Tip Tuesday – Shoe Bag Strategies

Last week I had five clients and in EACH home we installed a hanging shoe bag on the back of or inside of a door! These bargain $15 additions are an organizer’s dream and I highly recommend them for almost everything! They take up NO floor space, and 24 pockets make for excellent separation and sorting of many different types of items.

Here are shoe bag strategies for different areas in your home:

ENTRYWAY: Shoe bags hanging inside your entryway closet can contain  seasonal essentials. In winter, our entryway closet shoe bag holds gloves, hats, and scarves, and in the summer, sunglasses, sunscreen, and bug spray.
We also always have a “clothes care” pocket set aside with a lint brush, shoe horn, and Tide stain stick. You can also dedicate a pocket for travel charging cables. I have a pocket just for “purse refills”: tissue packets, hand sanitizer, and mints.

KIDS’ CLOSETS: Consider shoe bags to contain hair accessories, toy cars, fashion dolls and their clothes, and so on.

BATHROOM: When counter space is tight those 24 pockets can hold a ton of toiletries, makeup, washcloths, and even cleaning supplies.

OFFICE: Shoe bags are perfect for pens, pencils, tape, glue, and staples. Whatever a bunch of drawers used to hold can now be on the back of the door taking up ZERO floor space!

LAUNDRY: I love using a shoe bag inside a laundry closet for utility items, such as quick tools, batteries, command hooks, hardware, light bulbs, command hooks, and cleaning tools.

PANTRY: A shoe bag is perfect for snacks! Candy, bars, packets, shake mixes, and pouches can go in different pockets to separate the flavors. And, if you are like me, you will use a pocket as a handy place to store your take-out menus too!

CLOSETS:  Yes, of course you can use shoe bags for shoes, but I love to separate scarves, hosiery, or socks with them for clients with limited drawer space. Rolled up, just about anything can fit!

Finally, I recommend you ONLY purchase the Mesh Shoe Bag from the Container Store. You can see the contents of the pockets through the mesh, which is KEY! And, it is MUCH sturdier than plastic versions.

So there you have it, plenty of ways to put this organizing mainstay to work! Let us know how YOU use shoe bags in the comments below!