I’ve been on a mission for a few months now to clean out and improve my wardrobe by replacing all my cheap accessories with nicer versions – my own twist on the “one in, one out” cleaning method. Since I’m not made of money and buy mostly second-hand luxury goods, it’s extra sustainable, which makes me feel good about the whole thing.

The problem with buying secondhand stuff, though, is that most of the time, it’s been worn—really worn. I don’t blame the previous caretakers of my stuff when I get a pair of shoes, a bag, sunglasses, or a scarf that looks like they’ve been through some terrible things in their prime; if I spent a lot of money on something, I’d probably ruin it anyway. Part of the reason I get such a good deal on these things is that I have to maintain them when I buy them, so it’s a great compromise. Last week, however, I got a pair of white sneakers that were so dirty that I wasn’t sure I could fix them up. Of course I did. I’m a woman of perseverance and life hacks. Here’s what worked (and didn’t) to get my old shoes clean again.

Seemingly every day I research a household trick that uses vinegar in place of more intensive or expensive cleaning agents and products. You can clean a steamer, clean your humidifier, unclog a sink, descale your coffee maker and – according to a few how-tos I've looked at – clean old sneakers. I decided to give it a try. Here's what I was working with when I started the mission:

We got scuff marks. We got yellow stains. We got brown stains. Oh boy, we got everything. Would vinegar fix it? It didn’t! I started by using an old toothbrush to work vinegar into the stains. As I suspected, nothing much happened, but I was surprised when adding baking soda to the mix didn’t do anything either. That usually makes stains and dirt bubble out, but it did nothing.