read_connect(); //$GLOBALS[ezoic_db]->read->query("use 17things"); ?>

Creative ideas for storing shoes and handbags with as little space as possible?

Hello all you “masters of saving space with creative ideas”! lol. I’m in need of some SERIOUS help. I have tons of shoes and handbags that I need organized. I’ve already removed the items I don’t want anymore, (and then I went and replaced them with new ones so I’m still right back where I started, except with the excitement of having some new peices). lol. Anyway, can anyone recommend some creative “space saving” ideas for getting my accesories OUT OF THE WAY?! Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!
Me: I’ve already tried the “behind the door racks” I’ve got two different closet doors with handbags covering both! (No room for the shoes either)! I can’t even open either one of the closets without stooping down to reach the door handle! lol. I know…it’s bad!

Related Items

50 Responses to “Creative ideas for storing shoes and handbags with as little space as possible?”

  1. Me said :

    Get one of those behind-the-door hangers! They sell them at Wal-Mart, and everywhere. They are large plastic bags with space to place shoes, bags, etc.

  2. becca9892003 said :

    i break my bags and shoes into (seasons)…once winter is over i bring out my sprig and summer wear and once summer is over i bring out my winter and i leave a couple pairs that can be worn for every season..this way it is less to deal with all at once…then i have 2 under bed plastic storage containers by rubber maid with dividers..i roll it out and pick out my shoes and purse then roll it back under my bed..this way you dont have tons of shoes all over the place and i stuff my bags when not in use with balled up paper to keep them from getting flat and wrinkled….

  3. rrm38 said :

    I’m not sure how much “extra” space you have, but I use wooden shoe cubes that I bought at a discount store. The cubes are not super deep, so they don’t take up a whole lot of space. I have mine in the space that is usually “dead space” in most closets… underneath the shorter hanging items. Each cube is designed to hold 25 pair of shoes, or you can put sweaters, handbags, belts… pretty much anything in them (I do).

  4. Angrygirl5 said :

    I struggle with this dillemma also. I’ve always lived in apartments and I still have yet to find the ultimate solution. The over the door things are overpriced and quite frankly suck. They can get so heavy that I almost ripped my door off the hinges. Also, many shoe organizers can’t fit boots. That is my biggest problem because I love boots. The shoe cubes look neat, but again, can’t fit boots, they are big, and quite costly. I bought one of those big shoe towers at Bed Bath and Beyond a few years back, but it few apart after awhile and it took up a lot of space. What I do now is just place all of my shoes at the bottom of my closet so I can see them clearly. Then I put my boots in the top of my closet. I was thinking of putting a shelf slightly about my boots for extra storage. My closets are very high, but no shelves. The shoes on the floor I was thinking of putt a shelf slightly above them for extra storage or one of those shoe stands. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it just looks like a long step shelf and you can put shoes under it and above it. I don’t really have that many purses because I only change them on special occasions, but I use one of those accordian racks (I think that is what you call them)/coat racks that you nail to the wall. I think it was a few bucks at Walmart for a plastic one, but they sell wooden ones that are fancier. If you have room in your closet you can put it in their. I guess if you have a lot of nice purses, you can use a wall of racks and display them so they look like colorful art. I hope this helps…thanks.

  5. pseudonym said :

    ummm how about NOT BUYING SO MUCH CRAP and giving the money to unicef and people who NEED money?? At *MOST* you only need one or two handbags and four or five pairs of shoes.

  6. Gigi said :

    I just found a solution for this!! I have a set of plastic stacking baskets i was given…they are too small for blankets, but just right for my boots and pumps…it stacks all the way to my closet shelf and fits all my shoes…plus the flipflops can all be thrown together to save some space…and as far as bags i have a plastic chain with clothespin clips so each clip can hold a bag…doesn’t take up very much space either…good luck!!

  7. smarties said :

    I just moved to a new place and I’m trying to figure out where to put my stuff too. I just bought a couple of shoe organizers that you can hang in your closet and put your shoes in them from IKEA for $1.50 each. They don’t take that much of space in my closet and they each hold 6 pairs of shoes. IKEA also had longer ones that can hold 10 or 12 pairs of shoes but I like the shorter ones better because now I can put a box underneath of them and put my bags and purses in it. Now this works for me because I have a walk-in closet. If you don’t have a walk-in closet, your best bet is again to use the hanging shoe organizers and to put a couple rows of shelving above the rode and store your bags there. Or if your closet is deep enough, you can get a few 3M Command Strips hooks and hang your bags behind your cloths (this only works if the hanging rode is toward the front of the closet and you have a little bit of space in the back).
    If nothing else worked, you can just hang your bags randomly from a wall and use them as decorations! 🙂

  8. Kia said :

    well, u could hang a bunch of handbags on the ceiling, like for decoration, in ur room. it looks really cool, all the patetrns and colors together.

  9. beardog4314 said :

    Pick out a pair of shoes that match the handbag, and put them in it. Then you’re all ready to go, just by picking out your purse!

  10. Sonya said :

    You should stop buying so many shoes and handbags and save up for a bigger house! lol jk.

    You can buy a rack to hang all of your handbags and place it anywhere you have space (a wall, inside your closet, on the door, ect.). For your shoes, you can put them inside a box or an empty drawer.

  11. krazykeeper03 said :

    I think you should try and put your shoes under your bed. It helped me a lot.

  12. prepishippie said :

    I don’t know what size shoe you wear, but heres what I do….

    Slide a pair of shoes (or a couple if they’re flip-flops or sandles) into a purse. What purses are empty, put inside other empty purses. Buy heavy duty hooks (like ones that’ll go on a coat rack) or a coat rack itself. Hang the purses on these hooks. If you buy individual hooks, you can place wherever is convienient. For storage purpeses, I hang on the back wall of my closet. For frequent use, I hang wherever I can find a space that is convient.

  13. Donkey Snot said :

    I would advise hanging them on the wall. Obviously you enjoy them and are proud of them – why not display them? You could hang each individually, or use a string to hang them from.

  14. Mel said :

    I have exactly the same problem… I have door hanging shoe racks, which really help and are under $20. I also am a big fan of these big “tupperware-like” boxes that are short enough to fit under the bed, they are a big help when it comes to storing extra clothes or blankets or HANDBAGS (in your case). My advice to you, is use your wall space to your advantage… why not display your purses on decorative hooks on your wall – art and storage, all in one! Good luck Ü

  15. musicimprovedme said :

    It sounds to me like you still need to pare down and ease up on shopping. Are you honestly using all these items? Try to weed out some more, Imelda. The “one in, one out” rule is good for frequent shoppers…you are free to purchase but for every one thing you bring in, one thing leaves the house.

    For a solution that helps you declutter without saying goodbye to items, try the “see ya later” approach. What you do is break down your shoes (same process with handbags) into smaller collections, first by season, and then further, into a small assortments that each have a good selection to get you through a variety of occasions. You put all but one collection away, and rotate them in and out as often as you want, with only a certain number of shoes out at a time. Try to think of your collections in terms of how often you want to rotate them. If you have 6 months of warm weather, then break them into six collections and rotate once a month until you have had the chance to wear them all. You may think that you will miss your shoes but if you have a good variety out, you will actually wear all of them more than I bet you do now. And if a rotation comes and goes without a certain item being used in that month, you probably don’t need it. Theoretically, you had those out to serve a specific purpose…as in one of 3 pr of very useful black pumps. If you didn’t choose them once in a whole month of needing black pumps, you probably don’t love them very much.

    Same process can work for all your accessories, maybe even organize your shoes and purses so the matching ones come in and out of rotation together.

    Another idea for purses is to store the smaller ones inside a larger one. Not all nested together, that would be a big pain, but you can round up all the tiny purses and store them in a little used or out of season tote bag or suitcase.

  16. happyhive7 said :

    Why dont you try storing some shoes in an under bed containers that are meant for storing shoes and other items under your bed. As for your purses and bags,try putting some of the smaller hand bags and purses inside the bigger ones but make sure you rember which ones you put in which cuz if you forget then you’ll be going crazy looking for a specific one! perhaps if you put them together by color or designer or style,whatever works for you and maybe write it down in a little note book or somthing handy you look at often to remind you where your certain handbags are at. As far as finding space for your purses,just get rid of 2 for every 1 you buy,the same for your shoes,then you’ll see how less stressful it is trying to manage unessasary items,plus at least once you clear up 2 or more bags/shoes you can always look forward to buying a new one.Hey,I have an idea sell some on ebay! let me know and maybe I can start a collection of shoes and bags myself!!! Hope this helps.

  17. Gtron said :

    raid IKEA’s storage section. tons of stuff.

  18. Betty Mae Bop said :

    Well Dorothy,

    Shouldn’t a glamourous movie star like you just be able to afford buying a bigger closet? One with hundreds of square feet, drawers and hangers complete with a leather floor, crystal chandelier, 80K shoe painting, and 360-degree mirror?

  19. STORMY K said :

    GIVE THEM AWAY

  20. ixat02 said :

    the best way to store shoes is on your feet. handbags…probably in your hand.

  21. Kristen M said :

    Sorry if this has already been said:

    When i’m at school in the dorms, i have to conserve space since our closets are so small. So, to do this i go to walmart and buy those collapsible shoe racks. It’s not cloth (those are more expensive), but it’s some sort of fabric. Anyway, it comes with pockets on the side and everything. I don’t use it for shoes at school, i use it for shirts, but while at home i use it for shoes. Something my room mate did was she would keep it within season. She’d box up whatever season she didn’t want to use, and leave out the ones she did. You can buy some rubbermaid tubs from walmart for pretty cheap. They’ll slide right under your bed if you buy the right size. (something else i use as well!)

  22. ninjaaa! said :

    I have the same problem.

    For handbags, I use a hatrack from Ikea. It’s one of those standing hatracks like this:
    http://www.marciehatfield.com/images/hatrack.gif
    but with much longer branches. I organise my bags by “type”: tote bags, regular purses, sling bags, etc and hang them on the different branches. It works really well.

    For shoes, I keep the shoes in the shoeboxes they came in. I stack up the shoeboxes against the wall and on each box I draw a picture of the shoe inside it. If you don’t like the sight of shoeboxes stacked up (it can look pretty disorganised) then you can get regular plain shoeboxes so that all the boxes are uniform. It doesn’t look so messy that way.

  23. Jean said :

    with handbags, start with the largest, line them up by size, and then put a smaller one inside the larger one, and so on for all larger bags, and then continue until they are all easily accessible but stored in units.

    do you have stairs in your home; if so, is there storage underneath, or is it wallboard. If you own can you have a storage area made under the stairs just for shoes and bags, and use hooks on the walls to hang the bags from; and put the shoes in shoe bags and hang them also from hooks on the walls;

    put a bar across the wall, and use S hooks and hang the bags from the S hooks and shoe bags as well.

    also, if you have shoes you only wear with certain outfits, put the shoes in bags and hang around the neck of the hanger that the outfit is on.

    i wish you luck. i am a handbag addict in recovery’

  24. Lore said :

    I lay my purses on top of eachother (flat) and stack them. For my shoes I use the hanging storage that hangs from the clothes pole and it stacks them to the floor.

  25. amazon cheryl said :

    IKEA has a plastic shoe cabinet called TRONES that is $40 for a 3pk. It stores your shoes vertically in these drawers, and you would be surprised how many shoes and small to medium sized handbags fit in there. Since the drawers hold the shoes vertically, it only comes out a little over 7″ from the wall you attach it to so you can stick them almost anywhere – hallways, bathrooms, living and dining rooms, whatever and you can’t see what is inside. You can also store the shoes that won’t fit in a drawer (like boots) on top. I have six of these drawers in my entry in black, set up in a stairstep pattern under coat hooks, and it looks quite striking for something so cheap. And it holds many shoes, hats, gloves, purses, etc without cluttering the entry.

    I have also heard that you can store purses on hooks on the wall behind your hanging clothes. I have not tried this myself, so I don’t know if it would interfere with how your clothes slide on the rail.

    I have also seen a shoe store on Clark Street in Chicago that hangs shoes from cables and hooks in the display window almost like a giant beaded curtain, and it’s a very cool effect for the more stylish shoes.

  26. A7X<3 said :

    For comforters and other Fluffy things, get space save bags. They are WONDEROUS.

    Put up an on the door shoe rack behind doors in rooms. You will probably need more than one, but they’ll atleast be hid.

    If you want to invest in a new seat for your living room or dining room, get a bench in your living room with a back that has storage underneath.

    I know my grandmother has a kitchen set that has the bend that is made to go against the wall. They are in L shapes. These have storage under the seats usually. Know one will know!

  27. Matthew E said :

    Auction about 1/3 of your shoes and handbags on E-Bay or for charity. Rent a storage container they bring them to your house and take them away until you want them again. Fill it up with another third of your shoes and bags and whatever else you want. Enjoy the rest of your things more. I have storage issues too so good luck!

  28. La Femme said :

    STORAGE BOXES!!

    Watch any episode of Clean Sweep on TLC nad you’ll understand why. IKEA and Target sell a ton of them at low prices. Gone are the days of boring and ugly plastic storage boxes. Now manufacturers are creating boxes with interesting prints and they range in a number of sizes.

    Your best bet is to buy the ones are are designed for underbed storage. you can fit a ton of bags in them and keep them hidden away while your not using them.

    If you prefer to see your collection, you can always make use of your hallway closet. Install some shelving and place your handbags in there. People are increasingly redesigning their closets to make more room for their clothes and accessories with smart shelving and storage solutions.

  29. Mother2B said :

    What I’ve done is use wall space with “behind the door shoe rack” It holds up to 30 pairs of shoes and even my husbands fit there. I also store my purses in my traveling luggage and put it in my closet. I also use my under the bed space and have a chest for my sheets and pillow cases.

  30. Lucky Duck said :

    I saw this trick on “What Not to Wear” on TLC. If you have a shelf above your clothes rack, put all the shoes in their shoe boxes there. You can stack the shoes up and store a lot this way. For easy access, take a polaroid picture of each pair of shoes and tape it to the front of the box so all you have to do is look for the picture that matches and you’re good to go. For your handbags, you can stick them in a drawer, get a hanging rack for the back of your closet door and place them there, or get low boxes to put on the closet floor. Hope this helps! 🙂

  31. mom of two said :

    I have tons of handbags. And not cheap ones either. I had my hubby hang some shelves (like Bookshelves) on the wall of the hallway leading from our master bedroom to the master bath. He put the shelves up high (above the closet doors) and I have to stand on a chair to reach them, but i was able to put quite a few of my purses up there. Nobody sees that hallway except my family anyway. Just use the dust bags if you have any, and the ones that don’t come with dustbags, buy those extra large ziploc bags for them. That keeps them clean. That way I have more room in my closet for shoes. Which if, by the way, you store in the boxes; it takes LESS space if you put them in those large ziploc baggies and get rid of the boxes. hope this helps.

  32. signmypoodle said :

    get one of those “space bags” that you can suck the air out of. they give you lots of space and they can hold a lot.

  33. ladymoon19982007 said :

    I usually put my smaller bags in the bigger ones which makes a little more room. The shoes I am in the same boat my husband said I was not aloud to bring one more pair of shoes in this house for me or my daughter. lol

  34. Dix Pix said :

    Okay, I am a neat freak and a shoe/purse fanatic. I bought one of those cases that stand about four feet tall and have like six racks in them. It works great! You can even zip it up so your shoes don’t get dusty. I bought this at a yard sale, but I think you can find them at a department store, like Walmart, Kmart or Target. They normally hae lots of odds and ends. For my purses, I put them in the drawers of my wardrobe. If you have a HUGE amount of handbags, then get a chest. I think a 2×3 is what I have. It may sound small, but it holds a lot of junk!(lol)

  35. dj unk said :

    if you have a fairly large closet, buy multiple floor shoe racks (the kind that you put the shoe on it and it stands slanted) there r some nice ones at THE CONTAINER STORE. line the perimeter of your closet with these. if need be, both closets.
    do you wear only certain purses adn the rest are kind of occational purses? set up behind the door hangers on the smaller walls of your closet and line them with your purses. if there r some that u NEVER use, buy a shower curtain and put it behind your hanger rack and put all your NEVER used purses up there, or give them to goodwill, if you can stand to part with them.

  36. bypass5x said :

    I SAW HOW IMELDA MARCOS STORED ALL OF HER SHOES AND PURSES.. REMEMBER HER?

    SHE HAD ONE WHOLE WALK IN CLOSET JUST FOR HER SHOES AND PURSES.

    THERE WERE SHELVES ON EACH WALL TO FIT THE SHOES AND PURSES.

    SO, MAKE YOUSELF A WALKIN CLOSET JUST FOR YOUR SHOES AND PURSES THAT WAY YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO STUFF THEM UNDER THE BED OR CROWD UP YOUR OTHER CLOSETS OR HANG STUFF ON YOUR DOORS. (THAT IS A PAIN BECAUSE YOU CAN’T CLOSE YOUR DOOR AND IT LOOKS HIDEOUS ANYWAY.)

  37. pebblespro said :

    If you have space under your beds you can put your bed on risers they are sold linens n things/Bed Bath and Beyond… Get some underbed storage containers the fit and store seasonal shoes under the bed..

    Handbags: If you are in love with handbags why not show some of the nicer or cool ones off… Get some finished shelves hang and display some of your nicer/cool handbags. Make them a feature in your room.. Or get a peg hanger usually used for hats.. and hang them on a wall…. Or a coat tree… I use the behind the door shoe hanger in my coat closet on the inside.. To store my childrens shoes out of the way.. You can also get hanging sweater holders that hang in a closet and put handbags in the cubes or openings… That’s about all I can think of…..good luck

  38. GilmoreGirl said :

    California Closets help out.

  39. naniannie said :

    Instead of hanging those over the door thingies over a door, fasten them to the wall at the back of your closet. They are narrow enough that hanging clothes in front of them should not be a problem and will still be easy to get to when needed. I also suggest purchasing a couple of those moisture and odor absorbing thingies so you can control the amount of foot odor which seems to permeate the clothing of people who keep a lot of shoes in their closets!!!

  40. ♥Kady♥ said :

    I LOVE purses and have tons of them. My mom got tired of them all in my closet taking up all of my space so she got her coat rack and put in the corner of my room and that’s where I put all of my purses, hats, scarves, and my letterman jacket on. It’s a neat way to show off all of your accessories without dealing with the clutter. It’s the first thing people go to in my room. As for the shoes, I have a bookcase in the back of my closet that holds my expensive shoes and then I have a plastic container on the top shelf in my closet that stores all of my flip flops. Hopefully this helps! I know what it’s like to have to many accessories and to put up with a cluttering mess!

  41. Nicole said :

    Hang up your handbags on the wall, make them art. you can rotate them as you use them. As for the shoes, Do you store them in their box’s? to help find them without opening all ,take a Polaroid and attach them to the side of the box facing you. If you have a regular bed frame , you could always use the space under the bed. place shoe box’s in an under the bed box and put pictures on top of the box’s.

  42. Twinklestar said :

    You only have 2 feet, why do you need so many shoes???
    hehee, j/k.

    I have the same problem and hope to get some ideas here.

    ty.

  43. donnaishere2001 said :

    Place them in plastic bags and store them in your unused luggage, in your closet.

  44. moose said :

    Buy storage containers(plasstic) Dollar general.
    Seperate into colors. Like Red Shoes or Red Purses, etc.
    Stack them across the bottom of your closet.

  45. Cotton Tablecloth said :

    Give them all to charity.

    We men make do with one or two pairs of shoes at any given time. You too can make do.

    You only need one bag, so go out and find your dream bag, pay whatever you have to to afford it, and give the others away.

    Your life will be less cluttered, you’ll have the positive feelings associated with both giving and knowing where everything is.

    Give up your cluttered life and embrace simplicity and structure.

    Or, you know, buy a bigger house.

  46. DianaMC said :

    Here’s a little suggestion. If you have 2 closets (or more), store all the shirt, shorts, short skirt and generally short items into one and the long ones in the other. In the short items closet, right under the clothes, buy/ask someone’s help to do a little “library” (lots of narrow and short shelves) and make sure you have some for pumps, shorter ones for flip-flops and longer ones for the boots. Same goes for purses. In the long items closet, if you still have a little space left in one of the sides of the closet, build some shelves within a more narrow yet taller “library”. In each closet, you can make several little libraries, to put one in front of each other and so on. Be sure to put the items that you’re sure you’re not gonna use this season in the back. Something like http://www.binkyswoodworking.com/TruckShelving11.jpg , but with different sizes so all your items will fit. Good luck in finding a solution!

    And: You could also try buying/ordering some long coathangers (something like { | | | | | | | | | | | | ) for your high heels – try hanging one or more pairs on every line and same up space in the mini-library for your bags, boots and other shoes.

  47. katerschenko said :

    Storage is a problem espesh if you live in London,so, how about hanging your shoes from the ceiling { I am serious] I hang my bike there to give me more space.
    I envisage you using small screw in ? hooks [now you know the type! Hang them ! Knowing womens’ shoes with the colours and styles and all that it will be a work of art and, yes , I have thought about how you get them down, use a pole with a hook on the end like they did in” Open all hours ‘.

  48. Pear said :

    Try buying some fancy hooks and hang your bags on them in the closet or find a wall you could use. As for the shoes you could by the little crates and stick them in there. Take a picture of each pair of shoes and put the pic on the outside of the box so you know what is what. Other than that if you are a size 10 you could send me some LOL:)

  49. maury said :

    I am having the same issue, but I am in the process of fixing it. I am using these clear plastic boxes from the dollar store for shoes. I am also keeping my special occasion shoes in the boxes they came in and taking pictures of them with my camera so I can attache them to the boxes and put them up high in my closet, but I will be able to see exactly what is in the box without taking them all down. It also keeps dress shoes from getting all messed up. I had enough wall space so instead of hanging the bag on the back of the door(only have 1 door) I just hung it from nails in the wall. I got nicer canvas ones on clearance from home depot on line.

  50. craig s said :

    Hi, they have those shoe box cabinets now that are apart of the remodeling thing. Those and other closet organizer furniture is in any store. I want to do it myself, but be aware it is pricey.




Message:

[newtagclound int=0]

Subscribe

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Archives