Jocie

Cleaning Up My Hot Mess with a Shoe Organizer!

June 25, 2012 | by Jocie (email) |

Normally, when I take pictures to post on the blog I make sure to clean things up, dust, remove any cheerios or boogers that might be lying around. So here’s where you get to see my reality! lol!

We live in a townhouse that is plenty big for the needs of our family of two parents and two small children, but there isn’t a huge amount of storage and I don’t have a craft room. As a result, I have a small rubbermaid 3-drawer organizer plus two large rubbermaid totes that I put fabric and random crap into. Things used to be clean, put away, and orderly…. BUT over time, with each project, more has been added and what was there has become a hot mess of chaos. My ribbon is tangled into one giant nest and buttons, glue sticks, and acrylic paint has been tossed into every nook and cranny.

I haven’t done too much about it because the idea was so overwhelming, expensive, and we don’t have a lot of room to do it up right. Then, I came across this idea on pinterest (I know, I start most ideas with this sentence) – use a shoe organizer! Insert head slap! Why did I not think of this years ago?

Last week I ordered a 24 shoe organizer from amazon for $13. Maybe I could have gotten one cheaper from Walmart but I was eager to get this project started.

I unwrapped it, hung it on the back of our storage room door in our basement, and started working.

At first. I was thinking that I wouldn’t have enough craft supplies to fill it up, but then I kept finding random bags of junk – a little paint here, a little embroidery thread there, a little embarrassment over there.  haha Yes, that is Izzie’s owl Halloween bucket filled with craft stuff. *Shame*

But, soon it was all filled! I still have a lot of fabric and ribbon to organize, but that will be another day. For now, I am pleased that I will actually be able to find a glue stick when I need it.

An added plus, I could close the drawers now of the plastic 3-drawer organizer. WIN!

What to do you think? Is there any area you are too embarrassed to show to your friends? Any other suggestions for simple organizing in a small space?

As Always, thanks for reading!

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8 Responses
  1. Naomi says:

    What a great idea! I use them to organize snacks in the pantry and my mom uses them on the back of her bathroom door to organize all her make up, hair products and skin care. Great post!

  2. Blondeerin79 says:

    Clear shoe holders are awesome cheap storage! We used to have one to hold all of my girls (naked) Barbies 🙂

  3. Icarus says:

    Clever idea. I could probably use one of these to store and organize my computer cables and related items.

  4. JustME says:

    I’ve used clear over the door shoe storage for over twenty years now. In our last home I had one in the hall linen closet for first aid items and things one might need when someone is in the bathroom.
    In the bathroom linen closet we used them for personal health and beauty items with a vertical row for each family member.
    In the hall coat close each family again had a vertical row only we stored our gloves, scarves and hats. We do the same in our current homes coat closet only it’s just the two of us now so the extra rows are for extra items the our grandson’s might need while here.

  5. Jocie says:

    Who knew there were so many great uses for shoe organizers?!? Thanks guys!

    • JustME says:

      There’s even more ideas if you use the smaller versions of similar storage. A friend of mine used the jewelry storage size for her twin babies shoes. That size is also good for make up, nail polish or craft items such as paint. When using for craft paint you purchase a number of them using each one to sort your paint by color hanging them in a closet.
      I’m a bit obsessive about organizing so I have loads of ideas using things differently than intended to help organize ones home. I had a group awhile back called Domesticate Bliss all about organizing.

  6. Reuben says:

    This is a really good idea. I’m going to send a link to this post to my wife.

  7. frazzled5 says:

    Totally got my attention with ‘shoe’ but I am super impressed and so happy to see that I can do this project too! Pinning too!

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