Kids Shoes Everywhere!

Have you thought about a hanging sweater bag? The Container Store has a great one http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?search....

I bought one to organize my husband's multitudes of t-shirts.

I have the same problem, and to help with it we keep a basket by the door, but I would prefer cubbies... we don't have the space though. Shoes that aren't worn on a regular basis have to be kept in that person's closet OR in the garage... only the often worn shoes get tossed in the basket. For little one's shoes, I use a small mesh laundry bag, like you would use to watch delicates in, and hook it near the door so it hangs... this is easy for me because my laundry room is near the door we leave through, so I hook mine onto the utility sink... that keeps all he tiny baby and toddler sized shoes out of the basket and much easier to find.

We got sick of shoes too! So I went to IKEA and got one of those shoe organizers that hangs on a rod. We hung it in the hall closet.

Since my stepdaughter has small shoes, hers get tossed in a plastic bin.

We make time each night to take our shoes (usually sitting on the mat by the front door) and put them away—either in the plastic bin or a shoe organizer. By putting it in our evening routine we keep the front door from being cluttered. Doing it before bed gives our shoes time to dry off if they were wet.

I have a basket with a lid near the front door - they all get tossed in there...works great for us.

I put a 3 tier shoe organizer (wire baskets) in the hall closet. Top tier for the kid with most shoes, middle tier for other kid, bottom tier for grown up shoes. They are only allowed to have ONE pair of shoes out at a time, the others have to be in these baskets. Works well.

I have a diaper box at the door and all their shoes go in there

If by any chance you have any shoes your kids will outgrow you can contact me and I will take them off your hands. I send shoes and clothes to the orphanage in Eastern Europe, kids there need anything they can get. Good luck and thanks.

Use a rubermaid box the long ones with the 5 inch walls. slide it under the bed.(with or without the lid..no wheels nessecary, it slides fine on carpet or wood floor) It worked great for my boys who share a room and have no storrage room. I'd concider a pocket storrage that straps on the back of the door, but they would need help to get some down. best wishes!!!

Get a rack to hang on the back of the bedroom door. Keep them in shoe rack in the bathroom linen closet or the mudroom/laundry room if you have one. Get a under the bed storage bin and slide them under the bed in that. I keep my girls shoes in a shoe cubicle in the closet for one child and in the bottom drawer of her dresser for the other child.

Finally, you might consider getting rid of so many shoes for children. Stick to the basics....

Play shoes...either a pair of tennis or crocs
Nice tennis to wear out
One pair of sandals
Two pair of dress shoes in black and white if she wears dresses
a pair of flip flops for the pool or beach

They really don't need so many pairs of shoes and probably not something you want to teach a young lady anyway because it can really get out of hand. I know ladies clothes are so varied that you really do need to own lots of shoes to go with everything, but you don't need a single pair for every outfit. Try to get neutral shoes that will go with lots of things.

Simplify! One pair of play shoes, one for church (if you go) one pair of sandals and one pair of pool shoes (if the sandals aren't pool appropriate) Most of us are drowning in our abundance, and keep way too much stuff. (myself included!) Now is a great time to begin modeling good stewardship to your kids, and showing them that we can be happy and content without tons of stuff (like shoes!)

Ok, I'm sure I'm the ONLY one who does this, but hey, it works for us ... Each of my 3 kids has a plastic milk crate (you could use any type of open-top storage container) that all of their shoes go in, which works well so far because the oldest is still in only a toddler-size shoe, so we can still fit a lot of their shoes in each crate. Here's the undoubtedly unusual part: I don't like putting a bunch of dirty shoes together, so each pair of shoes goes into a ziploc-type of plastic bag before being placed in the crate, which also helps keep them together in pairs. DON'T SEAL THE BAGS THOUGH BECAUSE THEN MOLD WILL GROW IF ANY SHOES ARE WET/DAMP! During the winter, we leave boots on a boot tray by the door.

Do you have space under a bed or dresser? We use a clear, medium sized sterilite/tote and slide it under her dresser. All her shoes are size 6 or 7 and fit for now. My son uses a shallow container from ikea, which is actually from his toy storage shelf. His are bigger, so they either lay flat and stack or sometimes he props them up on their toes around the edges. Daily shoes are left on a rug by the front door.
We also have several pairs of shoes, some given from a friend for dd, so I try to only put out what fits. If I buy shoes I try to get neutral stuff.
So, all her shoes fit in the one container, slippers, sandals, dress, and casual.
You could always try an over the door organizer, they have some that are more like pockets that accomodate things other thans shoes, so it would be handy to use the top for diapers, books, socks, hair stuff, etc.

Now, does anyone have any ideas on how to get your kids to actually put the shoes into the container? : )

Hi there...

We are a family of 5, so I know all too well about shoes getting in the way! We have a narrow hallway right as you enter the door from the garage to the house and so I went to Home Goods (Marshalls or TJ Maxx may have them also) and I purchased same-size coordinating woven baskets that came with removable liners (so that it would keep the dirt from the shoes from falling through to the floor---AND so that I could remove the liners and clean them) and I lined them up on the wall and assigned a basket to each family member. It has worked GREAT! The baskets are for their "every day" shoes. They are easy to access and it is easy for the kids to find their shoes, and to toss their shoes into them. I have taught them that if their shoes happen to be wet or particularly dirty that they lay them on the rug instead of putting them into their basket. For their church shoes, I have a shoe organizer in the coat closet that we put those into so that they stay nice. Best of wishes to you.

I have a rolling cart in my laundry room. My laundry room is long and narrow and I'm constantly tripping over shoes and backpacks. I hung hooks for the backpacks, but they are too heavy to hang up.

The cart is nothing fancy, I got it at a garage sale. It's multicolored, plastic and has 3 shelves. The shoes come off when they come in the door and they put them on the cart. My oldest has big feet, so the cart has been very helpful keeping those shoes out of my way!

Maybe it's because I have boys, but we don't have that many shoes. They have gym shoes, sandals, snow boots and dress shoes. The dress shoes stay in a box on the shelf in their closet and they take them down when they need them. The snow boots are out in the garage on a shelf, so they just have sandals and gym shoes on the floor of their closet.

One of my friends has a really long shelving unit from the container store in her garage and it has bins in it and that's where the kids keep their shoes! She has 5 kids, so it works well for her.

M.

Although some people would cringe at the idea, we keep the kids shoes down on the main level out in the open. They would never get put away if they were kept in their rooms.

Each child has an open bin against the wall under the wall mounted coat rack. Lots of room, easy to toss in. Hang up your coat, kick off your shoes, done.

You could always pretty up the bins to match the decor.

All of my kids have the cube shelves that they sell at Target. (Don't know where else they sell them.) It's just a bunch of cubby holes and then you buy the colored fabric "boxes" to put in each cubby. They have so many different colors that you can color-code them if you want, or just match the room that it's in. My kids have them inside their closets, but they look so nice that you can put them anywhere -- by the front door, in the basement, wherever. Good luck!

Hi!!
You said your closets were really small thats our problem as well I bought some of those fabric shoe holders they hang on the closet door and they have a bunch of pockets on them for shoes. I would think that would work. I also used those things in my bathroom for all my toiletries when we lived in an Apartment and the bathroom was tiny. I bought them at Target for I think about 10 20 dollars.
I hope that helps!! and good luck

The first step is to weed through the shoes! I found that we were wasting a lot of money on the "cute" shoes because she was outgrowing them and they were just cluttering up the floor.

My school aged daughter has the minimally necessary shoes-

snow boots
dress shoes
sneakers
gym shoes (that stay at school)

and in the summer flip-flops

We put the "off season" shoes in a hanging shoe rack in her closet (it's slim and hangs from the rod) but have also used a milk-crate by the door to toss them into (we use this now for the adult shoes) Shelves are good too- low shelves in the garage/mudroom, or by the door with a bench maybe? Or one of those slim rolling shelves like you use for laundry items between the machines would also fit into a small space.

Shoes do seem to multiply. We have a table near the front door that has a bottom shelf on it, when My Daughter (4 1/2) comes home from school she put her shoes on the bottom shelf, or under the table, so she has 2 rows to put her shoes. However since she has so many, dress shoes stay in the closet as do seasonal.
Mine stay in the fronhall closet on shelves.

I'm a big fan of woven baskets to collect the clutter. We have one by our front door that catches mittens, hats and scarves. Even though we hung a hook in my son's closet for his coat, we can often find it in the basket as well -- better than the floor, I guess.

For shoes, what about a square basket that slides under the bed? Something that is open on top so you can reach in easily and throw shoes in even easier. A basket on the closet floor might work too - either round or square that slides under clothes. You'll have to spend a minute searching in the basket for a shoe's mate, but at least you'll know it's most likely in the basket.

You can toss in a fabric sheet to keep it smelling fresh. And, I would recommend a basket woven on a wire frame for durability. Good luck.

The Container Store has a lot of great storage ideas, too. Even if you don't buy their products, you can see how other people deal with different storage issues.

I keep a "boot tray" near the back door where the current shoes go - in the winter, their tennis shoes and winter boots. Everything else goes in an open rectangular basket from Ikea which sits in their bedroom near the closet.

I have a basket by the door and a pair or two a person go in those. It helps.

I actually had the same problem. I'm not big on shoes with my daughter, she's only 14 months, but everyone kept giving them to us and now there's too many to just have a pile. I went to Walmart, you can also find at toys r us or kmart or target, anywhere really. I bought a cloth box that folds flat when not in use. They have tons of colors to choose from, different sizes, and if you look in the children's areas you can even find them with characters like Tinker Bell and Cars, etc. The two I bought are just plain red and a pretty good size. She has atleast 15 pairs of shoes and it doesn't even take up 1/4 of the bin. It also only cost me $5. If you do get a fancier one it's a little bit more, but the price is wonderful for the million uses for them. We use the one for her shoes and the other one for toys. I'm actually planning on getting a few more for the car and other things around the house. They are extremely handy and fit in a corner. Good luck.

I have the same problem--I tried a basket and now I have the shoe cubbies from target/walmart. I put it by the front door so the kids can put their shoes in it when they walk in. I thought it would not look good but I kind of hid it behind the door and it works-the only problem is the kids still dont put their shoes away but at least if company is coming over it looks good--

I have 3 kids and shoes everywhere was driving me crazy too. Last year I got each child a plastic container (the big 20 quart ones) to keep all their shoes in. The 20 quart ones are big enough for all my kids shoes and can fit nice and neat in a row under the front foyer desk/cubbie. The girls can fit 6-8 pairs of shoes in theirs and my son can fit 3-5 pairs in his. It worked for us, I only had to remind the kids a couple times that their shoes belonged in the containers:)