Got Foot Odor? Here's What You Need to Stop Doing

When I was a teenager I had incredibly stinky feet. I used some foot odor spray and it did little good. My shoes smelled bad too, and I used to launder my sneakers frequently.Nothing worked, and the problem came to a head when the odor from my sneakers asphyxiated the family cat, (see video). Something had to be done, but what?

I was an athlete, and got Athlete's Foot really bad. It was so bad I went to the doctor with my cracked, itchy feet. He prescribed some cream which I had to smear on my feet before bedtime, cover with plastic bags, and then put my socks on over the bags on my feet. It was itchy and sweaty and generally made it hard to sleep. But it worked. It cured my Athlete's Foot!

So I concluded that the Doctor knew what he was talking about. I then went for a follow-up visit and asked him if he had any advice on how to cure my foot-odor problem. He told me how, and the cure has worked for all of the forty years I've lived since I learned the secret.

Step 1: Got Stinky Feet? Don't Do This!

There's only one step to cure your stinky feet: Don't wash your feet!

I know, that sounds crazy. But the Doctor had explained that we all have bacteria on our skin all the time and some are good and some types are bad and cause foot odor. The bad bacteria are good at resisting being washed away and they re-colonize the skin on our feet faster than the good bacteria, the ones that don't cause foot odor. So to have more good bacteria, we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we scrub our feet. The Doctor said that the soap and shampoo used on the rest of my body would wash down over my feet and be enough but not too much. So I took his advice and my foot odor problem went away in a few days.

That was 40 years ago. The problem has never recurred. I stayed cured! If you know someone with stinky feet, you might send them a link to this Instructable or share my video with them.