Polish Your Shoes

I have fond memories of being little and polishing my dad's shoes when we would go somewhere as a family. (Is that weird?) That said, I do not have fond memories of trying to find all the essential elements for shoe polishing! I could never find the brush or the wax- it was a nightmare. Shoe polishing is a must and I think any dapper gentleman and classy woman should always have shiny, clean shoes. For that to happen, a shoe polishing kit is in order.

You need not have a pre-made kit, you can fill your own kit with your favorite assortment of products. Your basics will be (white and/or black) shoe polish, boar hair brush (one with soft bristles and one with hard bristles), and cloth(s). My family has a few products that we like and we just place them in a container in our entryway closet. It's seriously that easy. The point is to have your kit in one spot.

Now, I'll be honest, this isn't only a shoe polishing kit. It's also a bag cleaning kit. Some of the products are
interchangeable so we keep them all in here. We use old shirts as our cloth, saddle soap for cleaning bags/salted shoes,
black and white polish for different colored shoes, mink oil (does this come from real minks?) for oiling leather, two shoehorns, and a boar bristle brush. I also don't recommend using clear containers because seeing the contents of the container isn't very nice. By the way, our basket is repurposed from a gift basket that we got from my sister's boyfriend. I love the potato sack/linen and the hand shaped metal basket- sort of reminds me of when my family used to harvest potatoes from our backyard. 

Another view of the basket. Note, it isn't filled to the brim- keep it simple and light. You don't want to be
fumbling through products when you are in a rush or have products expire. It's about ease and simplicity. 

We neatly store the shoe polishing basket on a shelf  in our
entrance way closet where we hang our coats.

What do you keep in your shoe polishing kit?