Shoe Storage Ideas To Help Declutter Your Home

The mudroom is already a dedicated space for removing wet clothing, coats, and weather boots before entering the rest of the house. Therefore, it only makes sense to have a dedicated space there for your shoes. If you're lucky enough to have a separate entrance area with a bench, why not add some shelves? Tall boots might need a separate spot, but most of your footwear should fit snugly below the seat.

If you want to make use of that space below your bench but don't want extra footwear visible at all, you can always add some drawers to keep the space looking spick and span regardless of the season or number of residents. Just make sure to have a spot for wet shoes to dry before you tuck them away, or you could be dealing with musty smells, damaged shoes, and rotting wood.

Most people have a few hooks on the wall for coats and bags, but why not add some more for your shoes? The biggest thing to keep in mind with this shoe storage method is the scuffing your wall may endure. You can add some removable wallpaper or tile to the space below the hooks to protect the paint, or hang them under cabinets so they don't touch the wall at all.

If a few under-bench shelves aren't enough for your family's huge collection of footwear, why not invest in or build a cubby? Rather than the common modular style available today with foot-wide or wider shelves, opt for something with narrower spaces just wide enough to hold a pair of shoes. Label cubbies for different people or seasons, and use unused nooks for storing winter gear or reuseable shopping bags.

Stairs exist in almost every home, but we often don't make good use of the space they take up. Building cupboards or drawers under the stairs can give you tons of extra storage space for everything from linens, to winter clothes, to extra footwear.

Another space that is often under-utilized is beneath the bed. This is a great spot for items you don't need all the time, but also don't want to dig out of the back of the closet when you do. There are many under-bed shoe storage containers available, or you can build your own by attaching small wheels to a piece of wood. Add a raised edge to keep dirt from falling to the floor, and you have an easy-to-access and well-hidden shoe storage device.

Hanging shoe organizers usually come with a couple dozen pockets to hold your shoes. Not only does this vertical option provide an excellent way to keep a lot of pairs out from underfoot and hidden away, it also takes up minimal space, and you can install one on the back of every bedroom door if need be. If you run out of shoes before you run out of pockets, fill them with scarves, slippers, or shoe polish and weather protectant.

If you have empty space to fill and lots of shoes to store, you could always take a page out of the retailer's handbook and build or buy yourself a rotating shoe rack. It doesn't have to be huge. A rack just wide enough for a single pair of shoes all the way around works great, or you can find one that holds the shoes toe-down so they take up even less space. One great thing about this option is that you can see all your footwear with a quick spin.

Shoe stackers are ingenious little devices that let you stack your shoes without dirtying the ones below. They look like wedges with two sections, and if you're pressed for floor space, they're a great option for stacking your shoes up the wall without an often unstable freestanding shoe rack.

Whether you repurpose an existing cabinet or build or bring one in specifically for this purpose, a shoe cabinet is another way to hide footwear clutter and store plenty of pairs. It also has the added bonus of a countertop where you can store other items or get your bag packed up for the day. For an extra savvy alternative, equip your shoe cabinet with doors that pull out at an angle and hold shoes in a custom-sized vertical drawer.