New Year, New Organization Mojo! Shoe Organization

What is it about January that just makes everyone want to rip things out of cabinets, drawers and dark corners and get some order?  I know it's not just me because bloggers and Targets everywhere are showcasing organization tips, storage bins, and everything that just makes my heart race fast!!  I spent my Friday evening wondering up and down the storage aisles at Target checking out the latest must-haves in storage containers... yep, that's right, that was my exciting Friday night and I love it. For as long as I can remember I have had a love affair with all things storage - just.can't.get.enough.  I would be in serious trouble if there was a Container Store here.  I even have a storage container of extra storage bins in my basement!  Maybe I should join a support group? Ha!  But anyway, there's a point to this post.

I thought I would share one of my latest organization projects - shoes!  Like many gals, I have a love for shoes, I also have a limited amount of space for shoes.  My current closet is the smallest I've had in a while and I'm also sharing with hubby so I have to be reasonable in how much space I take over so I've gotten creative.  Here's some pics of the closet the day we moved in - the shoe cubbies are actually on the way behind the door to the left - I didn't snap a pic of that part of the closet in the "before" pics.

This was my closet in Baton Rouge - it was the perfect spot for my shoe cubbie!!  This is two units stacked together.

I'm still utilizing my shoe cubbies that have now found homes in all my houses over the last couple moves but I have too many of flats, tennie shoes and flip flops for the cubbies.  The cubbies only house my pumps.  Let's start with a little before picture... it isn't pretty.  I have this awkward spot in the corner that really was just a catch all for shoes.

So my first attempt was to get 4 of the individual Sterlite drawers that stack from Wal-Mart for my flip flops (they are sorted by color).  I left my flats in a basket on top of the drawers.

  I didn't take the labels of the drawers for a few weeks as a trial run to see how I liked this arrangement.  After giving it a go, I decided it was a success!

The existing cubbies

 

I added another drawer for flats and some pink labels 

I am not a fan of the wire shelving that's in our closet.  I go back and forth with putting the expense into redoing our whole closet system and may eventually do it.  I decided to buy a few more drawers to put under the bottom shelf for the rest of my flats.  I love that I was able to sort them all out by color - it makes finding the pair I want a snap!  The basket holds my house shoes which I should really just get rid of since I have lived in my Ugg ones that I purchased in May!  I don't typically keep shoe boxes but these 2 hold "special" shoes - my Kate Spade wedding shoes and then dressy Badgley Mischkas.

I'm trying to be conscious of how many shoes I have and the limited amount of space -- as I purchase new ones I'm trying to purge the ones I don't wear.  I do have a few pair of boots that I slide under my hanging tops on the other side of the closet and hubby keeps his shoes in the garage if you're curious.  Thanks for stopping by!