TIL - Leather Cleaning

Yesterday, I learned how to clean leather. This may be mostly (entirely) because I was so bored at work, but it surprised me that it was easier than I had thought it would be.

1. Rub moisturizing soap onto a damp rag, and then rub your bag with it.
2. Wipe clean with a damp rag.
3. Apply a small amount of oil or some sort of conditioner to a rag and rub into the leather.

I have a glorious Coach leather bag (bought on ebay a while ago for about $40) that had begun to look peaked. It has beautiful pleats - my favorite part! - that had begun to look dirty and dry.

Left: Still Dirty; Right: Cleaned and Conditioned

This morning as I was trying to scamper out of the house, I grabbed a few rags and a bar of my hand made soap, deciding it was the most moisturizing soap I have. Then at work, which is possibly even quieter than yesterday, I cleaned it good! (And was only interrupted by a couple of phone calls.) When I got to the conditioning bit, I realized I had forgotten to grab anything to use on that. Looking around at the various skin care products on my desk, I remembered the lip balm I made a few weeks ago. It is basically comprised of beeswax and moisturizing oils, which I decided should be the perfect thing for conditioning leather. It all worked out gloriously and while there are still a few scuffs that I can't seem to get out, it looks and feels a heck of a lot better than when I started!

I had that odd moment when I realized that I was entirely using products I made. It still surprises me sometimes. It's kind of awesome and also makes me wonder if I've become that person. Probably, but is it bad? I don't know.

Up on the agenda for the rest of my (work) day: Read up on Iceland for our June trip, probably read more sewing blogs (cause why not), and check all of my tracking numbers of things I've bought over the last few boring work days. PSA: Boring work days + online shopping = dangerous