A couple of years ago I avoided buying a shoe rack for Mikey’s room–shoe racks have never worked for me–by storing all his shoes in one of the large bottom drawers in his closet.
This worked well when he was a toddler with limited shoes.
Now that he is seven years old and active in both school and athletics, the system is failing. The drawer is still large enough to hold his shoes, but the result is a jumbled mess of scuffed and dirty shoes. I know not to expect pristine shoes with a son who plays every second of recess, but I did want to keep his dressy sneakers in better condition, especially since he only uses them for monthly liturgy at school.
I pulled out all the shoes, removed those that no longer fit, and vacuumed out the drawer.
Then I laid down washable, nonadhesive contact paper and an inexpensive tension rod, which could be the most useful invention ever, given I have yet to use it to hang curtains. In this case, I used a tension rod to turn a large drawer into a shoe cabinet for children’s shoes.
Once I had the bottom rod, or toe guard, in place, I had Mikey hold up the shoe so that I could eyeball where to place the second tension rod. This rod would act as the rail for his shoes. I didn’t need anything more than a rough guide, and there is no need to mark anything. Because they are tension rods, you can wiggle them around into place until you have it the way you like.
For example, when I repeated the procedure to create a second row, I realized spacing the toe guards so far apart was an inefficient use of space. I could fit more shoes and create a third row by tucking the second toe guard underneath the top rail of the first row. Target only had four tension rods of the size I needed in stock, but I’ll check back in a week or two. In the meantime, this is the new setup.
It’s a vast improvement. Now I’m motivated to clean those sneakers.
New here? For the next 31 days Im living according to the famous William Morris quote. You can learn more about the project here.
I love that you used tension rods to do this; I am a HUGE tension rod fan myself and use them everywhere. I think my favorite use is having them keep my baking sheets/muffin tins/cooling racks all neatly in order in a cabinet w/out the clanging and banging of storing them in an under-oven drawer. SO much better!
I’ve never put them in a drawer, so now I’m inspired!
Dear Jules,
You are soooo getting the hang of this.
Best,
Monica
Very clever idea!
Brilliance!
I saw the first tension rod and thought “hmmm, nice way to keep the contact paper down.” Then I saw the second one and I felt the glow of your lightbulb. What a simple, terrific idea! And are those built-ins in the closet? I’m jealous.
Yes, those built-ins are part of the closet. Clever, right? They take up the space that usually sits at the top of your closet in a modern home. Another bonus is that your closet floor is elevated, so it’s easier to store things. Well, that could actually be a draw back, as you all saw this weekend!
That is brilliant! Brilliant, I tell you. Now I’m looking all around my house for some drawer I can do that to!
Love it!
Genius! I wish I had some drawers like that.
I don’t think I ever would have thought of that. Woman with houses the same age as yours will be racing to Target today for tension rods!
Seriously? You might be the smartest woman in all of the land. Best use of curtain rods ever!
so clever!!
I can’t take credit for the idea. I was looking at what I thought was a book on organization from the library. When I opened it at home, it was nothing but pictures from a catalog, even though the book jacket says it features pictures of organized “real homes.” I’ve never seen a real home with a set backdrop, but whatever.
Point is, one of the many, many pictures of cabinets had a drawer with super fancy rails and compartments, which made me snort. You don’t need to be brilliant or a genius to realize you could do the same thing with $4 tension rods from Target for a fraction of the cost.
Wait. I think, given yesterday’s post, I’m supposed to say
Your series is really inspiring me. Just wanted to say thanks!
You are made of awesome. and i almost choked on my coffee when you started denying credit for this in a response. “you don’t need to be brilliant or a genius…” it does take creativity.
This has spawned my project for the week. i’m not going to take self deprecation from people. i don’t want to fight or be belligerent but i do intend on quietly and persistently praising the people i interact with. Not sure how it’s going to work out.
Genius.
Genius idea!
Wow. My mouth is STILL hanging open. You may have had inspiration from another source, but this is all you. I LOVE it! Oh my word. So, so genius. Going to pin it now.
My gosh you are a GENIUS!
Brimming with awesome. I can’t even think of anything else to say about it.
That is brilliant!
Oh my goodness this is such a good idea. I would never have thought to use tension rods.
Fabulous! I’m afraid it wouldn’t work at my house, though. My kids’ feet are so big the shoes wouldn’t fit in that direction :( Darn you, genetics!
Yes, I don’t think this would work for adult sized feet unless you have a very wide or very deep drawer.
SMARTY PANTS!!!
This is absolutely brilliant. My husband has probably 50 pairs of shoes, and I about 10 :) So we actually use a Billy Bookcase from Ikea to store them. However there’s still not room to display all of them for easy finding. I wonder if I can adapt this idea to work with our bookcase and fit all the shoes in an organized manner. I love it!
that is SO clever. I need good ideas for shoe storage and this is so smart. I’ll have to think of a way to incorporate it into my foyer… that’s my problem area. SO Clever!
Genius use of tension rods. Nobel Prize winning worthy!!
Why does a kid need to have that many pairs of shoes? They are way too squeaky clean for me to believe that they actually get used regularly.
Great tip! So good to save space! Loved it!
A friend was remodeling her kitchen, and I took several of the older, very sturdy drawers. Building on the tension-rod idea, I could put wheels on the bottom and slide a drawer with shoes on the floor of the closet under shorter clothes–or, perhaps under the bed. I think somewhere I saw a version of an under-bed storage box with a thin cover (maybe plywood) that slid on in groove and had a finger hole opening. Thanks for prompting new ideas.