The home approach is usually a wet cloth, a magic eraser, and a YouTube tutorial. It works on surface dirt and struggles with everything else — midsole oxidation that's chemical not surface, foam yellowing that comes back unless treated with peroxide, deodorizing the insole instead of masking it, and the different cleaner chemistry that mesh, knit, leather, and suede each need on a single shoe.
Throwing them in a washing machine is worse. The cushioning compresses, glue lines loosen, and the spin warps the sole — machine-washed pairs often look cleaner for a week, then fail at the seam by month three. We work material zone by material zone with different brushes, cleaners, and drying methods. It's slower than one all-purpose method, and that's the point.