How We Finally Stopped the Shoe Pile by the Door With 5 Kids

If you have kids, please tell me I’m not the only one who has stood in front of a giant pile of shoes and thought…

WHY is this so hard?! 😂

Because this was our garage entryway constantly.

Five kids means a LOT of shoes.

Everyday shoes. School shoes. Crocs. Slides. Sports shoes. Church shoes. And apparently every single pair needs to be within three feet of the door at all times. 😂

I kept trying to find a better shoe storage system for our large family, but no matter what I bought or how many times I reorganized the area, we eventually ended up right back here.

Shoes. Everywhere.

And the funny thing is, I really thought I had given my kids perfectly reasonable places to put them.

Turns out, my definition of reasonable and theirs were very different.

Shoe Storage Attempt #1: Bins

My first solution was pretty simple.

I put bins in our laundry room/mudroom for everyone’s shoes.

And for a while, it worked!

But then the kids got older.

And their feet got bigger.

And suddenly those cute little bins that used to hold several pairs of shoes couldn’t hold nearly enough.

The shoes started overflowing, and once the bins were full, you can probably guess where the extras ended up.

Yep.

The floor.

So…onto Plan B.

Attempt #2: Shoe Shelves in the Garage

This one made SO much sense in my head.

I put shoe shelves in the garage right near the door.

Walk inside. Take your shoes off. Put them on the shelf.

Easy, right?

Apparently not. 😂

Instead of putting the shoes on the shelves, my kids would take them off and leave them in a giant pile directly in front of the shelves.

Which meant I had purchased an entire storage system whose main purpose seemed to be providing a nice backdrop for our shoe pile.

Perfect.

Attempt #3: The Hanging Shoe Organizer

At this point, I thought maybe everyone just needed a designated spot.

So I tried one of those hanging organizers made specifically for shoes.

Again, this seemed completely logical to me.

Pick up shoe. Put shoe in organizer.

Except that apparently required approximately one step too many.

😂

The shoes still ended up on the floor because putting them into the organizer took more effort than simply kicking them off by the door.

And this was when I finally realized something.

Maybe My Kids Weren’t the Problem

I had spent all this time trying to find an organization system that would make my kids put their shoes away.

But I hadn’t really stopped to think about how my kids naturally come into the house.

They’re carrying backpacks.

Sports bags.

Water bottles.

School papers.

Sometimes coats.

Someone needs a snack.

Someone has to go to the bathroom.

Someone is already yelling, “Mom!”

They aren’t walking through the door thinking:

Let me carefully place my shoes into this lovely organization system Mother has provided for me.

😂

They want to kick off their shoes and move on.

And honestly?

I finally decided to work with that instead of fighting it.

The Shoe System That Finally Worked

That’s when we switched to our current locker setup.

Each kid has their own space for their things, and underneath is a big open bin where their shoes can go.

There’s no organizing the shoes by type.

No putting each pair neatly on a shelf.

No lifting them into individual little pockets.

They literally just have to…

DROP. THEM. IN.

That’s it.

And wouldn’t you know it?

They actually do it.

😂

Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only share products we actually use and genuinely recommend.

It Doesn’t Look Pinterest Perfect — And That’s Kind of the Point

Here’s what one of those bins actually looks like:

Are the shoes lined up neatly?

Nope.

Are the pairs sitting perfectly next to one another?

Also nope.

Would this win an award for the prettiest shoe organization on Pinterest?

Probably not. 😂

But here’s what matters to me:

They’re not all over the floor.

My kids know exactly where their shoes belong. They can find them when we’re trying to get out the door. And putting them away is easy enough that they actually do it.

At this stage of motherhood, I’ll take a system my kids actually use over a beautiful system I’m constantly maintaining for them.

Every. Single. Time.

Each Kid Having Their Own Space Changed More Than the Shoes

The lockers have also given each kid a home base for the things that would otherwise float around our house.

Backpacks can hang there. Sports bags can go there. Jackets can go there. And their shoes have a place underneath.

Instead of me constantly gathering everyone’s stuff and figuring out where it belongs, they know:

This is my space. My stuff goes here.

It’s one more little way we’re trying to give the kids some responsibility for their own things instead of Mom managing everything.

And with five kids, I’ll gladly hand some of that responsibility back. 😂

RELATED: How I Keep Track of 5 Kids’ Schedules Without Losing My Mind

That ties beautifully into the same idea: systems that let the kids participate instead of everything living with Mom.

What Three Failed Organization Systems Taught Me

This whole shoe saga taught me something that I’m starting to notice in other areas of our house too.

Sometimes when an organization system isn’t working, we don’t need to try harder to maintain it.

We need to make the system easier.

Especially with kids.

If something takes several steps, requires things to be perfectly arranged or depends on me reminding everyone constantly, there’s a pretty good chance it’s eventually going to fall apart in our house.

So now I’m trying to ask a different question:

What’s the easiest possible way for my kids to do this themselves?

Not the prettiest way.

Not the way I would do it.

The way they’ll actually do it.

That little mindset shift has made a big difference.

RELATED: The Sunday Reset That Keeps Our Family of 7 From Starting Monday in Chaos

If You’re Currently Staring at a Pile of Shoes…

First, solidarity. 😂

And before you buy another shoe organizer, watch what your kids are already doing.

Where do they naturally take their shoes off?

What makes it hard for them to put them away?

Does your current system require too many steps?

Would a big basket, bin or open cubby right where they already drop their shoes work better than something more organized?

Your answer may look completely different from ours.

For our family, it happened to be individual lockers with big open shoe bins underneath.

But the biggest thing that helped wasn’t finding the “perfect” organizer.

It was finally accepting that the best organization system for our family is the one my kids will actually use.

And if that means their shoes are tossed into a giant bin instead of lined up beautifully on a shelf?

I’m calling that a win. 🤍

Less chaos. More life.