All new energy flows into your home from the front door, aka Feng Shui. Well in our case, our front entrance was blocking all that good energy – with shoes!
A chronic problem for many years in our household was the shoe clutter at the front entrance. We had a vast collection of jumbled shoes. Very frustrating when trying to get out of the house quickly.
And, as the kids grew to teenagers, the shoe clutter problem only got worse. Chaos in the front entrance ruled.
I consistently tried the good ole ‘Put your shoes back when you get home — neatly’. But to no avail.
Who was I kidding. Even I was guilty of slipping off my shoes at the entrance when I came home from work, and rushing off to prepare dinner before heading off to a dance class with my daughter.
I needed a solution because the pile of shoes in the front entrance was driving me nuts!
And here’s my journey to my family’s ultimate solution to clearing the shoe clutter:
1. Put away shoes in your own bedroom in closet racks, or in those fabric 
shoe organizers you hang on your closet door.
Did not even go there! Looks good in magazines and on TV, but this solution had no chance of surviving in our household.
Maybe OK for dressy shoes hardly worn that can be cleaned before being brought upstairs into the bedroom.
But so impractical for the mess of wet, muddy, soiled everyday shoes that were thrown off upon entering the house.
And the likelihood of shoes being taken upstairs by anyone in this household — nada.
2. Install a shoe rack in the front hallway closet.
I tried installing a shoe rack in the front hallway closet. It had worked like a charm for my neighbor.
But in our household, coats and jackets already had the notorious habit of falling off the hangers onto the floor. And, often the kids would just throw the shoes in the closet to appease me.
Finding shoes became an even more frustrating exercise, with coats being flung out of the closet, and digging for shoes in the dark closet.
We created an even bigger, more frustrating pile of clutter, albeit somewhat hidden from visitors.
Alas, I had a solution. Or so I thought.
3. Place a bench in the front entrance, and tuck the shoes neatly underneath.
Garden bench that used to be in the front entrance, accumulating clutter underneath. Looks much prettier in the garden.
We had a nice big bench that fit nicely in our wide front entrance. The shoes would be neatly tucked away under the bench so no one would trip on them, and we could also sit on the bench to put our shoes on.
Ha! No such luck!
At first it kinda worked. A pile of shoes still formed at the front entrance, but when it was time to clean up, the shoes could be quickly placed under the bench, in a semi-ordered way.
No one used the bench to sit down on to put their shoes on . Everyone stood or sat on the stair steps, like they have always done.
Behind the bench became a dirty disorganized messy area. To me, it was worse than having a big pile of visible shoes to sift through — now there was a bigger invisible pile of shoes at the back of the bench!
Well one day, I got really fed up, and said ‘this bench has to go!’. And outside it went.
I cleaned out the entire area. Amazing how many lost school forms I found, and tests brought home that I never saw. Along with shoes that haven’t fit the kids for months, an umbrella, and assorted little pieces of toys.
4. Combination of front entrance and the closet to store shoes.
Combinations of these systems work really well for some families.
We tried keeping only often-used shoes in the front, and rarely-worn shoes in the front hallway closet. But everyone ‘needed’ their shoes at the front entrance, and very few stayed in the closet.
I knew I needed a solution, but hadn’t hit upon anything yet that worked for my family.
So, open and exposed, the cluttered shoes lay for months.
As I stared at the mess of shoes, I laid out the criteria for what I wanted.
Somehow, the shoes needed to be contained. There were just too many pairs of shoes in the front entrance. Everyone liked to see their shoes, and have them easily accessible.
As the kids were getting older, with soccer shoes, golf shoes, varied dance shoes, and fashionable runners, flats and heels, the shoe collection in the front entrance was steadily growing.
I wanted a simple solution, easy to keep clean and organized. And, I realized I needed to use vertical space to its advantage.
Two-level shoe racks just wouldn’t cut it — there were too many shoes. Those racks where you hook the shoes on them wouldn’t work for my family either.
A bookcase. I knew a bookcase wasn’t the answer, but the concept made sense to me. I wanted a breathable, easy to clean bookcase kind of unit to clear the front entrance shoe clutter.
I looked around, and also explained to my family the type of solution I was looking for.
In the meantime, the shoe clutter at the front entrance remained.
5. The storage rack used as a shoe rack.
Storage/Shoe Rack in the front entrance. Works like a charm to contain our family's shoes.
Then one day my husband and kids were shopping at Walmart, and I got a call. They had been browsing for who-knows-what and came across 6-level high Rubbermaid storage racks. Price wise, they were very economical.
He wasn’t sure if they’d be attractive or sturdy enough, but when he explained the height and width of them, I said ‘buy two’. I don’t care how they look – anything’s better than that pile of shoes on the floor.
So, they came home with these two racks.
The racks were coated wire racks – easy to clean, and air circulates freely. The width and the height of the spacing between the racks worked really well for shoes.
Literally, when the racks were put in place, it took five minutes to place all the shoes on the rack. Shoe clutter gone!
And my dream of having the shoes neatly organized, and off the floor was finally a reality.
We have had these storage racks in the front entrance for the past couple of years now. And this system works beautifully for our family.
Everyone still leaves some of their shoes on the floor. But, decluttering the front entrance of shoes only takes a minute or two for the kids to put all the shoes back in their place on the rack.
It’s easy to clean the rack. The racks are really light (unlike the heavy outdoor bench I tried previously) and easy to pull out for an occasional good cleaning behind the rack.
The rack takes up very little space, making our front entrance nice and roomy.
A solution to the shoe chaos, and energy freely flowing in through the front door. Must admit, it feels good coming into the house and not tripping on a pile of shoes.
If you have shoe clutter in your front entrance, I hope this post has given you ideas and inspiration to clear up this problem area in your home.
To your organizing success,
Barb
Copyright © 2011 www.ClutterClearingMadeEasy.com. All rights reserved.
_________
Want to use this article in your Ezine or Website? You can, as long as you include the complete article and the Copyright information.