How to Organize Your Shoes, According to Type

Shoes: either you can’t get enough of ‘em, or your obsession with them starts and stops with a pair of white sneakers. Whatever your sartorial predilections, here is a run down on how to organize all your shoes in your home, so they don’t end up in a massive pile in your entryway. 

Think of organizing your shoes into three zones: your everyday shoes, which are best stored on an open shoe rack in your entryway; your bulkier winter boots and rain boots, which are best stored on a heavy-duty rubber mat in your closet/mudroom; and finally, your remaining shoe collection (i.e. flats, heels, boots, sandals, and sneakers), which is best stored in your closet. 

Flats

Finally, flats are best stored in shoe cubbies or Over The Door Shoe Bag, where both options allow them the space to maintain their shape and not get crushed by other nearby boots/sneakers/platforms. 

Sneakers

When it comes to sneaker storage, I’m a big fan of the shoe cubby, which looks especially nice if you have a large sneaker collection to show off. Avoid any sealed storage here (such as storage bins), as sneakers really need to breathe to stay looking new. 

Boots

Forget those newfangled boot hangers or anything else that requires your boots to compete with space on your clothing racks. The best storage solution for boots is a simple shoe rack, which allows your boots to breathe and maintain their shape. Keep your ankle boots on the bottom and middle shelves, and the tallest boots on the top shelf of your shoe rack (for extra support, consider stuffing them with boot shapers). However, if you have a particularly precious pair of boots, keep them stored in their original shoe box, or store them in transparent boot box bins. 

Heels

Heels are always tricky, but you can’t go wrong with the simple yet mighty shoe rack here. If you have a larger collection and a bit more space, I’m a big proponent of repurposing the IKEA Billy Bookcase as a shoe shelf (it also comes in a smaller size for a smaller shoe collection). Again, this is a great, no-nonsense way to store your heels and show them off. 

Everyday Shoes

For everyday shoe storage, I strongly recommend keeping them on a shoe rack in your entryway, which prevents dirt from traveling further around the house. This one by Open Spaces does just the trick, and is so sleek and chic it makes even sad rubber flip flops look good. I like to keep no more than five pairs of shoes here at any given time, to avoid shoe overflow and unnecessary clutter.