Put your best foot forward with stylish shoe racks

It’s been said that good shoes take you to good places and that you can tell a man’s (and a woman’s) lifestyle from the shoe they wear. But how well do you keep your shoes and where do you dump them when they have served you and accomplished the days footsteps?

You should remember that how you keep your shoes will determine their longevity, so you need to give some thought to your shoe organiser, whether it’s a rack, a closet or a vertical cloth rack. Let it be a décor statement in your house, especially for shoe lovers who have multiple pairs of shoes.

There are many ways to store your footwear in a functional style. Here are a few ideas to consider:

Entrance hall

This is where all the dirty shoes pile up as tired feet eagerly remove dusty shoes after a long day’s walk. Provide a miniature rack as a holding place to keep shoes before they are cleaned. Don’t keep a big storage rack at the entrance as it can be very unsightly, giving a bad first impression for your guests, especially if family members do not arrange the shoes in an orderly manner.

Corridors

The corridor can serve as shoes-storage area. Find a rack that fits in the space without too much obstruction and arrange your shoes on it. Keep shoes facing the same direction so that either the front or the back of the shoes faces the front display. I usually prefer to keep men’s bulky shoes at the bottom of the rack and ladies’ pretty doll shoes or sandals at the top as they are usually more pleasant to the eye. If you have one of those informal laid-back households where structure is not top priority, then it helps to have a curtain over the shoe rack to conceal the mess or pile of shoes behind it. Simply place a curtain wire from one end of the rack to the other and pull a curtain through.

Closets

Most modern closets now have a shoe rack at the bottom to keep extra pairs of shoes. Due to their enclosed nature, it helps if the shoes are thoroughly cleaned and frequently sprayed to ensure that they emit a fresh smell into the cupboard and onto your clothes. Keep shoes evenly-spaced so they do not appear cluttered. You can also arrange each pair in an alternating front to back style where one shoe faces in front and another faces the back.

If you live in a house with little storage space, consider buying a space-saving vertical cloth shoe rack, which can be hang behind a door to accommodate your shoes. Whatever your style of footwear storage, ensure that they are easily retrievable to save you the time of having to search an entire house for that must-wear pair of shoes.