Shoes, Shoes Everywhere

Nine people (6 of which are girls, ahem)...that makes 18 feet.  1 shoe per foot x 3 (at a minimum) pairs of shoes per person makes... A LOT of shoes.

Over the years I have struggled with that.  The level of neatness in the shoe department that I have tried to maintain has been determined by the door that was the most used as the in-and-out door and where that door was located.

Currently our most used door is the back door because that is the one that leads to the area where most of the cars are parked.  That means that rain/snow or shine, all shoes get dumped in the back hallway.  We must walk through this hallway to get outside as well as to get downstairs.  I cannot tolerate tripping over shoes so I needed to find a suitable solution.

Since we rent, something permanent (which is my dream solution) is not feasible.  I would absolutely LOVE to have something like this in my house.

photo from houzz.com

  But, since that isn't an option here, I went with one of these nine-bin storage units that I found at Target.  I was so excited to find one with nine slots!  

This works great for our family as it holds a lot of shoes, looks pretty decent (I mean, as decent as a shoe rack can look) and allows my hubby a place to come in and put his "stuff" on (which is better than on a counter in the kitchen, or the shelf in the schoolroom, or the top of the fridge...well, you get the idea!).

The only time it doesn't work well is when people are in a rush; and then this is what it looks like (this is an actual photo.  Not one shoe was staged for this photo op):

At least it is easy to clean up.  

I've also seen these types of shelving units in other sizes so if you don't have as many feet as we do you can buy on a smaller scale.

Of course, this doesn't eliminate the off-season shoes that are shoved stored in other closets, but sometimes "out of sight out of mind" works for me.

Having shoes organized is an important thing because it makes running out of the house when you are late to yet another event/appointment that much speedier.  I have to say it has definitely lessened the "lost shoe" syndrome that inevitably happens when you're pressed for time.  

So, how do you deal with your shoes??

God Bless!
 In case you'd like to see all the posts in this series, you can go here.