With the weather turning cold and wet, you might find yourself getting overrun by outdoor and sports related footwear. When it’s time to head to the office and get the kids to school, no one wants to waste time looking through a pile of shoes for the pair everyone needs that day. Most of us don’t want to have wet and grassy hiking boots, soccer cleats, yard work shoes, and rain boots in the house…which means they collect in a giant pile in the garage. Rather than using a shoe rack – typically only one or two levels high -repurposing a bookshelf is a great way to get everyone’s feet organized so you can get to work and your kids can get to school more quickly.  It doesn’t need to be fancy, but adjustable shelves are a bonus.  You can often find these secondhand at garage sales or on Craigslist.  These are dirty types of shoes and the shelf will get dirty; that’s okay. Just take 20 minutes each season to empty the shelves and wipe them off.

A bookshelf does a fantastic job of utilizing the height of a garage space.  Assign a shelf to each family member and even label with their names to keep everything straight (kids get the lower shelves that they can reach!).  Having a shelf per person also provides incentive to purge the footwear you’re not using or that no longer fits. Keep one pair each of snow boots, rain boots, hiking boots, and athletic shoes on a shelf and then ask yourself if you really need any more….or store the extras all together in a bin and rotate out based on season (for example soccer cleats for baseball shoes).

Although it may take some training to get family members to put their shoes up on a shelf (instead of kicking them off on the floor), just think about the reduced stress and time saved when your whole family is headed out the door and everyone finds their boots on the first try!

Contact us to learn more about ways we can help busy professionals and families reduce stress and make things smoother at home, at work and at school.