Shoe Rack Organized

I hate the sight of shoes in a house. They're dirty and messy and most of all, disorganized. We don't ever wear shoes in our place and so, the shoes pile up, especially when we have guests. In our tiny place we have a small area by the door that had room for a shoe rack, and it has been the bane of existence since we moved in from day one. The apartment has a lot of these "bane of my existence"...but for the sake of this post, the shoe rack was at the top of them :D

So, one day, I had had enough. I had been keeping my eye out for some way to make the space look cleaner, and had been searching high and low for some sort of cabinet that could house shoes and yet still be functional. It also had to fit under the counter and be thin enough so the front door wouldn't slam into it. I was also not going to pay $200 bucks. Well, I finally found one and decided, well, regardless of whether it's made of laminated particle board (aka crap!) and it doesn't look that great, it's better than the rack we have now. I bought it and put it together (took me forever...who came up with the instructions...bad English and bad grammar). Anyways...alas, my corner is a bit tidier.

The color doesn't match the room as much. I really wanted a beech color cabinet, but oak was the closest I could find - it was either that or white or black. Neither would look nice.  It also does not fit all the shoes it says it's supposed to - 30 shoes. Ya, maybe if all you have are a women's size 6. Men's shoes were hard to fit in, but after some squeezing and cursing, they fit. I'm satisfied. I'm not ecstatic, as it's not the prettiest thing ever, but I'm satisfied.

Oh the eyesore...uh...yuck! Here's a tidier version of a before...

Yes, I have a lot of shoes, yes most of the shoes are mine...who's counting... 

Clean and organized. 

 

It has 3 rows for shoes, 6 rows in total. It's hard to fit anything but flats, but the tennis shoes fit in the first row and the racks are moveable.

The only thing it doesn't fit are tall boots...which is fine. I only wear tall boots if its freezing and/or raining. It's neither of those two ever, here in SoCal.  

I needed a place for my bike helmet. As much as I would have loved this to be hidden, a hook was the best I could do.

It does the job. It makes me cringe a bit less. I'm thinking of changing the handles to something a bit nicer looking, maybe that will make me like how it looks better, but for now, it is what it is.