{Ikea shoe storage unit. Sadly, not my home}
Having a large family and keeping a home organised requires a plan and consistent work. Today I thought I would share with you how I keep our shoes organised in our home. I am sure you are imagining that as a large family we have shelves and shelves of shoes stored around our home. Well, the cherubs don't, but I do! Haha! No, seriously, I think you will be surprised when I show you how I keep our shoe's under control.
We have nine people in our home and every person has about five or six pairs of shoes. Except me. I have a few more than that. Each child has a pair of school shoes, sports shoes, church shoes, thongs for the beach, sandals for summer and maybe one extra pair of canvas shoes or dress shoes. So that adds up to about 50-55 pairs of shoes. That is a lot of shoes.
I really dislike shoes scattered around our home and with so many children coming and going it is hard to get them to neatly place shoes on a shelf every day. There are just way too many shoes for that to happen and my children are more dump and run kind of kids. They are more into having fun and playing than keeping a house of order. I could teach them to neatly place their shoes some where but I think that would equal misery for them and for me. So I have come up with an easier plan to keep us all happy.
1. We have a shoe dump basket at the front door.
Our shoes storage basket is kept in the front entrance way of our home. This for me is not the ideal option as far as looks go but it is really helpful when it has been raining outside and I don't want my kids walking all the way through my house with wet shoes. We also don't wear shoes inside of our house so if anyone comes to visit they normally put their shoes in the basket as well. This basket normally get's emptied every Saturday morning. I announce it is time to collect your shoes and my children all come and take out their shoes and put them away in their room and we are ready to go again for the next week.
2. Storage box in bedroom.
Each child has a storage box for shoes in the cupboard in their bedroom. As my children are normally in too much of a rush to neatly place shoes together down on the floor or on a shelf I find a box works well for them. They can easily take off their shoes and drop {well, more throw them} shoes into the box in the cupboard and I find this is helpful in avoiding shoes getting lost. Also this limits the places where shoes are when we might be looking for some. They are either in the box in their room or at the front door. So much easier.
3. Book shelves.
With my shoe storage, Matt and I took some old book shelves we had and put them into our walk in wardrobe to store our shoes on. I like that I can easily see what shoes I want to wear and it keeps them in good condition as well. This also limits me to how many shoes I own and has helped me save money many times. Of course I am always trying to push my way onto Matt's shelves but so far I am doing alright at sticking to my own :)
4. Shoe storage box.
Most of my children wear their shoes until they can't be worn any more. Also because I limit the amount of shoes they have, there really are not that many shoes that are passed down to the next child. On the rare occasion that we do have some shoes that are in good condition or if somebody has given me a pair of shoes, I keep them in a shoe storage box out of the way until a child is the right size to wear them. I normally keep a shoe storage box up in the top cupboard of one of the kids bedrooms and currently we do not have one on the go so no picture of that one for you sorry!
There are many different ways to store shoes to help keep an organised home and it all depends on how many you have, what space you have available in your home, whether you want to keep them inside or outside and what type of look you want to go for. It really is a personal thing. Here are some other shoe storage ideas that I really liked that I found on Pinterest:
{source}
Hope that has inspired you with your shoe storage area.
What do you do in your home? Do you keep them inside or outside?
Love it,we store our shoes in exactly the same way.Our entry way basket gets emptied once a week too.
ReplyDeleteI love your system. I personally think if my mother stopped buying my kids new shoes all the time I wouldn't be as crazy as I am!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat an inspired woman you are Natasha :)
ReplyDeleteI don't have that problem at all. No family members buy my kids shoes. I guess I am lucky in that way!?!
We have the same system however my 7 children are still learning to take their shoes to their room....even my 18 year-old! HELP!!
ReplyDeleteIt is tough isn't it Nat. I talk about shoes when I am opening the front door. When we all come home together from somewhere for example I remind them to put there shoes away and just being consistent with it is the key. But, you need to pick your battles too. Some days shoes are not that important :)
ReplyDeleteWe use the box system too. I love the wooden crates on the wall image - fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWe use the box system for our kids as well - it works well most of the time. The kids have slowly learnt that it's their responsibility to put their own shoes back in their own boxes. The amount of time we used to waste looking for shoes is ridiculous. I like your book case idea as well.
ReplyDeleteWe have boxes at our house too with an box at the front door as well :) I'm not as disciplined at emptying it as you are but I like your Saturday morning routine so I might try to implement that! Love shoes but don't like the clutter either!
ReplyDeleteWe're actually planning, next week in fact (we've just moved) to buy the one you have in the top photo. It is perfect for our family (we will have 2, one isn't enough. Which is sad, there are only 4 of us).
ReplyDelete