Mission Cleanup: Let's Get Those Shoes Organized!

Now doesn't that look like an extremely clean, well organized stack of shoes? I love myself for thinking of this! It is a super easy DIY way of organizing all my shoes! Previously, my shoes were stacked in boxes one of top of the other in a shoe closet that had no light. The result was that I ended up forgetting about half of the shoes I had, because they were out of sight for way too long. I would wear the few shoes on top again and again because every time I went out dolled up all fancy there wasn't enough time to look through the boxes at the very bottom.

As soon as I graduated, the first part of Mission Cleanup (about which there shall be lots of blog entries in future) was organizing that shoe closet! I wanted the shoe closet at the entrance to only have shoes that mama, Abbie, and I wore casually; casual everyday outerwear. The fancy shoes, such as my heels, that had glitter and shine and were delicate, I wanted to remove and put in a place where we could all see them. That way, I was hoping we'd all be able to use the pretties!

Here's what this DIY takes:

A basic plastic table cover with a design of choice, depending on what kind of a display you want will be needed. I didn't go and buy this one, I had this from a previous birthday of mine and I decided to reuse it. So I cut off the white part which I did not need and used just the purple border. Luckily the mark-off between the two was just the perfect width for my shoe boxes!
It's just a DIY shoe organization .. go real cheap and find a good design of choice from Dollar Store if you like!

Next, I took one of the notepads I had and cut them out into rectangles. This is one of those magnetic note pads you can find anywhere for super cheap. Dollar store has them in various designs! Also, the tiny scrap aisle you see upon entering Target has this for really cheap too. A dollar will most likely be the price for this! Pick any design you like! I went with these funky espresso toned lines. You'll need some double-sided tape to stick these as well and a permanent marker to write on them!

Neat, isn't it? I'll tell you what these transparent boxes really are ... GRAPES & SPINACH! Yes! My mother has a habit of saving food containers she thinks might come in handy so these were in my house ready to be used. This is like reinventing boxes you'd otherwise throw out! I found they made the perfect shoe boxes; they had a breathable space, my shoes fit in snugly, and I could see through so I knew what was inside for convenience. If you buy groceries from Costco they sell their spinach in these boxes. Grapes too! Just make sure of one little thing: CLEAN THESE THOROUGHLY! We wash them with dish washing detergent in hot water and then dry them completely.

So, I got started. The colorful part of my cover had Happy Birthday written on it but since the shoe boxes would cover that section I wasn't worried! Place the cover wherever you want your shoe organization to be. Cut out the magnetic pad into large enough rectangles to write on and bring a permanent marker to begin writing!

I laid out all the boxes flat on the ground first so I could see which heels were inside and sort them according to favorites. Anddddddd it was now time to cover the nasty labels that said Baby Spinach and Seedless Grapes. I don't like peeling off the stickers because of the gooey mess that comes out from under it. Next I took the rectangles I had cut out for labels and began labeling them. This is where you get creative! ...

Anything you want to call your shoes to remind you of what is in the box .. write it out nice and big on the labels. I placed two labels per box, one on the top and one on the shorter side so that when stacked one on top of each other, I could read which one was where just from standing near it. Super easy!

Next and final step, stack them one on top of each other and you're done!

The plastic table cover beneath adds color and protects the carpet in my closet from getting dirty because of the used shoes. The labels let me know what all I have and where it is just by standing and looking at this display.

The result: I have been wearing more of these shoes than I used to because at least now I know where what is!

If you don't buy spinach and grapes that come in such packaging it is not even a problem! Just find shoe boxes from dollar store (cheap alert!) or use the boxes that the shoes originally come in! I've used two of the original boxes as well and they look just as neat! The labels do the job that the transparent boxes do so even if the boxes aren't transparent, no need to worry!

Clean. Functional. Organized. Pretty.

That is how I like it!

And of course cheap is the cherry on top!

- S. Ali