Organizing Tricky Items: Shoes
Shoes are a tricky item to organize because they are bulky, oddly-shaped, and you need to use them all of the time. And in a household with multiple people, each person needs their own. Most people I know struggle to organize their shoes in one way or another, so today we are tackling them as our tricky item. Let’s get to organizing those shoes!
Ground Rules For Organizing Shoes
1. Define what about shoes is important to you.
How important are shoes to you? Do they need to be taken off at the door, or do you wear them through your house? Do you need to sit down to put your shoes on?
These constraints are all very unique to you. Think them through and consider them in your planning. For example: If shoes are NOT important to you, then you should declutter more. If shoes ARE important to you, then it may be be worth making space for them in your house… Declutter something else to make room for storing this thing that matters to you.
2. Declutter your shoes.
Given how bulky shoes are and how often people are likely to acquire new shoes, it is extremely important that you stay on top of decluttering your shoes! 95% of the time, if someone tells me they need help organizing their shoes, my first recommendation is to declutter. Most people have more shoes that they need. Be honest with yourself… Just because that was your favorite shoe a couple years ago doesn’t mean that it still is. Better to donate it and give it a second life with someone who needs it!
3. Separate out shoes with special uses.
If you have a very specific type of shoe for activities that you don’t do frequently, then take those completely out of the picture by storing them with other items for that activity, not with your regular shoes. Some examples include:
- Hiking boots with the hiking backpack
- Golf shoes with the golf bag, gloves, etc.
- Ski boots with the skis
- Pool sandals with pool bag
Maybe it makes sense to leave one spot for seasonal shoes that you rotate with each season… The main point here is that you shouldn’t give up prime shoe real estate to shoes that you don’t use often.
4. Sort your shoes by frequency of wear.
Once you’re down to your core set of shoes, sort them according to how often you’re likely to wear them. Usually it makes sense to have one set of shoes that go by the door and the back-ups in your closet. You could have different storage locations depending on your space, but the main process should be relatively the same: the shoes you wear daily go by the door, and the other shoes go in those “back-up” locations.
It’s my opinion that the by-the-door shoe organization matters a lot more than the back-up shoe organization system, because that’s the area you use on the daily. You need to be able to navigate it quickly and easily. You need to remove barriers to getting your shoes back into their place right when you take them off each day. So if you only had 5 minutes and a $0 budget, I would simply recommend that you move some shoes out of your daily space and to the back-up space.
Once you have the shoes that you want to keep in the spaces where you want them, how do you contain? Let’s move on to my favorite storage solutions for organizing shoes…
My Favorite Storage Options for Organizing Shoes
Wooden Shoe Shelf: A classic option. Good for when you have open shelving situations.
Wire Shoe Shelf: For shoes, I actually like a shelf with holes in it so that the dirt doesn’t build up. Yes, it falls through the cracks onto other shoes, but I feel like that gets managed continuously rather than the dirt building up very quickly on the shelf.
Over-The-Door: Over the door is a great use of space. Just make sure your door has enough space to accommodate the hooks at the top of the door, and that the door can comfortably open and close with this on it. An over-the-door organizer like this would accommodate even more shoes, but you have to make sure you have the space for it.
Under-The-Bed: This was my go-to option when I was in college and in my small apartment days. I like that this Amazon option has other variations for larger shoes, and that it comes with a handle on each side, so it’s adoptable to however you want to fit it into your space.
Double Decker Shoe Stacker: What a great use of vertical space! You can use these to store one shoe on top of another, allowing you to fit way more pairs of shoes into the same space.
Clear Stackable Boxes: These are the highest-end option, perfect for a shoe connoisseur! They take up the most room and cost the most money, but they protect and display shoes beautifully.
Check out my “Organizing Tricky Items” series of posts here! What should I do next?
