apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

uh oh, here goes. torrid confessions of a shoe junkie! i have a built in shoe rack (but it only holds about six pair -- i guess those people in the 20's kept a lid on their footwear fetish!). for the remaining pairs, i splurged on clear plastic shoe drawers from the container store (athletic shoe size for flats/heels and sweater size for boots). it's neat, keeps shoes off the floor and maximizes closet floor space. and oh yes, i polaroid all my shoes so i can see at a glance what's in the drawers without having to open them all up. i'm also the person who has dance rubber put on the soles of all her shoes before she wears them. but i do not, i repeat, i do not alphabetize my spices. (i group them by cuisine) ;)

I keep the majority of my shoes in my closet BUT since we're those "no outdoor shoes inside the house" people we also have a shoe rack in the front hallway. The hallway rack is also nice because most of the time guests will see it and will volunteer to take their shoes off too!

b & c, like Monica above - most shoes in the closet, regularly worn boots (or flip flops in the summer) & sneakers tucked as neatly as possible under the hallway table

Back when I had a two-story apartment I kept them on the stairs. Now that I don't have stairs... well, let's just say they're everywhere.

Wait, where's the "everywhere" option? They're tucked under the Lane chest and chairs in the entryway, spilling out of the closet, and oft-worn high heels are hung on the picture rail (which is a surprisingly attractive and practical solution - too bad the picture rail can't hold 20 pairs!). Together with books and mail, shoes clutter my apartment like no other.

You people who can keep your shoes on the stairs or otherwise not behind closed doors--be thankful that you don't have a cat with a shoelace fetish who will chew through any unattended shoelaces in about a minute flat. You never realize how hard it is to find replacement shoelaces (other than black or white ones) until you live with such a kitty.

So, in the closet, always. :(

My shoes go in my closet (in their original boxes and boxes from ikea for vintage or other boxless shoes) and more oftenly worn shoes (mostly sneakers and oxfords along with riding boots and wellies) in the entrance shoe rack or beside it. my boyfriend keeps all his shoes on the shoe rack or in boxes stacked above it. we also keep our snowboard boots there. i think it's time for a purge.

As I have only one itsy-bitsy closet, I only use it to hold my boots and skates. I've gotten a bit creative with storage and I now keep my dress shoes in a row under my couch - an inch or so back so that they remain generally unseen unless someone is lying on the rug.

Behind the shoes, I keep rolls of wrapping paper that are accessible from the sides of the couch. It sounds like an odd pairing, but it works. I've pretty much maximized my 'under-couch' storage.

I wish there was an "other" option on this poll. Like so many others, my husband and I tend to keep a couple of pairs in the living room under a table that's next to the front entry. These are just the shoes we wear most often (tennis shoes right now, my favorite slip-on sandals during the summer). I have dozens of additional shoes in the closet.

i love the look of the shoes on the stairs - it's so neat. But i can imagine slips and tumbles and dozens of shoes getting scattered just from everyday commotion. I have an extra drawer in a dresser that i keep my shoes in.

Doesn't the cat leave toys in your shoes?

I once visited the home of a fantastic design director -- and besides having an amazing dressing room with a FIREPLACE, she had two floor to ceiling rustic steel racks flanking it with all of her beautiful shoes on them. Since then I have been obsessed with displaying my shoes... (the prettiest ones are the ones that get the least wear!). I might be a total girly-girl, but there's something sad about colorful fantastic shoes sitting tucked away in boxes!

My stairs are too narrow to add shoes to them, and I do have an interfering cat; otherwise, I'd try that. Mostly they're in a closet. A couple pairs move around my bedroom on their own, and a couple other pairs (depending on the season) hover around the doorway, trying to stay out of the way. I don't do the pretty shoe thing, so display doesn't really motivate me.

My shoes are everywhere!! In the foyer by the front door (I take my shoes off as soon as I come in to the apt), hanging on the back of my bedroom door in a 36 pair shoe organizer (though I've squeezed in 42 pair), in plastic shoe and boot containers in my bedroom closet - wall to wall and floor to ceiling (had to buy Ikea closets for the cloths), under my bed in more shoe storage contraptions (i'm always looking for shoe storage organizers - none of which i've been happy with) and spilling around my bed. I stopped counting at 250 pair - I am admittedly a 'shoe junkie' - often called 'Imelda Marcos' by friends and family! My dream is to have a second bedroom with floor to ceiling shoe storage on some short of mechanism that rotates them out (saw this in a Goldie Hawn movie 'Overboard' and have been obsessed with the idea for years). If Feng Shui is for real my obsession with shoes is probably very bad Feng Shui and the reason why i'm still single :)

That stairway would look so great with a fresh coat of paint and no shoes on it. I really like the blue wall at the top. Nice use of Occasional Cat, of course.

wende: fortunately we have a door at the top of the stairs we normally keep closed, so the felines keep out of our shoes :)