Shoes, shoes everywhere! If you have a special place in your heart for the perfect pair of shoes, you are probably well aware of the disorder that can accompany having too many pairs. Adamantly searching for a match in a haphazardly piled mountain of shoes can certainly make you late every day. With a little time and familiarity with the options in shoe organization and storage, you can soon consider the shoe problem solved.

If your closet has the space, an appealing solution to shoe chaos is storing each pair of shoes in a shoebox sized plastic box with a lid. Plastic shoe boxes provide visual conformity and can be purchased with see through plastic to make finding the right pair of shoes quick and easy. Individual boxes allow you to organize shoes by color, style, or whatever method helps you navigate your collection with ease. Similar containers that incorporate sliding drawers rather than plastic lids provide an easy access alternative that never has to be unstacked.

A likely scenario is that you have more shoes than you have space for stacked plastic containers. Other solutions are available that can accommodate a closet with less space for shoes, including numerous options that utilize vertical space to maximize utility. A popular and affordable option is a canvas or other fabric hanging shelf with vertically stacked compartments for storing shoes. Designed to suspend directly from the hanging rod in your closet alongside your wardrobe, the fabric hanging shelf provides an excellent means of saving floor space and storing multiple pairs of shoes at the same time.

If you have more useable space on the closet floor (perhaps underneath shoe mountain) than in your wardrobe, a low profile shelf system is the best option for storing your prized shoe collection. Floor shelf systems that incorporate shoe "cubbies" allow you to store individual pairs of shoes in compartments that are easily accessed and provide good visibility at the same time. You may also consider stackable shelves, which are available in numerous sizes and allow you to purchase and stack as many shelves as necessary to house your shoe collection.

If tackling your shoe pile leaves you overwhelmed, it may be time to consider donating or throwing away pairs that you do not wear. Being conscientious about shoe shopping is a great way to help prevent keep-it versus toss-it dilemmas in the future. Before you go shopping, take a mental inventory of the styles of shoes you have, and only purchase shoes that serve a purpose that your existing collection cannot. Having designated spaces for all of your shoes will not only save you valuable time getting out the door, but will also decrease clutter by encouraging you to put shoes away in their tidy compartments at the end of the day.

About the Author: Stephen Nickse is the founder of Closet Solutions, a leading provider of quality Boston custom closets, strategically headquartered in the nation's design capitol, Boston, Ma. For more information, please visit www.closet-solutions.com.