Shoe storage solutions

It’s getting beyond a joke. Between the four of us there are 23 pairs of school shoes, running shoes, riding shoes, sandals, football boots, Wellies by the front door (and only one pair is my wife’s!)

What are your smart solutions for storing shoes out of the way, but not too far out of the way?

I had a shelving thing that fits to the back of a door, I had it in my cloakroom toilet

Ours go in the cupboard under the stairs. My bike shoes go in the garage though.

I have one of these by my front door, works pretty well for shoes you want regular access to https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072MGYRQT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Im building an extension

I got fed up with the piles of shoes and coats behind the front door. got a bit carried away, it wasn’t a cheap or easy solution..

Understairs cupboard with floor to ceiling shelves, perhaps 1.2m wide and 8 shelves with curved boxed below and on top.
Plus a ‘drying’ shelf for shoes above the boiler, on which all the walking boots live.

I built a rack for our narrow hallway many years ago..

Shoe Rack by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

And do the shoes always get put in the rack? or do they still pile up?

Having a sixteen year old son, I’d strongly recommend not using the hallway option (It should have been obvious but after a couple of weeks trying I’ve tracked down the rotting smell)

And do the shoes always get put in the rack? or do they still pile up?

Only by me, my wife just leaves a pile on the floor in front of the rack!

2 years ago I installed under stairs shoe storage, 1 tray per person with plenty of room. Took me a bloody ages to do.

Fast forward 2 years and you cant get said storage open because of the mountain of shoes in front of it 🙁

we have a couple of old victorian pine boxes one by front door (every day shoes) and one by the back door (bike shoes). Nice place to sit to take them off and put them on as well. This sort of thing

I use an old Hungarian style storage bench in the hall.
At +2m long you can get a fair few pairs of shoes in it. It also provides a handy perch to sit on whilst putting the shoes on.

^^nice, think thats called a “box settle” 🙂

Yes, a sort of settle I suppose.
I think a settle usually refers to the high backed or “monks bench” of UK / Irish origin.

not always high backed

Ikea Stall, narrow enough that they fit in the hallway without taking up any noticeable space.

Between the four of us there are 23 pairs of school shoes, running shoes, riding shoes, sandals, football boots,

23? Only 23??

5 of us here and I reckon that the girls all have at least 23 pairs each. That’s the only way I can explain the Everest sized pile of mismatched shoes that accumulates in the dining room every few days.

Just counting….I have 2 pairs of tidy casual shoes, 2 pairs of tidy boots, formal black shoes, formal brown shoes, scruffy trainers, wellies, running shoes, 1 pair of cycling shoes and one pair of waterproof cycling shoes, and some flip flops. That’s about 12 or 13 pairs just for me. I don’t think of myself as having lots of shoes. Mine don’t get kept in that mountain mentioned above.

Oh god where to start one shoe unit fitted into the 1mt2 3mt high coat cupboard that also holds the dog stuff vac and outdoor wet coats.
2 pairs wide 1 deep worked out the size with my work boots so everything fits.
I’ve got 2 places in that work boots and trainers. The rest is my wife’s they just get rammed in any ol way.
In the hall we had a miss shaped bit of space I studded it out and put shelving at 45degs and hid it behind a full lenth mirror that’s hinged. packed with high heals ect it holds 20/30 pairs of only the wife’s and it stinks I hang car freshener trees in it.

Then she has one of those hang over door things in her makeup room with shoes in.

I get hassle for keeping my posh shoes in the wardrobe.

We had the Ikea one like above but they only seam to fit trainers not work boots

Built in shoe storage under the stairs/DIY a pull out rack thing. Yes I did that.

Can’t get to it for the mountain of shoes dumped in front …. Yep that’s me too

@jam-bo: 👏👏👏

There are companies that design and fit that sort of thing, and they’re silly money.

Shoe bench like this:
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tjusig-bench-with-shoe-storage-white-70152702/
And Welly rack like this:
https://www.aldi.co.uk/wrought-iron-welly-stand/p/702422361604000
And a porch full of scattered footwear, and a rack of boots and a trug of shoes and those ones always dumped half way across the kitchen for tripping over.
Lots of shoes. The bench is useful for sitting on whilst lacing said shoes though.

We’ve got one of these in the hallway:

Our one is about 8′ tall, is equally shabby and has loads of small pigeon holes that fit 1 large or 2 small shoes as well as some larger holes at the bottom which are ideal for the kids school bags or any larger items of clutter.

We picked it up off facebook for about £20 a couple of years back from some guy clearing out his old workshop.

@jam-bo: 👏👏👏

There are companies that design and fit that sort of thing, and they’re silly money.

What is ‘silly money’ out of interest?
Be interesting to figure out roughly what Jam-bo might have charged had it been his living to design, make and install that. 🤔

That Hungarian bench above is beautiful.

Well it’s heartening to read I’m not alone with this first world problem.

Some great solutions. No stairs in our place, but a blanket box might be the best option, with the added bonus being reduced spider risk!

Be interesting to figure out roughly what Jam-bo might have charged had it been his living to design, make and install that. 🤔

Well it cost me about £1500 in materials alone. Birch ply isn’t cheap.

No exactly. Which is why I’m interested in what constitutes ‘silly money’ to people like rossburton.

Add on top of your materials costs the time to undertake years of training, survey the area, talk to the client and get a really good sense of what they are after, take measurements and template the space, design the piece with back and forth to the customer to get it right and what they want, collecting all the materials and hardware, renting a workshop big enough to carry out this sort of work, running a van to enable you to do this work, buying many thousands of pounds worth of tools and machinery and maintaining them all to allow you to do all this type of work, insurance, waste, etc, etc, etc…

Just interested what all that is worth before it becomes silly money?
It’s extremely tough to make a living doing furniture like that. People often have wildly unrealistic ideas of what it takes.
I’m getting increasingly frustrated by it to be honest and I waste so much time with people who want to pay Ikea prices for bespoke work.
Still, I’m not bitter 😂

I reckon ~£5k-ish if I’d paid someone else to do it. but it would have taken a little less time and probably be done better.

Yeah, I was being flippant, and I’m still planning on getting some myself.

I still can’t remember the name of the company I saw but they have nationwide installation after a site visit, and you get rock solid drawers which can take a serious load of weight. They cost a fair bit but the usable space is huge, and the materials and runners alone are not cheap.

Very aware of time and material costs. This is most likely the last time I post on here from my ikea desk, as a bespoke wooden desk top and legs arrived this morning to replace it. Looking forward to a desk that doesn’t wobble when I type…

If you want to pay ikea prices, then get an ikea Kallax storage unit and the drona boxes that go into them which are then effectively big deep drawers which are good for swallowing lots of pairs of shoes, even if you have sasquatch feet.

I was about to post a link to my mate who makes under stair storage, and then read on a p155ed myself laughing…

Its shoe and boot changeover time here at Chez Ferrit. Twin 11 year old boys, one who is already size 43+. 3x pairs of football/rugby boots (astro, moulded and screw in), school shoes, and 2x pairs of trainers for one and 1x for the other, plus big-foot has grown out of his road cycling shoes… again

The trick is I throw away the old, the big good ones go into the loft for smaller footed son maybe, and anything good gets free-cycled for free. Free-cycle is my friend, it will be gone by this evening…

PS – I sort and tidy and moan at everyone’s shoes being dropped by the back door. My mum would warn us (inc my dad) and throw them in the bin if you ignored her.

Hmmm, maybe a wheelie bin by the door would be a better idea.

As to the multi cubby holes unit. Shoes are (up to) 14″ long, maybe get away with 6″ width if shoes are one on top of the other, but the height would need to be about 12″. For standard flat shoes, trainers.

If the shoes are side by side, that is about 12″ wide, by about 6″ high. Side by side would look neater.

Failing that, piece of ply, and lots of 8″ nails hammered in at a very tight angle. Hang each shoe on a nail.

But what’s that in metric? Actually, if we’re doing shoes should it be measurements in barley corns?