We couldn’t tidy up the laundry area without addressing our sloppy shoe situation. The side door into the laundry room is our most-used entrance, so it’s become the dumping ground for most of our footwear since we try to keep shoes off inside the house. Until now, our “shoe storage” was a shallow woven basket from Bed Bath & Beyond (plus a pile next to it — not pictured because I’m trying to maintain the illusion that we’re not complete savages).
That basket worked well at the old house, where it sat in the sunroom and matched the room’s casual vibe. When it overflowed it didn’t create a tripping hazard because we had a much larger space to maneuver. Now that we’re dealing with a 3’5″ wide room, we needed something that felt more organized and concealed.
We first tried a narrow shoe shelf that once lived in Clara’s closet. It did the job, especially if we had taken time to notch the back to fit around the baseboards, but it wasn’t ideal. Clara delights in turning shoes into toys, so they often ended up strewn everywhere. That convinced us that concealed storage would be the best solution.
There are plenty of shoe cabinets on the market, and even Ikea has a selection. Most options were either too wide for our 24″ space or too tall — we wanted the top to sit at or below the window sill so the line would match the built-ins on the adjacent wall. After several fruitless searches, we considered building a custom unit from free online plans. Then a helpful comment pointed us toward an affordable, ready-made solution: Ikea’s Retur recycling bins.
The Retur units aren’t marketed as shoe cabinets, which explains why they didn’t appear in our search for shoe storage. But they’re designed essentially like a shoe cabinet and their 23.5″ width made them a perfect fit for our 24″ space. We bought two for $19 each and brought them home.
They do have a few quirks: they’re not a perfect bright white, and they’re plastic rather than wood. In our case both qualities worked in our favor — they read as white in the room and the plastic finish is wipeable, durable, and forgiving for a high-traffic area. One minor annoyance was that between the two units Ikea included only one screw for hanging. After digging out some of my own screws, both units were quick to install with four screws and anchors through the pre-drilled holes in the back. Installation took about fifteen minutes total.
Clara hasn’t managed to dismantle them yet, possibly because there are no knobs to pull on. The dimensions were almost too perfect: when set on top of the baseboard the stacked units line up flush with the window sill, creating a visually seamless shelf across the wall. There’s also about a centimeter of breathing room on either side so the cabinets look intentionally centered between the door and the sill.
Although they’re intended for recyclables, the Retur bins store shoes very well, with space for frequently used pairs to be tucked beneath. Because they only protrude about six inches past the door frame, the room actually feels more open than it did with the basket or a bulkier shelving solution.
We may eventually dress them up a bit — perhaps paint them, apply decorative paper, or add grasscloth — but we want the rest of the room to come together first so we don’t end up with something that feels too busy in such a narrow space. The entire room is only about as wide as a bathroom stall, so restraint is important.
As for the rest of the laundry room, here’s our almost-complete to-do list:
Paint odd brown quarter round near the baseboards glossy whiteRedo dinged-up trim in semi-gloss whitePaint the wallsReplace dryer hose with a safer all-metal oneAdd adjustable built-in shelving in the nook next to the stacked washer and dryerPrime and paint the upper cabinetryReplace hinges and knobs on the upper cabinetsHang the ironing board to obscure the large metal fuse box- Get a new light fixture — we’ll share our homemade clothespin chandelier soon
- Add a window treatment (possibly a homemade one; we might frost the glass when we convert the carport to a garage)
Add other functional storage near the door for shoes, the dog leash, and similar items- Hang some art to keep the room cheerful
Now it’s your turn: what’s your go-to shoe storage solution? Do you repurpose a basket, bin, ottoman, or cabinet? Or do shoes usually end up where they don’t belong? Does your child toss them around while chanting “shooooooes”? We’d love to hear how you handle the everyday shoe chaos.