same amount of corn starch in a sock, then tie it off tightly with a rubber band or something, and afterward you can just stuff that corn starch-stuffed sock straight on into your smelly skates. 

Either method totes will work just fine, although regardless of the method you choose, make sure that you leave the corn starch inside of your rank rollerblades for at least overnight– going for longer is also fine, and even encouraged! The longer the corn starch has to absorb the moisture the better, I say!

4. Cedar Wood Chips

 

Cedar wood chips can absolutely be stellar options for deodorizing smelly rollerblades for all y’all, and they’re all-natural as well! Yes, yes, I am well aware that cedar chips and/or planks might just seem good for BBQs or mulching out the backyard, but trust me when I say that cedar wood chips are kind of fantastic when it comes to doing more.

I mean, don’t get me wrong– cedar chips totally do amazing things when it comes to BBQs and such. Like for real, who doesn’t absolutely adore a tangy pulled pork sandwich, a good charbroiled cheeseburger (with all of the fixins’ of course), or perhaps even some veggies that you’ve grilled up (I’m actually rather partial to grilled bell peppers myself– totally one of the best ways to get your greens in). BBQs are swell things, and cooking with cedar chips is just one way to make your food *that* much more magical.

And cedar chips are also rather magical in that they can seemingly use magic to help deodorize those stinky rollerblades of yours! It’s not magic though– cedar chips just naturally smell amazing on their own, and thank goodness because our rank skates could totally use a better smell to replace the present one of radioactive cheese that could literally melt any and all nose hairs within a ten-mile radius of your funky footwear.

Just get a couple of tablespoons’ worth of cedar chips (don’t just get what’s in your backyard, ma’ dear albeit rank reader– said used cedar wood chips simply  won’t pack so pungent a punch as compared with a bag of the fresh stuff), then dash those cedar wood chips right on into your those smelly rollerblades that you’re hoping to deodorize. Leave the cedar wood chips in there overnight as a baseline, but go for a bit longer should you think you can bear a day or even two without skating shenanigans (you can do this, I pinkie-promise)!

5. LUMI’s Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer

 

Our fifth fantastic stinky shoe hack for all y’all is LUMI’s Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer! It’s a high-quality, all-natural shoe spray that’s literally one of the easiest, speediest (like really speedy), AND most successful quick fixes for funky footwear that you could possibly find out there!

And you don’t just have to take my word for it! There are literally over 800 reviewers who gave LUMI’s Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer a PERFECT 5-star rating, averaging out to a solid 4.4-star rating overall. Amazon reviewer Tiffany here says that she keeps LUMI in her sports bag simply for her skating gear:

 

Ok and beyond all of that, LUMI just so happens to be a pretty rad company. They’re a small, completely family-owned business that NEVER ever (and ten times “evers” after that) tests on animals, uses only the highest quality of all-natural ingredients, AND they just so happen to produce all of their utterly fantastic products in the United States– yes, yes, we can cue all of the glitter cannons and gospel choirs, because LUMI really is just that fabulous of a company. 

LUMI also is rather fabulous at fixing other funky items in your life beyond the footwear! Got a kitchen sink with some stink? Spray LUMI in it! Can’t seem to get the smell out of the garbage can? LUMI can totes help, ma’ dear reader.

But back to the bad-smelling shoes! All you have to do in order to fix those stinky rollerblades of yours is literally just spritz LUMI’s Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer once or twice directly into each of the (soon-to-not-be) super stinky shoes, and that’s that! You’ve done it! Go on and rollerblade without any of the stank!

I don’t know about all y’all, but I tend to like summaries. I mean, with the memory of half a goldfish (Dory from Nemo could totally beat me at trivia night, I’m sure of it), such summaries tend to be actual miracles. 

Let’s start off with the rather fresh deodorization strategy of lemon and/or lime peels. Those citrus fruits are rather acidic (everybody loves a good, refreshing, sour yet sweet cup of lemonade, am I right?), and the stinky bacteria which causes all of the stank emanating up from your rank rollerblades, as it so turns out, does NOT like acidic things! That means we love all of those acidic things, alright? So deodorize your stinky shoes fast by first getting yourself a couple of tablespoons of either lemon or lime peels (a combination will work just fine as well, if that’s what you happen to have on hand), then after that you’ll be wanting to leave all of the acidic fruit peels inside of your smelly rollerblades overnight, and then perhaps just a wee lil’ bit longer in order to really give the lemon and/or lime peels a solid amount of time to work their must-busting magic; just make sure that you don’t leave the sour fruit peels in there for too long, just so that they don’t go rotten and make your stinky skates even more rank.

Newspaper is next up on our list of easy and quick shoe deodorization hacks, and it all works because of a wee lil’ factor known as “sizing.” This “sizing” is a really rad sort of glaze that absorbs genuinely any and all kinds of moisture– including the sweat from your feet! All of that sweat would have otherwise gone on to feed the stink-producing bacteria, meaning that (without removing the moisture) the bacteria would continue producing stank potent enough to literally knock out a horse within a ten-mile radius– there’s totally no reason for any of that! Using newspaper to deodorize smelly shoes couldn’t be easier, anyway. All you have to do is roll up some scraps of old newspaper into balls and then stuff the newspaper balls into the stinky shoes and leave everything be overnight (or longer, if you can manage to part with your fave, and hopefully no longer funky, footwear for any longer than that). That’s it! Definitely one of the best super quick and easy ways to fix stinky rollerblades.

Corn starch is up next on our easy hacks for fixing stinky rollerblades. Yep, it’s a rather rad ingredient in the back of your pantry, BUT trust me when I say that corn starch is actually really incredible for helping you to deodorize your stinky shoes fast. It all comes from how naturally amazing corn starch is at absorbing all sorts and manners of moisture, including the sweat from your feet that would otherwise go on to feed the stank-producing bacteria in your shoes and on your poor pungent peds themselves. All you need to deprive said bad-smelling bacteria of their much-needed sustenance is a couple of tablespoons of corn starch tipped into your (hopefully soon-to-not-be) rank roller blades OR the same amount of corn starch in a securely tied-off sock (easy cleanup for the win, am I right?). Leave the corn starch in your fave footwear for at least overnight, and even longer if you think you can go a day or so without skating (difficult, I know–  although somehow or another, between us both, I think that you’ll somehow find a way to cope)!

Cedar chips are also pretty rad for deodorizing your rank rollerblades, and they’re all-natural to boot! Your funky footwear stands no chance– say sayonara to your shoes’ sorry stank! Simply get yourself a couple of tablespoons’ worth of cedar chips (or any other kind of great-smelling woodchip ought to work as well– hickory or pine are also actually pretty popular for their own swell scents), then stick the scented wood chips right on into your stinky rollerblades OR you can also put the same amount of cedar wood chips into a securely tied-off sock (it works better for an easier cleanup AND you could probs avoid any potential splinters this way as well). Leave the cedar chips in there overnight, regardless of whichever option you opt to go for, and you can totally feel free to leave the wood chips in there for longer, should you so choose, in order to really give the cedar chips enough time to truly take care of the stank.

LUMI’s  Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer is the final of our fabulously easy and speedy hacks for successfully fixing stinky rollerblades. As an all-natural, high-quality shoe spray, LUMI can fix all kinds of stinky shoes, and with one or two spritzes directly sprayed right on into the depths of your smelly rollerblades you’ll be all set to go! There is totes no waiting overnight (or even longer) for this one and it’s super fab if you’re in a rush to get going. Skate without the stank, ma’ dear reader, with LUMI’s  Lavender Tea Tree Natural Shoe Deodorizer.

And you’ve done it! No more of the dreaded (and probably dank) rollerblade stink! Or perhaps you’re going to fix your stinky shoes in just a bit. When you do, any and all of these quick and easy hacks to deodorize stinky rollerblades can totes help you on your way to having great-smelling skates without hardly any trouble at all.