life in a tiny apartment.

Tip #99: Shoe racks.

This is more of an update than a tip. But if your closet is anything like ours, it just might be a tip. (Just remember that what works in my space might not work in yours, and vice versa. K?).

I’ve written before about shoes and the helpfulness of choosing versatile storage options, even when they’re hidden. In our new apartment, we’re lucky to have pretty ample closet space, but since we’ll be allocating half of it to creating a little private space for bébé (both things being real a WIP), we’re still sharing just slightly more space than we had in our old place.

To take advantage of our closet floor space, we decided to replace an old hanging shoe rack that we kept in our classy padlocked hall closet, with something that could stow shoes down below.

When space is limited I find that traditional shoe racks take up more room than they’re worth. Like it or not, in a tiny apartment you’ve got to be able to squish sandals and sneaks (Example A), When you’re dealing with a shoe rack that provides single spaces for shoes to hang (ahem), you might find space wasted, or, more likely, your shoes all over the ground.

Since we found ourselves with more room, but not more money to buy lovingly used vintage crates (dagnabbit), I opted instead for new simple wooden crates (in two styles). They’re not honestly the most eco-friendly options in the world, but they were the most affordable, made from real wood and not composites, and I decided to compromise. The divided crates are helping to preserve some of my more delicate shoes from getting overly squashed and being able to stack them below James’s shirts means we have all of our shoes in one spot.

To each her own, but I wouldn’t be thrilled about repurposing a metal shoe rack as side table, but I’d happily do the same with a simple wooden crate.

Tiny apartment survival tips #1 – 98, right here.