Wheel...of...Shoe...!

As part of our continued efforts to organize our apartment, I had to find some extra storage for the rest of my shoes. A few pairs were taken care of with our IKEA shoe rack, but I still had a lot of other shoes to store in a smaller closet.

I had seen the Shoe Wheel in a Daily Candy email and ordered it almost a year and a half ago but had never gotten around to assembling it since I didn't really need the shoe storage. But now I did...

Here's the box before unpacking...


I unpacked and organized all of the pieces according to the instructions. All of the little screws and bolts on the cardboard in the lower left.


First I had to attach the metal frames to the plastic axle center.


Then I attached the rolly wheels to the bottom of the metal frame so the Shoe Wheel can be mobile. Notice the little wheel locks so I could keep it in place too.


Then I screwed in one wheel side to the center axle.


Then (this was the 1st hard part) I had to attach the center elastic sections to the axle. Each section consisted of 2 clear plastic sheets that would separate the pairs of shoes and columns of elastic rope to keep the shoes from falling out. I did this incorrectly the first time and ended up elastics stretched on the wrong side of the wheel. I didn't realize it until I had attached the other wheel and was trying to stretch the plastic sections out. So I had to take everything off and reposition the center sections. This was my 2nd attempt.


Then I attached the other wheel side.


The wheel standing up!


I then looped these plastic strips around the axle so they would prevent friction between the wheels and axle.


Now was the 2nd difficult part, I had to pull each plastic rod over the outside of the wheels and click the rod onto the wheel sides. This got more difficult with each plastic rod because it got tighter and tighter (as the rods fit onto the wheels) and I had to pull harder and harder to secure them to the outside of the wheels.


It looks like I'm only doing it with one hand but that was because I had to use the other to take the picture.


Whew! I got them all on!


Final step... I screwed on the covers on the axle on both sides.


Now to start putting in shoes! I started with my sneaker collection...


Then I moved onto my sandals and dress shoes. Notice the many colors of sneakers - blue, gray, red, neon yellow-green, pink, brown, olive green, purple, orange, black... I love sneakers! Having different colored pairs to wear make me happy and brighten up my outfits.


The Shoe Wheel neatly stored in my closet. I managed to get 17 pairs of shoes in it! There are some limitations to the Shoe Wheel, namely boots. But I just stored mine (snow, rain, hiking) on the right side of the closet.
How awesome is this thing? Everytime we have guests over now I have to show it off and spin the wheel of shoes for them.

His favorite IKEA item...

Out of all the furniture FI and I got at IKEA, his favorite would have to be Trones - shoe organizers. The Trones take up very little space and you can stack them on top of each other. They mount right into the wall and we even use the top Trone as a little hallway table, leaving keys, our phones, and mail on it.

There are no screws or nails that come with the Trones. Which is sort of unusual for an IKEA item, since they usually with exactly everything you'll need. The instructions tell you to get your own wall mountings, since each type of wall is different and would use different types of screws. FI luckily had some screws left over from some other home improvement projects so he was able to install the Trones.

Check out how it doesn't crowd the hallway and we can use the top as a table.

The IKEA website says it can hold up to 6 pairs of shoes, but if you lay the shoes with the soles against each other, you can hold a few more. Also, flip-flops are thinner so we were able to put in a couple more pairs.

We each get one drawer and our sneakers are in the 3rd one.

My shoe organizer!

Remember my post where I vaguely mentioned buying a shoe rack for my cube?

So I did and I set it up under my desk and I put all the shoes I had under my desk on it. Then I started bringing in all the dress shoes I had at home to work too.

I finally ended up with 18 pairs of dress shoes at work!
Looks good, doesn't it? Now I can pick and choose different pairs to wear because I can actually see them.

My friend Ann was shocked I had 18 pairs of dress shoes. I was shocked she didn't have 18 pairs of shoes.

That's not even all of my shoes! I've got a few more dressy shoes, lots of fun sneakers (in different colors), several flip-flops, and rain, snow, and hiking boots.

Although I don't think I have a shoe fetish or addiction. I've never had to hide my shoe purchases from anyone. I even like showing them off to FI when I get new ones.