Your Favorite Leather Bag Is Starting To Get Moldy, Here's An Easy Way To Clean It

Leather Bag Illustration (Dim Hou/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - For those of you who like to collect leather bags from various well-known designers, taking care of them is certainly not an easy thing. The reason is, if you act wrongly, fungus can grow in your favorite bag.

The appearance of mold that makes the bag quickly damaged and unattractive is sometimes motivated by the storage factor. Please note, placing leather bags by hanging or stacking can cause mold to spread quickly. For this reason, it is recommended that you store leather bags in a closet or closed shelf by regularly replacing the silica gel once a month.

Don't underestimate the presence of silica gel, keep these small items in your leather bag to prevent mold growth and keep the bag moist. In order for leather bags to return to their original state, check out the review on how to clean moldy bags that VOI summarized from the HerWorld page, Thursday, December 9, which you can apply if one of your bags is moldy.

Get rid of mold on bags with lemon juice

Lemon juice has a myriad of benefits. Not only for body health and facial skin beauty, lemon water also works well in cleaning fungus from the surface of your favorite leather bag. Basically, leather bags made from animal skin are sensitive and easy to peel if the treatment method is wrong.

To be on the safe side, try brushing the moldy part of the bag using lemon juice. Using a soft bristle brush or microfiber cloth, gently brush repeatedly if the mold on the bag still looks like it's leaving marks. After that, wipe with a soft textured cloth and leave it for a while so it doesn't get damp. If the leather bag is deemed free of mold, store it in a closed place with silica gel placed in the bag.

Remove mold on bags with baking soda

One of the inexpensive kitchen ingredients that can eradicate mold from the surface of a leather bag is baking soda. It should not be careless, the first step you have to do is dry the bag that is moldy outside for 24 hours first.

It doesn't stop there, sprinkle baking soda over the moldy leather bag and leave it overnight. After two days of drying, the bag that has been left in place for one night can be cleaned by gently rubbing it with a microfiber cloth. If the remnants of baking soda, then let it dry and then store it in the cupboard.

Use white vinegar to prevent mold on the bag from coming back

It is not uncommon for fungi that are considered to have been completely eradicated to return to the surface of leather bags. So, so that the leather bag is free from stubborn fungus, it would be nice to try cleaning it using white vinegar. Besides being effective at removing rust, white vinegar is also often used to eradicate fungus on leather bags.

With a mixture ratio between vinegar and warm water as much as 10: 1, dip a clean cloth in the solution that has been fully measured until it is wet. Then put on latex gloves and gently wipe the cloth that has absorbed the white vinegar solution on the part of the bag that is affected by the fungus until it completely disappears. Dry it out to dry, then put the leather bag in its original place.

Use a special cleaning soap for moldy bags

Natural ingredients sometimes don't work very well, the next step that can be taken to eradicate moldy bags is with a special soap called Saddle soap. This special cleaning soap is one of the products that is often used to clean, protect, and care for leather-based bags and shoes. Contains a high enough moisturizing agent to protect leather bags from mildew, usually saddle soap is made from beeswax and lanolin.

How to clean it is quite easy, you first dip a clean cloth in water, rub the wet cloth into the saddle soap, then clean the moldy leather bag using a wet cloth mixed with saddle soap slowly. Remember, do not rub too hard so that the surface of the skin does not peel.