Tips for Cleaning Feet: Clean Feet Are Happy Feet:

Most people will wash off their feet if they become noticeably dirty, but how often do you use extra care when cleaning your feet? Do you just figure the soapy water when you rinse off is enough to get your feet clean? Even if you're feet aren't covered in mud, they still need a really good cleaning now and then to remove dead skin cells that can harbor moisture and bacteria, making your feet itchy and smelly.

Don't think you have a foot odor problem? If you're feeling particularly brave, or just want to gross out the people around you, use your finger and a dry washcloth and rub between and under your toes. Now - here's the gross part - take a whiff of the washcloth. Pretty funky, isn't it? If you can't stomach that smelly foot test, then let's just get down to business and make sure you have squeaky clean feet.

Bending down to scrub your feet in the shower can be awkward as well as dangerous in that slippery environment. You can clean feet and reduce the risk of falling in the tub by re-purposing a back scrub brush - you know, one of those brushes on a long handle. The stiffer the bristles on the brush, the better. The skin on your feet is pretty tough, so you'll want something that can really scrub hard to exfoliate all those dead skin cells.

First, put some liquid soap on the brush and scrub the tops and sides of your feet, one by one. Be sure to rinse your first foot before starting on the second one. Soapy feet mean slippery feet, which brings us back to being careful to avoid a fall. After you've cleaned the tops and sides of your feet, put the scrub brush in the bottom of the tub, bristle side up. Put a hand on the wall to maintain your balance, and use one foot to stand on the handle of the brush to keep it stable. Scrub the other foot on the brush. Rinse off your soapy foot, and switch foot positions to clean the other.

You aren't quite done cleaning your feet. Toes and toenails are places where bacteria love to hide in cracks and crevices. We'll use another common bathroom item to take care of those tricky spots - a toothbrush. This part is a bit trickier because of the falling risk. If you can't safely sit on the side of your tub to do this part, you may want to consider using a basin of water and sitting in a chair instead.

Choose a hard bristle toothbrush for this cleaning - soft bristles won't work as well at exfoliating the dead skin under your toes. Soap up the toothbrush, and scrub along the top of your toes to clean underneath the nail. Scrub between and under each toe, paying particular attention to any toes that curl over.

Now that you've accomplished the cleaning feet feat, be sure to dry your feet really well to prevent bacteria from multiplying and giving you smelly feet. Don't use the same towel you already used to dry your body - it's going to be too damp. A dry hand towel or even a dry washcloth will work fine. Once again, it's those tricky toes that will be the biggest problem, so be sure to run a dry towel between and underneath each toe to get any moisture trying to hide out in the folds and crevices under your toes.

So, now that you know the tools and techniques to get super clean feet, I have a question for you. Did reading this article make your feet itchy? Isn't that weird? Lucky for you, you know now all you need to know about cleaning feet!