apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

also, little muslin bags of cedar chips help to remove moisture in shoe boxes and help prolong the life of shoes. i have a pair of these for each pair of shoes i own.

That's a cute pic of Meadow!

Any suggestions for those who have lost track of all their shoeboxes already?

Emily

the container store has some great boxes for shoes.

if you have room look into the the PAX system from Ikea. A shoe holder add-on to display your shoes while allowing for easy access.

You can also go to your local shoeshop and ask for empty shoe boxes. Then you can cover them with nice fabric or wall paper (using spray glue) and add a printed digital photo on the front of which pair of your shoes lives in the box. Now you can easily find/store your shoes and don´t have to check several boxes before you fnd what you need.

I use a shoe hanging thing I bought at Ikea (it hangs over the curtain rail and each one holds 8 pairs). It works great, because I see everything. Boots are stored separately.

Another big tip is it use the right hangers for the right jobs. I was always picking up clothes that had fallen to the floor. Now I use heavy duty wood ones for winter coats, padded hangers for delicates, etc.

6) Ditch the plastic drycleaning bags. They trap moisture and cleaning chemicals which are bad for clothing.

What! You are still using a cleaner that uses perclor? You are kidding, right? :)
And, the bags and hangers can be disassembled at the cleaners and left for them to recycle and you take your clean goods home on your own lovely hangers.

I used to organize a clothing swap at my old church. People would all come with their unwanted clothes, we'd seperate the items into catagories on the tables in the fellowship hall (one table for long-sleeved shirts, one for short-sleeved, one for pants, etc.), then it was a free-for-all! At the end of the night, whatever was left over was bagged up and taken to Goodwill. It was always a blast and people loved it! If I went too long without scheduling one, a lot of people would start asking about when the next "swap meet" was going to be!