When I listen to the song “Can’t get enough” by American hip hop recording artist J. Cole, all I can think about are shoes. Those accessories in our wardrobes that we really can’t get enough of, spending hundreds of dollars to own trending shoes on the market. Shoes are acquired for different purposes either for special events, sports, or just to be in line with the latest fashion trends. However, shoes are really good at consuming valuable space in our closets when not stored properly. For some of us, our shoe situation gets to the point that we have to get rid of some to make room for others. But what if there’s a more economical way to store them and save space? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out.

In this post, we are going to show you the practical way to correctly store your shoes and save space in the process.

PREPARING TO STORE YOUR SHOES

The greatest part of storing your shoes is preparing to do so. You don't want to store the wrong pairs or stack up a dirty pile. So, you need to:

1. Take Inventory

Perhaps you don’t even know how many shoes you have. A lot of people go on an endless quest to obtain all the trending shoes on the market that they lose count of the shoes they already have. If you want to get it right from the start, it’s advisable to take inventory of your shoes. Figure out precisely how many you have and which are for what occasions. Classify your shoes according to their usage frequency and place the ones with the same purposes together. For example, you want to put all your beach shoes together and all your sneakers together so that when you are looking to wear one whether in a hurry or not, you can easily pull it out because you’ll know where you stored it. Taking inventory will allow you to get these issues sorted before you even begin to store.

2. Clean, Polish and Repair

Storing away dirty shoes makes no sense. When it’s time to use them, they’ll come with bacteria, smell awful and it’ll take a lot of work getting them to look nice again. Once you’re done cleaning your shoes, you should repair anyone with broken soles or other defects and then go to make the shoes shine. Polish according to each shoe’s color so that they not only look nice on their racks but also give you less job to do when you need to use them.

3. Organize With Your Closet Floor

It is easier to use your closet floor to sort out the shoes than it is to scatter them all over your bedroom floor. The latter option will create a greater mess that can suffocate you before you even get started. If you use your closet floor to sort shoes into categories, you will find that the job cut out for you looks easier to do. Group them in the closet and then pull each one out in turns to clean, polish and repair. Return to the categories when you are done making the shoe look nice before you figure out what your new storage would be.

HOW TO STORE YOUR SHOES TO SAVE STORAGE SPACE

Shoe Storage

Perhaps, your shoes are not even in your closet but are instead lying all around your house. It could be that they have even outgrown your closet. Either way, your major problem with your shoes is that they are taking too much space.

Below are space-saving ways to store shoes that will make your shoes easier to deal with and give you a decluttered wardrobe that you will certainly love as a result.

1. Sort Them Into Categories

This point deserves special mention. There is no use organizing your shoes at all if you are going to put them all randomly together. Group them into different categories by putting shoes of the same kind together. You can also group them according to their purpose or according to how frequently you use each one. You would want to easily access the shoes you use often as soon as you need them.

2. Keep Shoes Away From The Floor

Remember that we talked about using your closet floor for organizing your shoes. The thing is, that isn’t the only thing the closet floor is meant for. Once you set out to begin organizing your shoes, the first place you would want to place them is on the closet floor. But this is totally wrong. When you use the floor for storage, you’ll have to place the shoes on each other, and you’ll be unable to easily find the ones you need later on. If you must use the floor, line them up instead of heaping them up. This will both help you find them easily and help the shoes last longer.

3. Use Clear Boxes With Lids for Shoes

If you will go for the box option on our list, make sure that your shoe storage box has a lid. You can easily close them up and avoid throwing other things into the box, thereby ruining the shoes. With each shoe locked away in its own box, you will get a neater outcome. Make sure that you use a see-through box so that you know which shoe you are picking up when you want to use them.

3. Store Boots Upright

This one is a no-brainer. Boots and other high top sneakers consume a lot of space when lying on the floor horizontally. Since your goal is to find space-saving ways to store your shoes, a very important thing to keep in mind is to always store your boots, sneakers and hill shoes in upright positions.

 STORAGE IDEAS THAT CAN SAVE YOUR SPACE

Here are specific tools that can help you use less space while organizing your shoes.

Ø DIY Sandal Holders using Wire Hangers

Ø Store Sneakers in Shoe Baskets or Cubbles

Ø Shoe Bins are Great

Ø Place Shelves in the corner of your garage

Ø Place a Rolling Storage Box Under Your Bed

Ø Use an over-the-door hanging shoe rack

Ø  Use a bookcase

Ø Get a Copper Pipe Shoe Rack

Ø  Use Wooden Crates

Ø Use a Wooden Dowel Shoe Storage Rack

Ø Use Simple Freestanding Racks

Ø  Get a Shoe Ladder