How to Organize Kid Shoes in a Small Entry: 5 Simple Tips

Do you struggle knowing how to organize kid shoes in your small entry?

If you’ve ever stepped over a pile of shoes inside your front door, or found your adventurous crawler chewing on a muddy sole, you know the struggle. And you are certainly not alone!

If your home is anything like ours, your entry area is small. And it comes straight into the common area of your house. You have one or two (or four!) little kids, some of whom kick off their shoes and leave them JUST inside the door.

You want your home to feel calm, not chaotic. And you’d like it to be easy on the eyes, not a twisted ankle waiting to happen!

Creating a space and a system to organize kid shoes doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just needs to work for your family and your space. And that mean you might need to get a little creative.

In this post, I’m going to share our family’s experiences with organizing kid shoes in a small entry. And I hope it will spark some of your own clever ideas to master that entry and turn it into a cozy welcome zone to your home.

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Our Organization Journey: What’s Worked (and What Hasn’t)

When our first child started to walk (and thus, need shoes), we were living in a garage-conversion, one-bedroom Granny Flat. The front door (a sliding door) opened directly into the space in front of our couch.

Now we live in a 650 square foot cottage as a family of six where the door (French doors, this time) opens directly into the living and dining common space.

Over the years, I think we’ve tried almost all the strategies I’ve dreamed up at one point or another! Shoe racks, baskets under a bench, outdoor areas for muddy boots, and even custom-built pull-out trays under the couch.

Some ideas worked for a season, and some didn’t work at all! But all of them have helped me learn to adapt our system when it is time for a new one!

As of right now, we’ve got a 4-cube shelf just inside our front door. Each of my 3 older (walking!) children get a basket that slots into a cubby for their shoes. And we’ve use a 4th basket in the last cubby for our family’s slippers.

This system is simple, functional, and conveniently located. And most importantly for me, it keeps the shoes both hidden AND out of the primary path of travel in and out of our house.

And so far, the kids are keeping up with it!

calm, clean, organized small entry storage area

5 Simple Tips to Help You Organize Kid Shoes and Create a Calm (and Shoe-Free) Entry Space

Over time, I’ve found that keeping our entry calm and functional doesn’t take a huge overhaul. It just takes a few thoughtful tweaks. Here are five simple strategies that have made a big difference in our small space.

two cloth bins with kid shoes in a 4-cube shelf organizer

1. Give Each Kid Their Own Shoe Basket to Organize Kid Shoes

Designate one easy-access spot per child right inside the door. I love cloth bins in a cube shelf—they’re soft, keep items contained, and inexpensive. No one has to guess where their shoes go.

My kids each got to select their design from the four I bought. So they have a small sense of ownership. I picked our bins up at Kmart. But you could get the same individualized idea with a variety pack off of Amazon.

Placing our cube shelf to organize kid shoes right inside the door does sometimes bottleneck the flow of traffic out of the door. But my kids are still young enough that I often need to directly supervise getting shoes on! (Especially for the 5-years-old and under crowd.)

As a result, it is convenient to have all the shoes right at the door so we aren’t having to run all over the house to gather shoes.

And since the cube shelf sits right on the floor, even my 2-year-old can reach his bin, remove his shoes, or put his shoes away when needed.

2. Minimize the Shoes in Circulation and Store Out of Season Shoes Elsewhere

Since we live in a small space, I have some specific strategies around our stuff that I maintain to keep our small space enjoyable to live in.

One of those strategies is to regularly declutter, minimize, and adjust what we have for the present season.

As a result, we try to keep our shoe collection relatively minimal. Each child has:

Rubber boots
Canvas sneakers
Dressier shoes (for the girls: Mary Jane style, and for my son, leather sneakers)
Crocs
Sandals (for the girls)

We haven’t needed to develop an “overflow” storage spot because we’ve been able to keep shoes that currently fit a child and are appropriate to the season either outside on the deck or inside the storage bin.

I would strongly encourage you to minimize your child’s shoe storage to hold 3-5 pair of shoes they regularly use in the current season. I pack sandals up during the winter, and if I wanted to, I could probably pack up the rubber boots during the summer.

Less shoes in rotation means less mess on the floor! And also, fewer opportunities to lose a shoe!

outdoor shoe storage on deck with boots and crocks

3. Consider Outdoor Storage for Play Shoes and Boots to Organize Kid Shoes

If you have a deck space that is protected from the elements, or if you can get a weatherproof bin to keep outside, you ma be able to contain muddy messes outdoors in wet seasons.

We have a shoe rack outside for our boots and most of my husbands’ and my regular use shoes. I also have hung command hooks just outside our door for our kids to hang their crocs on the wall.

While I’ll admit it doesn’t make for the most elegant approach to our front door, it does reduce both the tripping hazards and creates a precedent for boots to be removed outside rather than tracking mud into the house.

4. Create a Home-for-Slippers Spot and Habit

We’re a “shoes off” household, so we keep a shared cloth bin of our cozy slippers by the door in one of the four cubbies.

Having a spot right at the front door where the slippers live when we’re gone means that they are right there waiting for us when we get home. And that helps to remind everyone that outside dirt is meant to stay outside!

Each person in our family has their own pair of slippers. My kids enjoy cute, cozy, fun slippers with non-skid soles. My husband and I have invested in warm slippers as well.

5. Hidden Storage Systems to Organize Kid Shoes Creates Visual Calm

If you’re someone who feels frazzled by visible clutter (hi, fellow Crickets!), go for concealed storage.

One of the reasons I like the cloth bin system inside a cube shelf is because when the bins are in place, the front of the cube shelf looks neat and tidy and organized.

I could have just assigned a cubby to each child and stacked the shoes inside it, but the shoes themselves would have looked a bit cluttered and messy to me.

Utilize baskets or bins to help organize kid shoes and keep your small entry space peaceful, even when life is not!

If you are interested in figuring out what organization method works best for you (everyone is different – some people NEED to have their stuff visible to remember that they own it!), check out the Clutterbug Website.

front door entry with clean, organized kid shoes

A Few Shoes, A Big Difference:

Organizing kid shoes might seem like a small thing—but in a small space, I’m telling you, those little changes can make a big difference!

When the entry feels calm and clear, it sets the tone for the rest of your home. And in our house, it sets the tone for the main part of our living area.

An entry with organized kid shoes gives our family a soft place to land (and launch!), without the frustration of scattered shoes or cluttered floors.

I’m sure you know this, but in case you need a reminder as much as I often do, keep in mind that the goal isn’t perfection—it’s peace. Peace inside your front door AND peace inside your mind!

Start with just one small step: maybe it’s a shoe basket by the door, or maybe it’s a five-minute reset each evening. Maybe it is tossing out shoes with holes in them, or packing up shoes that are too small.

Whatever it looks like for your family, you can create a space that feels welcoming and works for your real life.

And hey, if this post was helpful, I’d love it if you’d share it with a friend, save it on Pinterest for later, or leave a comment with what’s worked in your home!

How to Organize Kid Shoes in a Small Entry