How To Organize Your Shoes

If you are a woman, you probably have A LOT of shoes 😉 I know I did before organizing and decluttering my shoes. It seems every season there are new styles of shoes that every woman needs to buy to be on trend! When was the last time you really looked through all of your shoes? This post will show you exactly how to organize your shoes.

In college, I felt like I had to have boots in black and brown, and boots with heels or no heels. Then recently, ankle boots and hunter boots seem to be all the rage.

I like the KonMari method, but as far as clothes go I really like the idea of minimalism and the capsule closet/wardrobe. I will confess I am still working on the capsule wardrobe, but that is my ultimate closet goal.

Want to organize your clothing first? Check out my 5 part organizing series here → (How to organize your Tops (Part 1), Bottoms (Pt.2), Dresses (Pt.3), Undergarments (Pt.4), Season Specifics (Pt.5)).

Step 1

Get out all of your shoes including your slippers and flip flops. Be sure to get out shoes that are put away in your garage or car too. Once you have everything make sure to separate them into categories or types of shoes.

Some examples are heels, boots, flats, sandals, flip flops, running shoes, and slippers.

Step 2

After separating your shoes into categories, start holding each item and go through the keep checklist. This will help you determine what to keep. Make sure to separate them into the 4 different piles that I mention in How To Organize Your Tops which are KEEP, SELL, DONATE/RECYCLE, and TRASH.

*This post contains affiliate links. Which means when you make a purchase through a link on this post, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Think about how often you need to wear certain shoes. If you are a stay at home mom, you probably don’t need as many heels compared to women who work outside the home.

Do you want more details of the keep checklist? Part 1 of the How To Organize Your Clothes series goes more into detail.

Step 3

Now that you know which shoes you want to keep let’s put the shoes back in order. Depending on how may shoes you have you can pick the type of storage you will use. Here are some examples,

• Over the Door
• Under the bed
• Shoe rack for the floor
• Individual boxes
• Basket
• Shelves

Over the Door Shoe Rack

My husband personally uses an over the door shoe rack and it fits perfectly on the inside of his closet door. I love this because it’s out of sight unless you open the closet.

Under The Bed

When we lived in a small apartment with hardly any closet space, I used an under the bed shoe organizer to store my shoes. This is also a great solution for keeping them hidden.

Shoe Rack

This might be the most common way to store shoes from what I have seen personally. Shoe racks can be put on the floor in the coat closet or your closet for easy storage and access.

Individual Boxes

If you buy individual boxes, this could get a little pricey depending on how many shoes you have, but they do look really nice and organized. Clear ones look really good because you can see which shoes are in there, but I’ve also seen where people stick the picture of the shoes on the outside of the box if you aren’t able to see inside.

Another idea is to store shoes that are similar in a bigger box. When I was still working full-time I wore a lot of flats, so I kept my flats in one box and stored them under the bed.

Basket

Currently this is what I do. Because I don’t have a lot of shoes now I use a basket to store all of my shoes.

Shelving On The Wall or Book Shelf

Do you have beautiful shoes that you want to include as decor? I’ve seen people put their beautiful heels on the book shelf to show case as a decor piece. I also love the polished look of the shoes lines up on a shelf that is hanging from the wall.

Personal Inventory

When I first organized and decluttered my shoes I still had shoes I wore back in middle school. My shoe size hadn’t changed so I never got rid of any shoes because of the guilt of wasting money or the thought of maybe needing them in the future. I got down to it and this is what I have now

• Rain boots (1)
• Running Shoes (1)
• High heels (3)
• Ankle boots (1)
• Flats (2)
• Sandals (2)

6 pairs of boots, 10+ pairs of flats, about 8 pairs of heels, several tennis shoes, and a pile of different colored flip flops are what I got rid of. Some of the newer shoes I was able to sell at a consignment store, but most of them I donated.

Capsule Wardrobe Tip

Black, brown, and silver are my go to colors for shoes because you can pretty much match these colors with whatever color you are wearing.

Final Thoughts

If shoes are something you truly love and enjoy wearing, don’t feel like you have to keep just the basics. Just make sure you are keeping only the ones you truly love and wear!

How many shoes do you own? Do you like to store them in a different way?