How to Store Fall and Winter Shoes

May 2, 2010 Comments (2)

How we love the warm weather! What we don’t love is how hefty fall and winter shoes can suck up a ton of floor space in our closets or apartments. Having your shoes on display may be fun for Kimora Lee Simmons, but for those of us living in the real world, the last thing we want to see is our winter boots staring us down as we don gladiator sandals and mules. Get organized this spring season and put your fall and winter shoes away, so you have plenty of room to spot your warm weather favorites.

Organize all of the shoes you only wear in the fall and winter. This will be snow boots, rain boots (though some may want to keep these out, depending on where you live), Ugg-style boots and anything with faux or authentic fur or shearling should be stashed for the season. If your closet space is limited, go through items currently occupying your closet and be ruthless. It’s better to have ample space for items you love and use versus having items you seldom or never use clogging up precious closet space. Once you clean house on your closet, donate wearable items to a local charity. Just because you aren’t using it, doesn’t mean someone else can’t.

With free space, get to work organizing your fall and winter shoes. Leather boots with a tall shaft (even if it’s only above the ankle) should be stored upright and stuffed so they don’t lose their shape. This can be done with tissue paper or even newspaper, if you’re in a pinch. Any boots with fur should be wrapped in plastic or stored in a sealed plastic container to prevent mothballs. Ankle boots and low top boots can be stacked with the left shoe facing you, and the right shoe facing away from you, similar to how shoes arrive in a shoe box. This allows you to stack shoes on shelves in a closet and maximize the space. The shoes are still visible, but placed on the shelf like books, with the spine facing out so they keep their shape.

Samantha Cabrera