If you’re someone who loves to buy shoes of all kinds, you’re probably faced with the challenge of storing them properly. Almost everyone has several pairs of shoes in their home. Families especially have to deal with the shoe clutter. Over the years, you’ve probably collected a fair share of shoes which can be pretty hard to organize. If you leave your shoes unorganized, lying around the house, it will be tough for you to find a pair when you need them. Imagine being late for something, and you have to go through a pile of shoes to find the ones you need. However, organizing them doesn’t have to be complicated; here are some simple tips to help you manage your shoes smartly.
1. Ensure Cleanliness
If you have a “no shoes in the house” rule, you probably have to deal with a clutter of shoes in your entryway. Most of us, aka the millennial generation, are usually in a rush, and so, it’s probable that there are a lot of turned over, messy pairs of shoes on your entrance. Not only will this give your guests a bad impression, but it will also bring in a lot of dirt after you step inside from where the shoe clutter is. You can use rubberized boot trays and keep a bench over them to prevent tripping to ensure cleanliness. The bench also gives an organized look to your entryway and will provide you with a place to sit while taking your shoes off.
2. Maximize Space
To maximize closet space for your shoes, get a stackable shoe rack and place it at the bottom of your closet. You can also opt for a slanted organizer to make use of maximum space. Slanted shoe organizers can hold your heels and purses. To maximize shoe space, you need to develop an efficient shoe storage system that takes care of all your needs. For example, another way to make the most use of your closet space is to get hanging shoe pockets. Similar to a vertical organizer, hanging shoe pockets provide slots for your shoes to be kept in.
3. Improve Visibility
There are tons of hacks to store your shoes while ensuring maximum space is utilized but picture this; your shoes are neatly organized in stacks, yet you still can’t find the pair you need. To avoid this scenario, ensure that you keep the pairs you wear most visible. By keeping your everyday shoes in easy reach, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Use the open portion of your shelves for this purpose. Additionally, it’s a good idea to allocate a row to each member of your family so that there are no mix-ups.
4. Try A Vertical Setup
A hanging shoe organizer effectively helps arrange your shoes in your closet. This vertical setup saves a lot of space and also keeps each pair visible and easy to reach. You can either install a shared organizer in the coat closet or place one in each family members’ closet. There are a good number of slots present in these organizers and should hold good pairs. A good rule of thumb to organize well is to invoke the one-in and one-out rule, which dictates that before buying another pair to fill a slot, first ensure that you empty the space.
5. Don’t Clutter
No matter how many hacks you use to maximize space for your shoes, you also need to ensure that you declutter, throw away, or donate the pairs you don’t need anymore. Moreover, your stacked organizer should only hold the pairs for a specific season, while the others should be kept elsewhere. Out-of-season shoes can be stored in ventilated under-bed storage boxes or bags. The ventilator containers let your shoes breathe. Leather shoes especially shouldn’t be stored in air-tight containers or bags as this will damage their quality.
6. Opt For A Waterproof Shoe Rack
By placing a waterproof shoe rack near your home’s entrance, you’ll be able to ensure that there’s a space for dirty and wet shoes to be kept. If you use a combined space for clean and dirty shoes, not only will the clean pairs be mixed up and contaminated, but you’ll also have to deal with a ruined shoe rack. A waterproof stand, on the other hand, doesn’t get ruined and can be washed regularly.
Shoes are the most problematic among all the clothes and accessories we have to store in our homes. They take up a lot of space and often come in different shapes and sizes, making it difficult to stack them one on another. So to ensure you don’t end up with mismatched sneakers when going on your morning run in a hurry, you should take some time out to properly organize and store your shoes.
