How To Store Your Shoes: Creative Budget Ideas

January 06, 2025

When you have a limited space and budget, it can be difficult to find storage for your shoes. Although, it isn't as hard as it seems, there are little nooks and crannies around your home that can be utilised effectively for shoe storage as well as some commonly available items that can help you out. Don’t forget to check out our selection of womens shoes today.

How To Design Shoe Storage

If you do not have a lot of space in your home or flat, you'll know that you need to use this space carefully. The best solution for a small space is to find 'hidden' spaces in your apartment.

Since toddlers' shoes are so small, they are super easy to find storage for. If you have a drawer that is free, you can put them in there. Or, if you can put a rail up anywhere in the house, a little like a certain pole, and hang the little ones shoes on to it using hooks or curtain circles. This is easy with toddler's shoes because most of them will have little hooks on the back. Hook the ribbon on the shoes onto the curtain hooks and that's that!

It can be hard to make sure boots keep their shape, a way to do this, is to cut pool noodles (the type you might use for aqua aerobics) down to the size of your boots and place the pool noodle into the boot. For storage, boots can fit into secret cupboards, drawers or under your bed.

The bedroom is a great place for finding hidden spaces. You have your bed with space underneath, and usually plenty of drawers. These spaces can all help your shoes stay hidden, but don't be afraid to store your shoes where people can see, a little shoe decorating won't do any harm.

With a small entryway, try lifting the shoes off of the floor, try adding a shoe rack or some shelves. You can get hold of recycling pouches from ikea that hang on a wall and are relatively small, but can fit several pairs of shoes in. This method of storage also looks neat and tidy.

If you have a garage, there are lots of different things you can do, form shelves to racks to bins. This also applies to the hallway, you could even add a seat that doubles as storage.

How To Make Shoe Storage

When you're keeping to a budget, it's great to utilise everyday items as storage solutions. Here are a few ideas you can try out for your shoes.

Do you enjoy a nice glass of wine? We certainly do from time to time. When you've finished entertaining, you'll find that wine crates stacked on top of each other are great for shoes. You can fit several pairs of shoes in each compartment.

Perhaps you don't own any PVC pipe offcuts, but you might be able to acquire some for a fairly low price. PVC Pipe shoe racks are super easy to make and can look good whilst also being useful. You can glue or screw these together or just stack them, although, if you just stack them be prepared for them to roll over at one point or another.

Old ladders shouldn't be discarded, they can be used for shoe storage in two ways. The first one is to lean an old ladder on a wall and hang your shoes onto the rungs of the ladder. Another way to do it, is it get two old ladders that are roughly the same size. You'll then want to stand these ladders up so they're leaning together, the tops of the ladders are touching. Then use wood glue, to glue these together and wrap some twine or ribbon around the first four or five inches. You then need some planks of wood that fit in between every two rungs that are in line. Then place them over the rungs. For safety purposes, you can put two nails in each plank so the nails go on the outside of the rungs, this will make sure the ladders do not slip apart. You can then place your shoes on your newly made shelves. You can paint both of these ladders or just leave them as they are, or you can decorate them with jewellery and decorations.

Shoe Storage For Doors

The door is a part of the room that is often overlooked for storage, so it can provide a bit of 'hidden' space that you didn't think you had! For door shoe storage, you can get over the door storage racks that have pockets in one side, which you can slide pairs of shoes into. These are really cheap and you can fit quite a few pairs of shoes into a space that was otherwise wasted. Hooray!

You can also get a shoe racks for a relatively cheap price, instead of putting these on a wall, try putting them on a door to take up less of your room.

Shoe storage Under The Bed

The bed takes up plenty of space, but the area underneath can be a fantastic storage area, especially for shoes. If you want to be able to access all your shoes in one go, you can get a large old picture frame and place your shoes on that, then slide it under your bed. You can get really big frames that can fit a lot of shoes on to them. It's hidden away when you want it to be, but you can simply slide it out and take your pick from heels, flats, ballet pumps or trainers.

If you don't have an under bed storage area, you can get bed hangers that hand over the side of your bed with big pockets on it. You can then cover your shoes up with your sheets, or leave them out for people to see.

Storing Shoes In The Wardrobe

If you've got the space, it can be a lovely luxury to have a shoe cupboard or wardrobe. The best shoe storage for a walk in closet is shelving, it's easy to put up and provides lots of space to use. If you're struggling for space on your shelves in a smaller shoe cupboard (or a large one if you're a real shoe lover ), try alternating the way the shoes face. This will create more space, and you'll be able to fit more pairs of shoes on one shelf.

If you have a smaller wardrobe, try adding some decorative coving around the perimeter of your wardrobe near the celling. This will keep all your shoes out on display, out of the way and easy to get. Again, for small closets, you can use decorative coving on your walls, this can be behind your clothes, behind a door. This will still keep them out of the way. You could also store them either in their box under your clothing.

You can get hold of coving on a budget and you can also get it in all different shapes and styles. This is great for adding some character to your room, while showing off your shoes.

For an average size closet, shelves and benches are always the most popular ideas. This isn't surprising as you can keep your footwear off the floor, it's easy to get to and always on display.

How To Make Shoe Storage Boxes

Shoe storage boxes can be both nice to look at, and useful. They keep your shoes clean and dust free, as well as being easy to stack into a variety of different spaces.

The simplest way to acquire shoe boxes is to keep hold of the original boxes they come in. Some shoes may not have a box, so you could keep other boxes in similar sizes or make your own. You can find lots of templates for making boxes on the internet, all you'll need is some cardboard. You need to cut the cardboard to the size required, and cover it with some patterned or coloured paper of your choice. Then add a picture or polaroid of the shoe that's in the box. You will then know what shoes are in what box and it'll look great! If you don't want to make these boxes yourself, you can find great value storage boxes on the high street or online. It can be quite satisfying to have a matching set!

Shoe storage is super easy when you start to consider different ideas and figure out the hidden places in your home. There are so many different ways to keep your shoes out of the way and organised or out on display looking admirable. The choice is yours.

Check out the shoezone blog for more style tips and footwear suggestions for every occasion.