I LOVE shoes. Proably too much. I have gotten better with my shoe additction over the years. Now that I am buying clothes for three kids, my time and need to buy shoes for myself has greatly dimisished. However, I still have a pretty vast collection of shoes. Not ashamed (ok maybe just a little). I am however admitting that I once had a shoe addiction problem. I have subsequently sold and given away shoes over the years. I once had over 300 pairs of shoes. I am under half that now. Don’t hate me. Just please understand  I had a shoe problem. Some of you can understand because you relate.

I now have the problem of storing shoes in small spaces. Ok, not that small, as I have a walk in closet. However, this method worked when I had even smaller closet spaces.

I had to get creative with my solutions. Especially when I moved from a larger home into a condo in Naples, FL. I found a solution that has stuck with me. I love it because it is truly a space saver. I can easily see all my shoes, and the cost of said storage is not expensive at all!

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I bought these cubby storage units. I purchased them at Target. Each cube measures 12″ high, by 12″ wide, by 11″ deep. The cube units are a variety of sizes. Some are 3 cubes by 3 cube, some are 1 cube by 3 cubes, and others are 2 cubes by 3 cubes. I was able to stack and drill them together. I also drilled them into the wall so that they wouldn’t fall over.  I wear a size 9 so they fit nicely within the cubes. For regular heels and ladies shoes I am able to store about 10-12 pairs within each cube. The limit for number of pairs of flip flops within a single cube is much higher. I like to put the shoes within color categories. I have cubes for black shoes, white shoes, cream shoes, pink shoes, brown shoes, navy shoes, multicolored shoes, and red shoes. For other types of shoes, I have cubes just for slippers, sneakers, water shoes, short boots, flip flops, and valuable shoes. For the valuable shoes I put them in shoe bags within their cube, as I want to protect them:

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For shoes that I purchased for a particular outfit or only use once or twice a year I put them in shoe bins. I also printed shoe labels on Avery label stickers for the outside of the boxes, so I can visibly see what is stored within each bin. I even stored the shoes from my wedding in one of these bins:

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Boots take up lots of space. I put mine on the floor. I line them up behind the door and in front of the shoe cubbies on the floor. In order to keep the boots in good shape they need boot forms. I had purchased some inflatable forms for about $12 a pair. I needed some more boot forms recently and found a much cheaper boot form solution. Pool noodles! They hold even better than the inflatable forms, as they don’t lose air. I cut single, standard size, pool noodles into four equal sections (I just used a cutting board and large kitchen knife). I was able to make 2 pairs of shoe forms per noodle (a total of 4 boot forms per noodle). They work great!

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I like keeping my shoes organized. Having them organized by colors in the cubes makes it easy to find what I need each morning. I also like to keep them stored nicely, so that I am taking care of them. I believe all of our belongings are blessings from God. Therefore, something as simple as storing shoes so they are well cared for, is taking care of the blessings God has provided.

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