Cheap Shoe Storage

For a while our shoe storage consisted of a pile on the closet floor. More than once I'd have to dig for a while to find a shoe lost in the abyss. I tried lining the shoes up on the floor, but they'd eventually find their way back to a pile again. For a lot of things, organization consists of just containing something. I think shoes are one of those things. Many people buy shoe racks. I think these look nice, but most are more than I want to spend. Several times I have considered buying a hanging shoe organizer from Ikea, since they're only about $5, but I'm glad I didn't now, as I hardly have enough room in my closet to hang clothes and coats. Then, one day, my husband brought home an empty wooden wine crate from work. I knew I could use it for something, but it took me several days, if not a couple of weeks to find a good use for it. It is now my frugal shoe organizer. It perfectly holds my shoes - like it was made for them. The wooden slats that held the wine in the box made two nice compartments on each side of the crate that exactly holds all of my flip-flops, while the rest of my shoes fit nicely in the middle compartment. My shoes are in one place, nicely organized. In our old apartment, my husband's shoes still were in a pile, even after mine were organized. In our new home, the closet has three shelves. I decided to use one of them to house his shoes. They are stacked neatly on the shelf. He does have to dig a little bit for the ones that are on the bottom of the stack, but in this situation, containment is key. It works so much better than having them all over the floor!