How often should I shine my dress shoes? What about casual shoes?
As much as necessary to keep your shoes looking nice.
On a practical level, shoe shining/polishing keeps the leather of your shoes protected and nice, and generally prevents some (but not all, obviously) wear and tear from destroying the shoes. Beyond all aesthetics, shoe shining/maintenance should be done on a fairly routine basis just to keep the shoes in working condition. If you wear the shoes often, once a month at minimum.
From an aesthetic standpoint, however, it really depends on how easily the shoes scuff and how you want the shoes to look. For dress shoes, unquestionably you want them shiny and new looking, so try to keep them nice and polish/shine them once a week if you wear them regularly, and maybe once a month or two otherwise. Very few shoes look good beat up with scuffs on them.
So, the general rule of thumb is simple: if you wear them more than 4 times weekly, consider polishing them weekly or every other week. If you wear them once a week or less, once a month or so might suffice. If you rarely wear them for whatever reason, just polish whenever necessary. And, of course, regardless of this schedule, if they desperately need it, polish them.
Tags: dress shoes, shoe polishing, shoe shining, Shoes
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