Clothes aren’t the only ones that need proper storage in our home. On the other hand, our shoes, and every kind of footwear that we own, also needs proper storage and care. But at times, we know that it doesn’t always go that way. We tend to neglect to keep our shoes on places that they should be in, especially when we’re tired after a long day, and we just leave them and stack them up with other pairs of shoes on our shoe rack or cabinet.
There are actually a lot of ways you can store your shoe collection at home, but we thought of practical and easy storage tips to guide you in properly storing them, to preserve its condition.
1. Clean Them
Cleaning your shoes is probably one of the most practical, yet neglected ways of taking care of it.
Make sure that you clean your shoes before storing them up, especially if you’re not going to be using that pair for quite a while. Storing them dirty could cause the material of the shoes to get easily worn out. Take note that materials such as leather and suede are prone to wearing out if they are not properly stored — at most, storing them without cleaning them. You can also look for cleaning products that are specifically made for cleaning leather and suede materials so that even when you store them for a long time, it will still look good.
- After using any shoes, it’s best that you dust them off first by using a non-scratchy brush, so you will not damage its material and the dirt will not stay on it. This is a good practice especially if you’re going to use that pair of shoes again for the next day.
- Let them air dry. After use, our shoes absorb sweat from our feet. Storing them right after use without air drying will promote faster bacterial growth.
- For shoes that have cloth material or canvas, make sure to maintain it by brushing them, and using soap and water to prevent stains and dirt from tarnishing the outer appearance of the footwear.
2. Sort Them
The habit of not sorting your shoe collection at home according to their purpose, makes it hard to choose which one to use. The worst-case scenario is that you couldn’t even find that certain pair of shoes that you badly need at the moment because you’ve been stacking them up for a while now.
- Group them by purpose:
- Rubber shoes, snickers, and any casual shoes go together
- Any formal occasion footwear like heels should all go together.
- Sandals, slippers, and other flats should go together as well.
Sorting your shoe collection according to its purpose helps not only in staying organized, but it also lessens the tendencies of your shoes getting destroyed because it got squished into a pile of other shoes. You need to practice sorting them so that they will stay in good condition for a longer period of time.
3. Store Them
Lastly, store them up! As you go through maintaining them by cleaning them, and organizing by sorting them according to their purpose, you now have to keep them in a proper storage space.
- If you’re the type who has a lot of shoes, it’s best that you get a shoe rack, so that you can properly line up all the pairs of shoes you have. Shoe racks that are made from wood or plastic are good to use at home, as they are not hard to clean.
- Store your everyday shoes on a cubby near the door of your house or by the stairs, so that it will be easy for you to get the pair of shoes that you’re going to wear for the day.
- For any shoes that you don’t plan on wearing for months, you can safely store them in a shoebox. You can use the original shoe box that it came with, or customize your own for a stylish finish to your shoe storage.
- In addition to that, use cedar balls instead of mothballs when storing any pair of shoes for a long time. Cedar balls are safer to use for footwear storage because mothballs can cause a stuffy, chemical smell that’s hard to put away.
Poor shoe storage does not only lead to disorganization at home, but it’s also an instant degrade in the shoes’ quality.
We hope that these three practical tips that we’ve listed above have helped shed some light on proper shoe storage for your home.
Check-out our Storage Space Solutions to help you in organizing your storage space at home!
