How to Organise Your Shoe Collection

It’s been a while since I’ve organised and re-arranged my shoe collection so I thought I’d document the process this time and share some information on how I organise! I’ve been keeping my shoes in these IKEA bookcase cabinets for more than 5 years now and they have even survived a dis-assembly and re-assembly after a house move as well. They’re gorgeous in design and happen to be the perfect size for my shoes and having them organised and on display in these cabinets have been the best investment. Today, I’m going to be sharing with you all the details on how I set up these cabinets and how I use them to organise my shoe collection!

THE BOOKCASE I USE TO ORGANISE MY SHOE COLLECTION:

I get a lot of questions about these cabinets that I use to store my shoes and the cabinet that I use is actually the IKEA Billy bookcase. It’s a really reasonably priced bookcase and comes in a range of colours to suit your decor. I chose white as I wanted it to blend into the background and have the shoes pop as the centre of attention!

However, do note that when using the Billy bookcase, the length of your shoe aka your shoe size needs to be taken into account. So this crucial bit of information counts: the shelves on the IKEA Billy bookcase measure 25.3cm, meaning that if your shoes are longer than this in length, then they will stick out. This can be okay if you aren’t installing doors and don’t mind having them stick out, but if you want to install doors then they won’t close properly.

For reference, I wear a size 37-38 (AUS 7-7.5) in shoes and all my flat shoes fit perfectly in my bookcase, however some of my more pointed flat boots are the slightest bit too long, but this can be fixed by placing them slightly sideways to fit.

If you have a smaller shoe size than me, your shoes will fit no problems on the IKEA Billy bookcase. However, if you have a larger shoe size, you’ll find that your shoes may stick out of the shelf a little.

HOW MANY SHOES CAN I STORE PER BOOKCASE?

The IKEA Billy bookcase stores four pairs of shoes per row, meaning that you can store 24 pairs of shoes per bookcase if I use the standard set up of 6 shelves, which are evenly spaced. However, if you want to store more shoes like what I have done below, you can purchase two additional shelves per bookcase and re-arrange the shelves so that they sit at different heights. There’s a bit of a technique to this as there aren’t holes along the entire height of the bookshelf so you can check out my photo below to get a good idea on how to arrange the shelves. By adding in two more additional shelves to your bookcase, you can fit 32 pairs of shoes on each bookcase. I use the taller shelf spaces to store taller shoes like heels and boots and I use the shorter shelf spaces to store flat shoes like sneakers and sandals.

So for my two bookcase set up, I can fit up to 64 pairs of shoes, which is more than plenty, I think!

But! If you have a tall ceiling, you can also buy additional inserts to place on top that will give you an extra row. For me, I didn’t need this extra storage space so I opted to leave it open so I could store my shoe boxes and baskets.

An alternative option with larger shelf depth:

I’ve seen others use the IKEA Kallax as another popular option for storing shoes. This shelf is deeper than the Billy, meaning that if you have a larger shoe size, this could work better for you if you want the shoes to fit nicely. However, the Kallax does have separate cube compartments, so you may not be able to fit as many shoes in! But they do make a nice minimalist display, especially if you don’t have too many pairs of shoes.

KEEPING THE DUST OUT:

For my shoe storage, I decided to install doors to keep the dust out. At first, I was reluctant with the whole idea of doors as I wanted them to look nice and pretty like a display, however functional reasons won me over and I bought the doors shortly after! The doors I use are the matching IKEA Billy glass doors and I actually think they look great and don’t really get in the way at all. I love how nothing gets dusty inside as well, that’s the ultimate win, of course.

I’ve just had a look online and I don’t think IKEA sells the glass doors separate anymore, but you can buy two bookcases with glass doors together here.

HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR SHOES:

Here comes the fun part! When it comes to organising your shoes, you can choose to arrange them by colour or style.

• By colour: Organising by colour looks nice on the eyes, as you can see a consistent flow of colours throughout your cabinet. The good thing about organising by colour is that it could help with styling an outfit especially if you style your outfit by co-ordinating or contrasting certain colours. However, if you’re more the type of person who styles an outfit according to specific styles, then it may be a little more difficult to find the shoes for your outfit.

• By style: Another way to organise is to arrange heels together, sneakers together, boots together, sandals together, etc. This could look a little more mismatched in terms of the colour throughout the cabinet, however it could still look neat in that you have similarly shaped shoes together. Organising by style might be a little easier when it comes to dressing, as you can find all the same styles together.

For me, I’ve switched between organising by colour and style depending on my mood throughout the years. However, generally I prefer to organise by style. I find that it’s a lot more easier for me to find the shoes I want if I organise by style as I typically choose shoes according to the type I’m looking for.

Of course, the beauty of it is that you don’t have to stick to one particular method! Change it up as you go until you find what works for you!

STYLING IT UP:

Chances are, you probably don’t have the exact number of shoes to fill one or two bookcases. If you have spare spots in your shoe shelf, instead of buying shoes you don’t need to fill them up with, you can decorate with accessories such as handbags, decor items or even indoor plants! I like to fill my gaps up with my bag collection so that I can see everything together.

As you can see, I’m a big fan of Bared Footwear, their shoes have honestly changed my life. Being someone who has wide feet and bunions, I could never find shoes that were comfortable until Bared Footwear came along! Much of my collection is from Bared, most of them are older styles (not sure if they’re all still on the website, but maybe they are in new colours!) but the winter boots I’m wearing in this post are new styles from them. The black ones are the Bared Goldcrest boot in black croc leather and the white ones are the Bared Firecrest boot in white leather!

KEEPING IT ORGANISED:

One of the things I love about having my IKEA bookcases is that it keeps my shoe collection under control. After getting my two cabinets, I decided that this space was more than enough pairs for me and so if my Billy bookcases ever feel like it’s about to reach maximum capacity, I make it a point to look at what I actually wear regularly, and which pairs I don’t wear so much and re-home those accordingly. It helps that my sister and I have the same shoe size, so we often share our shoes, especially heels and styles for special occasions!