Leather Cleaning FAQs: How Do I Clean Leather Easily?

Caring for your leather items is very easy! Just basic care and common sense will keep your leather items looking good for a very long time.

It's best not to store your leather items in direct sunlight. It will damage the leather through drying and fading (and make your neighbors jealous!).

There are many commercially available leather protectors available that will make your leather more resistant to spotting and wear. Usually, you'll find these in the sporting goods, often by the baseball gloves, or shoe sections of your local department stores. Specialty leather apparel shops or even shoe and sporting goods stores will often have a wider selection of products and sometimes even better quality choices. If you need help selecting a cleaner or protector, just let the salesperson know it's for a leather jacket (when it's for straitjackets, hoods, arm binders, and other leather apparel), or perhaps for motorcycle saddlebags (for heavier leather bondage gear), or for a pair of suede boots (for suede whips and cuffs, etc). They'll be able to steer you towards the best products for cleaning, care, and protection. Hey, they don't have to know it's for your leather spanking skirt, do they? Then again, they might have one too...if they're lucky. ;)

There are also many commercially available leather cleaners you can use for everything, from soft garment leathers (like straitjackets, skirts, arm binders and hoods) to suede (like whips, cuffs, and harder bondage leathers used in most of my gear). Because there are so many types of leather, there are also many types of cleaners, typically available in the shoe section of department stores. Be sure to choose the cleaner that's right for the type of leather you're cleaning and read all directions carefully. As always, test any cleaner on a small, less visible spot before cleaning the entire piece.

If your leather starts to smell a bit funky from sweat, take a damp cloth and put a little bit of gentle hand soap on it. Gently rub the cloth against the leather. Rinse off the cloth and wring it out until it is damp and run it over the inside of the leather again. Let your leather sit for about an hour and it will be like new. Remember, it's important that the cloth isn't very wet – just damp.

If you have a problem with water spots, water spots can be removed from leather by moistening the area again with a little water then letting it dry. You can also gently blow dry the leather on a low or no heat setting.

For removing spots from leather, dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and gently rub the spot. Remove any alcohol with a soft, damp cloth.

Sometimes, you just want that new gear a little softer for more comfort. Leather conditioners for baseball gloves work great for softening your leather, but be careful as this might discolor some types of leather. Most of my leather is finished so that products like these won't harm them, but the soft black leather you'll find in some of my body harnesses and gag harnesses can be visibly darkened by conditioners. Leather conditioners are available in most sporting good stores and even some of the largest chain stores. I have also heard good things about a product called Leather CPR, which you can find at some specialty shops and larger stores as well.