Shoe Storage Hacks for Shoeaholics

Most women – and a lot of men! – are shoe fanatics. Their closets are filled with footwear of all kinds and styles, such as sandals, sneakers and boots. This love of shoes is a great problem to have… that is, until you start considering storage. No matter how large your shoe collection is, it can quickly make your home feel cluttered. Save space with these shoe-friendly storage hacks.

Utilize your wall space.

You might be looking at your small closet and thinking, “I have absolutely no room for all of my shoes in here…” – and you may be right. But think outside the closet! Anna Bassham says you don’t need to invest in expensive shelving units or shoe organizers. “Take a look around at the things you already have,” Bassham says. “Get ready to maximize your storage space while adding some character to your home.”

Do you have any wall space outside your closet, maybe in your bedroom, which could be used to display and organize your shoes? Perhaps there’s even a section of drywall in your garage that you could paint a bold color and use. One idea is to hang high heels on crown molding along your walls in one long row or in multiple rows. “Just 30 inches of molding can hold at least four pairs of shoes,” Bassham suggests. You can also screw quart-sized paint cans into the wall to store smaller shoes, such as flip-flops or flats. Utilizing some of your empty wall space is a great way to find some storage space for your footwear.

File them away.

Having a ton of shoes in boxes of all shapes and sizes can make a closet look extremely unorganized. If you’re going to keep shoes in your bedroom closet, file them away in boxes on shelves for a uniform look. Lara Sargent says this is a tried and tested method of bringing peace and harmony to a pile of unruly footwear. “Either use the box the shoes came in or splurge on matching, uniform boxes for an enhanced sense of file-it-away efficiency in a system where no dust or dirt can ruin your precious purchases,” Sargent recommends.

To take organization a step further, take a photo of the shoes and tape it to the outside of the box so you know what shoes are in it. This ensures you don’t have to search through all the boxes to find the specific pair you’re looking for – and creating more of a mess in the process! If taking pictures is too much work or too time-consuming, you could always just store your shoes in matching, clear acrylic boxes. That way they are still protected from dust and dirt, and you are able to clearly see the contents of what’s in each box.

shoe storage

Hang your footwear.

If you’re one of the lucky few that has some extra room in your closet, utilize that space and hang your footwear. Do you happen to have a growing pile of old wire hangers that you don’t know what to do with? Use them to hang your shoes! Follow this tutorial to twist the wire hanger into a shoe hanger. If you wear boots, you know that the best way to keep them in shape is to stand them up. However, if you have a large collection of boots, they can quickly start taking up valuable floor space in your closet. Vanessa Beaty suggests hanging them with skirt hangers to get them off your floor and to create a more organized closet space. “The hangers have clips which are perfect for holding boots,” Beaty says. “Just clip a boot onto each clip and then hang those boots on your closet rod or you can hang a tension rod closer to the floor to hold the boots.” By using some of the vertical space, you can create a more-streamlined look in your closet.

As your shoe collection increases, it’s quite easy to let them overtake your home and create a cluttered chaos. But if you utilize some of these creative storage hacks, or a well-organized storage unit for larger collections, you can maintain an organized shoe collection – with room to grow!

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