Organizing Your Shoes

Our closet has been driving me nuts. During our move, it had been a repository for miscellaneous things that didn't have a home yet. But my shoes were the things that were creating the biggest part of the mess! I got rid of items that didn't belong in this closet and moved on to my shoes.

In our previous closet, we had long shelves that held my shoes - they were all accessible all the time. Our current closet has a shoe rack at the bottom of the hanging clothes, but it doesn't come close to handling my shoes! I don't consider the number of my shoes to be excessive, but with winter boots, athletic shoes, summer shoes, winter shoes, and slippers, it adds up!

I decided to get a bunch of clear shoe boxes ($.94 at Walmart!). If I could get two pairs of shoes in one box, so much the better. I stored like colors together, like seasons together. Even though the boxes are clear, I plan to label the boxes, as dark shoes are not always recognizable.

This allows me to stack two boxes on each of the two shelves above my hanging clothes. Shoes that I wear a few times a year for special occasions are on the top shelf - less reachable since I don't need them often. My out of season shoes are reachable on the shelf just above my clothes - in case the weather changes suddenly. And my in-season shoes are on the shoe rack below my clothes, easily accessible.

To be more ecologically sensitive, I'll start keeping my shoe boxes when I buy new shoes. They usually have the picture of the shoe on the end, eliminating the need to label the boxes.

We all have different closets and different needs, but the same principles apply:
- get rid of anything you don't need
- keep those shoes you use often most easily accessible
- store other shoes according to your need to access them (less used, farthest away, etc.).

How wonderful to be able to navigate my closet without tripping over my shoes! I'm sure my husband appreciates it, too. :) While there, I organized the rest of the closet using the principles above. It only took about an hour total!

How do you organize your shoes?


More on closets:
Get Organized Month - Organize Your Shoes
Get Oranized Month 2009 - Organizing Your Clothes Closet
Swapping Out and Purging Your Seasonal Clothes