Sometimes, a shoe rack just won’t do. Whether you just have more shoes than your standard rack can accommodate, want to keep your shoes using a more aesthetically pleasing and practical method, or want to take better care of your footwear, this list is for you. We’ve put together five creative storage ideas to help you declutter your living space and organize your shoe collection. Keep reading for five shoe storage solutions that will help you reorganize and rearrange your footwear collection in the way that best suits your space and your needs.
Get The Most Out Of Your Drawers
Drawers are a great way to store shoes, but more often than not, shoes end up a jumbled mess that is tucked away out of sight in drawers. Spare your future self the headache of having to dig through the clutter by installing slim rods across the width of your shoe storage drawer. These rods elevate your shoes, allowing you to take full advantage of the vertical space in the drawer, and enables you to get the most storage space possible per drawer. Furthermore, elevating your shoes spares them the damage caused by constantly being smooshed and scuffed against one another while in storage.
Store Your Shoes In Plain Sight
A pile of shoes out in the open is clutter, but if you take that pile of shoes, organize it into uniform boxes, and store those boxes in neat little rows, that clutter becomes sleek and stylish. Shoes don’t have to be hidden away in a secret box under the bed, you can store your shoes in decorative storage boxes on a designated open air shelving unit. The boxes allow you to hide your shoes in plain sight, and, as opposed to a standard shoe rack, keep dust off your shoes while they are in storage. Make sure the boxes you choose allow the shoes to “breathe” in order to prevent nasty smells and the eventual deterioration of the materials of the shoe over time. This extends the life of your shoes and ensures that they will be in the same condition next time you want to wear them.
Take Advantage Of Unused Closet Space
For many people, the lower half of the closet is dead space. The closet floor is often used to store shoes, but the vertical space between the floor and your hanging clothes has immense storage potential. Store your shoes vertically with the help of a few shelves installed across the length of your closet from the floor up. These can be ordered custom made, but are also incredibly simple to DIY if you’re so inclined. To take full advantage of the shelves’ storage space, use shallow boxes to organize your shoes by season and swap out winter/summer/spring/fall as necessary.
Entryway Shoe Storage
Entryways are another space that is oftentimes overlooked when it comes to storage. But what better place to store your shoes than right in the entryway? No dragging in outside messes indoors, and no searching for your slippers when you get home. It’s easy to start an entryway shoe storage space with a just a storage bench, and add to it as necessary. Store your frequently-worn shoes in the built-in drawers or shelves, and switch out the rotation when the seasons change. You can expand on this storage space with a set of hooks for scarves and hats, a mirror for a quick hair check as you head out the door, and a coat rack to keep everything from coats to purses ready to grab and go.
DIY Shoe Storage With Crates
One of the easiest (and cheapest!) shoe storage ideas to DIY is the wooden crate shoe rack. As opposed to store bought shoe storage racks, wooden crate storage is modular by design, and can be expanded as necessary. Crate racks are great as wall-mounted pieces, as shown here, or as a freestanding piece. As a DIY project, you can customize it to suit your exact shoe storage needs: higher compartments for tall boots, small cubbies for dainty heels, or uniform shelves for sneakers.
