Shoe Organization that REALLY Works!

Hi Friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

We had wonderful warm weather here in Indiana, but despite my best attempts to get outside and hang Christmas lights, it just didn't happen. Instead the hubs and I worked on a little project I CANNOT WAIT to show you! Let's just say I'm all organized and ready to start wrapping all those Christmas presents : )

Today is all about shoes! 

Unfortunately I'm not talking about the brand new Louboutin's I just got (yeah, right), I'm talking about the disaster our shoes became after we moved into the new house.

EEK! And this was on a good day! If you know me, you know this mess would NOT fly in my house! We've had the same hand-me-down shoe storage systems for years, and they just aren't cutting it anymore. 

Here's the problem:

1) Shelving for our shoes doesn't work. I have several around the house and the photo above is the way they all end up looking like. Everyone just throws their shoes on the floor in front of them or crams them all in a pile on the top shelf. You just can't expect boys to line up their tennies in a pretty fashion. (I'm learning to cope with that)

2) Nine times out of ten, shoes don't make it any further than the door they walk in. They all gather together in a pile until either someone trips and gets hurt or I get fed up enough to put all the shoes away myself.

As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, I recall my little sister breaking her ankle as a child by tripping over her own shoe. True story!

So here are my practical, real-life shoe storage solutions:

For the boy's closet in their bedroom I went with open-sided stackable crates. It takes up very little space and gives the boys easy access to their shoes. It may still be a pile of shoes, but at least it's a controlled pile of shoes. And for months now, they have been keeping their shoes up off the floor!

To help corral all the shoes that get kicked off right in front of the door, I use a simple woven basket. 

Everyone puts their shoes in the basket, and when it starts to overflow we take turns putting all the shoes away. The basket has handles, so it's easy to carry around the house. Again, still a pile of shoes, but they're concealed in a pretty basket so Mommy's happy. And the boys can still just walk in the door and flip their shoes off, so they're happy.

I also found a coat rack to keep right by the door and shoe basket. Nothing drives me nuts more than fifteen coats thrown on the backs of chairs and couches! This was the compromise between everyone walking across the house to the coat closet and throwing the coats wherever they land. 

Now onto my closet! I went with more plastic crates for our shoes, two for Jeremy and two for me. 

But there was a lot of wasted wall space above the stacked crates, so I installed four shelves to add more storage.

I make one exception for shoe shelving, and that is for boots. They don't fit well in the crates, but more importantly need to sit upright to stay nice! I've had pairs of boots get rips in them from being bent over.

Want to know how I keep my boots from falling over and bending?

I roll up old magazines and stuff them in the boots! No need to waste money on expensive boot forms!

On the top shelves I keep baskets to store purses, hats, etc. 

And this little basket comes in handy during laundry time. I don't know how my family manages to lose so many socks, but when a lone sock comes out of the dryer, I stick it in this basket. This makes it easy to pair up missing socks or throw them out if they've sat there for too long. 

And that's how we store ALL our shoes! It may not be magazine cover worthy, but it's what works for our family! Happy Mommy = Happy Family : )

How do you store your shoes? What's your best solution to keep kid's shoes organized?

Want to see more closet organization tips?

Hanging Closet Storage: Belts, Scarves, and Ties

Cork Board Necklace Organizer