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Shoe Organization

I dream of having a mudroom.  A big beautiful bead boarded out mudroom.  And in our next house, I will hopefully have more room than I currently do to make that happen.  But for now, the only place for shoes, coats, and backpacks is in our garage.  I shared how I organize our shoes a while ago when I did a post on garage organization.  That was working ok…but a little something made me decide to re-think things.  And that little something would be the new mini van.  Since I’m now a mini van mom (sad how easily that rolls off my tongue these days) the new ride is taking up more space in the garage than the old one leaving no space between it and the shoes.  Luckily the van beeps like crazy every time I park so I am able to avoid hitting the shoe rack, just not able to avoid the beeping van headache that often follows.

Plus having our shoes this close to the door always resulted in a messy pile of shoes just waiting to be tripped on.

Plus I bought the girls new summer flip flops.  And flip flops this cute just seemed to need a fun new home!  Plus let’s face it.  I was just in the mood to organize something.

I didn’t do anything major, but just a little rearranging made a huge difference!

Wa-la!  I bought one more shoe rack and moved all of the shoes from the front of the garage to the side under the racks we use to store garage tools, coats and backpacks.  As cute as the mudroom I’ve designed in my head?  No.  As practical as the mudroom I’ve designed in my head?  Definitely.

Do you love how our coats are mixed in with yard tools?  Ha!  Lovely I know.  If we were planning on staying in this house longer, I would have put in a new rack and separated things better, but I’m still holding out hope that we’ll find a house we love sometime in the near future and this set up works great in the meantime.  

I decided to bring down all of the girls shoes from their bedroom to free up more space in their closets. Most of mine and Kenny’s shoes are in our closet other than our “slip on quick and go shoes” (Uggs for three months out of the year and flip flops for the other nine)

 Speaking of flip flops, this fun little basket is a new home for ours!  So easy for the kids to grab and go AND easy for them to keep picked up and put away.

 All boots fit on the top shelf.  Want to see my secret for keeping boots standing up straight and tall?

Floppy boots bother me so I’ve always just stuffed a few paper towels in them!  When Jen posted on her shoe organization, she mentioned using magazines for her boots.  I loved that I wasn’t the only person bothered by floppy boots!  And magazines are another great solution! 
 Want to see my favorite part about my new little shoe system?

When the kids come home from school, the van door opens, kids step out, and immediately put their shoes away on the rack.  They empty backpacks and hang them along with their jackets.  The “after school mess” is taken care of before my kids even enter the house!

No shoes come in the house, no shoes in front of the door to trip on.  I had to snap these pictures so quick to catch Ellie in action!  Luckily she’s so used to me taking pictures of every mundane thing we do she didn’t even question why I was running around snapping pictures of her taking off her shoes from all angles.  All par for the course around here!  :)
Our Bougainvillea vine, while beautiful on the outside of our garage…

always creates a lovely mess for me on the inside of our garage.  I have to sweep the garage out at least every other week.  So worth it though.  I just love that vine!

 Then I bought a new rug that matches the one in my kitchen to complete my little project. 

Now that my shoes are out of the way it feels like the mini van was made for my garage!

See what I mean…rollin’ right off the tongue…

xoxo, Erin
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37 thoughts on “Shoe Organization

  1. Great post! It’s a little late to implement in this house, but once we move I’m going to try something like it. I’m glad you are enjoying your van.

    Thank you for the sweet comment about Meg. I am so enjoying her, but am sooooooo tired and ready to feel like me again.

  2. That is great! I had never thought about the boots not standing before! I had never really thought of having a “box”, like your teal one, for flip-flops. Good idea. I will have to see what I can do in our home! :)

    With only one child, I’m still resisting the mini-van. We’ll see… :{

    Cori at ILoveLucyJean

  3. I LOVE the box idea for the flip flops! We too use our garage for shoe storage and just bought new storage rack that is working great for us- it’s taller than our old one so it holds more shoes!! and I am the new owner of 3 pairs of boots from the after winter clearances- my first boot purchases ever so I’ll have to try your tricks for standing them up.

    Now, off to find a cute flip flop box…

  4. The minivan fits right in for sure (oh how I love my Odyssey!). I love the idea of the flip flops in a bin like they…hmmm. You did a great job and soon you’ll have a whole new place to organize :)

  5. GREAT idea! Our shoes are left everywhere. Now that its warm outside I can see the problem getting even worse. This post makes me want to go home and organize…NOW! ha.
    Looks GREAT! :)

  6. Love this post! I want a mudroom so badly or atleast a bigger laundry room. But sadly, no mudroom… and my laundry room is the smallest room in the house. It also happens to be the first room you walk into from the garage. This is a great solution to all my shoe/coat/bag problems… thanks for sharing:)

  7. Ha! You ARE a total mini van Mom now!

    And my guess is I’ll be begging to join the club as soon as this baby comes out. (Which can not come soon enough, you should see my ankles, NOT getting better.)

  8. Oh how I love your posts. I’m loving how you have your healthy snacks ready to pick up and eat whenever you want. I see carrots, peas, grapes and strawberries. Got any other ideas for staying skinny and eating healthy :)

  9. I have to say I just found your blog and can’t stop reading it! I love all of the pictures of your kids and the many projects you do as a family. I can only hope to have such a wonderful and loving family of my own someday, just as you have. So inspiring!

  10. ERIN!!!!!

    I was JUST talking about how badly I want a mudroom because we are not moving for at least 20 years (at least that’s what we say). Now that our kitchen makeover is complete, I am trying to figure out how to make the tiniest corner in my laundry room into a practical space for our school bags (my husband and I are both teachers), our shoes (or should I say HIS shoes….he leaves them all over the house!), and our jackets/scarves/purses (okay…MY jackets/scarves/purses).

    Speaking of husbands, is your husband as neat as you are? I try sooooo hard to maintain a state of order in my house, but then my one and a half year old and my husband destroy everything. It’s so frustrating. Any tips?

    Love your blog!

    Your faithful reader,
    Shannon in PA

  11. You have inspired me! Our shoe rack in our garage totally needs a makeover, and thanks to this post, I am motivated to do it. Thank you!!!

    And not to sound cheesy, but I seriously adore your blog! Love reading your posts.

  12. We are planning to build a farmhouse in a year or two, so we’ve been looking at house plans. #1 on my list? A BIG mudroom. Seriously. Right off the garage, with washer/dryer, room for everyone to have a cubby with coats, backpacks, shoe baskets. It is my absolute must have. Love this post. :)

  13. Where did you get those shoe racks?!! I’ve looked everywhere for flat ones like that (the tilted racks are rubbish for any shoes without a discernable heel…so trainers, converse, flats etc just slife off).

    BTW love the idea of stuffing the boots – I can’t stand floppies either, and bought a few of those boot stands…they cost too much and I just have too many boots though!

  14. The shoes outside on a rack must be an American thing because my cousin does the same thing too. I’m too afraid to do that where I live in fear of them being stolen. LOL.

  15. looks great! I wish we could do that here, but unfortunately the weather is SO bad here, and lots of dirt/rain/snow gets tracked into the garage, so the floor is filthy; no matter how often we clean it! We don’t have a mud room either (boooo!). I need to figure out a new shoe rack, because the one we have now doesn’t work too well.

    Just found your blog recently, love it!

  16. Shoe organization are needed to keep the shoes on their proper place. Because it is not good to see the shoes are scattered everywhere. The shoes have to have their proper shelves and location in our house.

  17. Hi again,
    Great post on organizing coats & shoes

    Just a quick question regarding coats – I notice they are hanging quite high up. How do your children reach them & does it put them off hanging them up?

    I love the pix of Ellie putting her shoes away:)

  18. I have a burning question: Have you found bugs in your shoes? Or how do keep creepy crawlers from living in your shoes! Great idea but I’d be afraid of what I’d discover (or squish) once I put my feet in my shoes!

  19. I just read this post because we too don’t have a dedicated mud room. We have some of our “weekend” shoes/flip flops in our garage too like you have here. Then our nicer shoes or boots are in our shoe and coat closet which is inside as soon as you enter the door from the garage. The one thing that I don’t like either are floppy boots. I’ve been using pool noodles to keep mine up. I basically bought 3 or 4 of them, cut them the length of the boots or shorter and inserted them in all my boots. It’s so easy to take out and put back in.

    1. That is such a great idea Debbie! Thank you! I need to do that for my boots. I’ve been using magazines but they don’t work as well as pool noodles would! xo

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