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How To Store Shoes In A Garage?

Although you may have a lovely entryway in your home, if you are like the vast majority of people, you probably come straight into your home from your attached garage. If this is the case, you are very likely to remove your shoes at the garage door and leave them sitting in a pile next to it. This common habit is both messy and dangerous. A pile of disorganized shoes by the door creates a tripping hazard. Additionally, shoes stored in this way tend to deteriorate rapidly and typically do not look their best when worn.

In this article, we discuss the best ways to store shoes and provide smart tips for storing your shoes in your garage. Read on to learn more.

Storing Shoes In Your Garage – Top Tips

Storing Shoes In Your Garage - Top Tips

Begin By Sorting

Before you set up a storage system for your shoes in your garage, go through all of your pairs of shoes and sort them out. Discard damaged shoes and separate and donate those that you never wear.

Divide your remaining shoes into seasonal piles. Put spring and summer shoes into one group and fall and winter shoes into another.

When you sort through your shoes, take note of which ones may be sensitive to temperature changes and condensed moisture. If you don’t have climate control in your garage, you may find that leather shoes are badly damaged when you take them out of storage.

The reason for this is that moisture may have condensed with extreme temperature changes. If you have expensive leather shoes, you may want to store those in a closet inside your house rather than in an unheated garage.

With your shoes sorted, you’ll be better able to see what sort of storage system you need, and you’ll be better able to determine how you want to organize your shoes in your garage.

Envision Your Garage Shoe Storage System

When you organize your shoe storage system, be sure to set it up in such a way that you can place your every day shoes at eye level where they are easy to see and easy to access. Put less frequently used shoes on higher shelves.

When deciding what kind of storage you need, take the size and type of shoes you need to store into account. Whatever you do, you don’t want to cram larger shoes and boots into small, tight spaces. This can cause a great deal of damage.

Garage Landing and Shoe Rack

Get Creative About Garage Shoe Storage

When it comes to creating a shoe storage system for your garage, available space and imagination are your only limits. There are all sorts of ways to store shoes safely, so you can choose one or combine a few to create just the sort of storage system you need. Here are sixteen smart ideas to get you started.

  1. You could install a locker system. This is an especially good idea if your family comes in with hats, scarves, shoes, backpacks, coats and so forth. Installing a locker for each member of the family can be a very good way to keep all that clutter out of the house. With this sort of system, you’re likely to also need bins or some other alternative to shoe to store your extra shoes.
  2. If you’re good at building things, you may want to simply build wall shelves into the wall of your garage near your entryway door. When you do this, configure them any way you like to perfectly accommodate your shoes and boots. Be advised, though, this sort of permanent arrangement may keep you locked into a certain type of collection of shoes and boots in the future.
  3. Slat wall shelving is an excellent, versatile, flexible storage system that can be used for all sorts of things. If you install slat wall shelving throughout your garage, you can purchase a wide variety of accessories such as:
  • Wire Racks
  • Shelves
  • Baskets
  • Hooks

All of these can be used to store shoes and lots of other things to. You can purchase slat wall shelving and the accessories that go with it at your local home improvement center or online.

  1. Collect shoe racks. One very quick and easy way to get a shoe storage system in your garage is simply to buy the number of shoe racks you need and line them up side-by-side next to the door. This is cheap and easy, and it will certainly work.
  2. Wire shelving is a good idea for shoe storage because it allows good air circulation. When you install wire shelves for shoes, be sure to turn them upside down so that there’s a lip on the front that will hold your shoes in place.
  3. Save your shoe boxes. Unsurprisingly, shoe boxes are perfect for storing shoes. A good, sturdy, cardboard shoebox will provide protection from sunlight and dust, good air circulation and some shielding against extreme temperatures.
  4. Stackable storage is always a good idea. You can accomplish this with plastic totes and bins which are easy to stack one upon the other. You may want to drill a few extra air circulation holes in the sides of these bins to help prevent condensed moisture.

Bins are a good addition to any shoe storage system because you can use them to store shoes that you are not wearing now. If it’s spring or summertime, you’ll want to keep all of your warm weather shoes out where you can see them and access them easily. At the same time, you’ll want to store away all of your autumn and winter shoes so that they will be safe from damage during the off-season. Totes or bins are good for this.

In the wintertime, you can take your cold weather shoes and boots out of the bins and replace them with your spring and summer shoes.

When you choose stacking bins or totes to store your shoes, be sure that you choose some that are large enough to accommodate your shoes without crowding them.

It’s a good idea to choose clear bins or totes so that you can see through them and find the shoes you’re looking for quickly and easily.

  1. Make use of stored furniture. You can use all sorts of shelves and other existing types of furnishing and other items as shoe shelves. It just takes a little imagination. For example, if you have old bookshelves that you’ve got tucked away in storage, take them out, dust them off and use them to store your shoes.
  2. If you have a ladder leaning up against the wall in your garage, move it over next to the door and use it to hang some of your shoes. High heeled shoes will hook easily over the rungs. For other types of shoes, you may want to add hooks.
  3. Build or install corner shelves. If you don’t have much space in your garage, you could just clear out a corner and put shelving there. This is especially handy if your entryway door is very near a corner in your garage. This type of arrangement doesn’t hold a lot of shoes, but it also doesn’t take up a lot of space.
  4. Add an over-the-door rack. If you’re using a small space solution, such as a corner shelf, you might also want to add an over-the-door shoe rack to the entryway door from your garage. This will give you a whole lot more storage space for small shoes such as flip-flops, slippers, tennis shoes and the like.
  5. Wooden storage crates make an excellent stackable solution. You can stack them one upon the other, move the configuration as you need to and alternately use them for out of season storage if you wish. When you use wooden crates, you may stack them directly on the floor, or you might want to mount the bottom row on the wall with extra space underneath for boots.

Another way to store boots using stacking wooden crates is to set the crates on end so that they stand taller than they do wide. Your entire bottom row of crates could be upended. This will give you plenty of room to stand boots up inside the crates.

  1. There’s more than one way to store a boot! Storing boots can be challenging, but there are several ways to go about it. You could:
  • Purchase or build a boot storage rack that allows you to turn the boots upside down and slide the boot shafts over frames that promotes good air circulation.
  • Use coat hangers with clips to hang boots from a ceiling mounted rod.
  • Hang boots upside down from a shoe rack.

Another very neat solution, especially in very cold climates, is a heated boot storage rack. With this sort of item, you take off your boots, turn them upside down on heated poles and leave them there. When you come back to put your boots on again, they will be dry and warm.

  1. For summer shoes or small shoes, such as children shoes, you can use lengths of PVC pipe for storage. Larger PVC pipes can be cut into just the right length for shoe storage and then stacked one upon the other. As shown in this video.

You can install a small shoe rack in the odd gap or cubby in your garage by using tension rods or dowels. You’ll need two of them, and you want to install one slightly higher than the other so that you can hook the heels of your shoes onto the back rod and have the toes resting on the front one.

Another solution for limited space is shoe pegs. This is a good combination with slat wall shelving. Shoe pegs allow you to hang shoes individually by the heel with the sole facing out. This is not the most attractive arrangement, but it will keep your shoes off the floor and allow them to air nicely.

Which Type of Shoe Storage System is Best?

There is no one single best way to store shoes and boots. In order to choose the best system for your situation, you’ll need to evaluate your situation. You must take into account a number of factors including:

  • Whether or not your garage is climate controlled
  • How many pairs of shoes you have
  • How many pairs of boots you have
  • The amount of space you have
  • Your handyman skills
  • Your budget

Once you have sorted out your shoes, gotten rid of the ones you don’t need and the ones that are no longer usable, and divided your shoes by season, you will have a good idea of what you need in the way of storage solutions.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to choose just one. Mix and match to create just the garage shoe storage system you need.

33 Brilliant Ideas to Store Your Shoes

Good Storage Helps Shoes Last Longer

No matter what sort of storage system you choose, you will want one that will keep your shoes in good shape while they’re in storage.

Shoes are certainly not cheap these days, and keeping them neatly and safely stored will help you get more for your money. A good shoe storage system will help keep your shoes clean and dry while helping them also maintain their shape.

Generally speaking, a shoe rack is good for short-term shoe storage. If you leave shoes hanging on a shoe rack for a long time, their materials may disintegrate, and they may also become misshapen.

If a shoe rack is your only option, be sure to move your shoes from time-to-time and store them in different positions so that they don’t get unsightly weakened creases.

For the shoes you wear every day, an open cabinet, rack or shelving system is best. This allows your shoes to air after you wear them and keeps them handy.

Stuff Your Shoes

For long-term storage, you’ll want to put some kind of filling inside your shoes to keep them from collapsing. One of the best things to do is to use wooden shoe horns that hold your shoes in the same shape that your feet would. Just be sure not to put wet shoes onto shoe horns as this may cause damage from condensed moisture.

Be sure you choose shoe horns that are the same size as your feet, or the right size for the shoes. If you store your shoes on shoe horns that are too big, they may end up stretched. You can get shoe horns that are adjustable to be sure to get just the right fit.

Additionally, if you’re going to use shoe horns, allow your shoes to air out for twenty-four hours before inserting them.

Another way to maintain the shape of your shoes is to stuff them with acid-free tissue. This will help your shoes stay at the right moisture level and stay in the right shape.

Take note that it’s important to purchase acid-free tissue rather than using newspaper. You can use newspaper to hold your shoes in shape while they are drying after having been wet, but newspaper is not good for long-term storage.

Both muslin cloth and acid-free paper work to wick away excess moisture. When you use muslin to stuff shoes, and to wrap them, it helps prevent damage to delicate exterior features such as buckles and sequins.

Keep Boot Shanks Straight

Keep boots shapely while in storage is by rolling up some acid-free cardboard to make stands for the tops of the boots. You can tuck these inserts into the shanks after you have stuffed the feet of the boots with acid-free paper or with muslin.

Doing this will help keep your boots from flopping to one side creating creases and weakening the ankles of the boots.

When storing boots, use unbleached muslin fabric to hold them in shape. This is a better choice for heavy shoes and boots because it has more structure.

Banish Mold From Your Shoe Storage

No matter what type of shoe storage system you choose, think about how you will prevent mold damage. It’s always best to choose a system that allows free air circulation, but if you choose cubbies, totes, boxes or some other closed storage solution, take steps to provide air circulation.

For example, you can always drill a few holes. Be very careful not to crowd shoes into a closed storage system.

If you are going to use plastic boxes to store your shoes, you must take extra care to make sure that they are completely clean and completely dry before storing them. Otherwise, you’re almost certain to find them damaged by moisture, mold and mildew when you retrieve them.

Save up silica gel packets. Very often when you purchase new shoes, vitamins and a number of other items, you will find a silica gel packet tucked inside.

The reason for this is that these packets absorb excess moisture. This is an excellent idea for shoe storage. It will help prevent damage caused by moisture, mold and mildew.

It is especially important to use silica packets when storing lightweight summer shoes. Many summer shoes are made of light fabric which may be delicate and easily damaged by humidity.

Shoes that have cork soles are especially subject to damage caused by humidity. Be sure to put the shoes in containers that will allow good air circulation, and add a silica packet.

Clean Shoes Are Happy Shoes

Anytime you put shoes away for storage, you must clean them first. If you store them with dirt on them, you will find them stained and damaged when you take them out of storage.

You will need a shoe care kit in your shoe storage area. It should have items such as:

  • Soft, dry polishing cloths
  • Leather conditioner
  • Shoe brushes
  • Shoe polish

When you take good care of your shoes, they will last a lot longer. They will also store more successfully.

Before you store your shoes, use your shoe care kit to give them a thorough cleaning. For leather shoes, be sure to use a leather conditioner before you wrap the shoes up in acid-free paper or muslin and store them away.

Keep Your Shoe Storage Area Comfortable For You And Your Footwear

Having good shoe storage in your garage makes it easy for members of your family to quickly take off their shoes, and if desired put on slippers, before entering the house. This helps keep your house free of dust and dirt tracked in from the outdoors, and helps keep your shoes and boots neat and tidy.

If at all possible, keep your shoes in a climate controlled situation. Extreme temperature changes and excessive humidity can cause damage to the leather, fabric and even the glue that shoes and boots are made of.

If you cannot heat your entire garage, you may even want to do a room-within-a-room setting around your entry door and just keep that area climate controlled through the use of a small heater. This will help keep your footwear in good condition and provide a comfortable space for changing your shoes.

1 thought on “How To Store Shoes In A Garage?”

  1. My wife has a huge collective of shoes and they are now everywhere in the house. Perhaps it’s time to think about building a rack for them in the garage

    Reply

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