Shoes give us a lot of joy – but so can shoe boxes! Make use of their unique shape and size with these Crafty Ways to Organize with Shoe Boxes!

If you’re like me, you probably love shopping for shoes – and bags! I admit, part of receiving my order is the obvious one – the pretty shoes – but another bonus is the box that comes with it!

I love shoe boxes – they’re my favorite way to organize things. They’re the perfect size to fit on shelves or on desks and are large enough to hold a reasonable number of items. However, I’ve recently discovered many more ways to organize with shoe boxes, and I’m going to share them with you today!

20 Crafty Ways to Organize with Shoe Boxes

1. Decorative Storage

The easiest way to use shoe boxes is to use them as they are, with their lids. However, I’d strongly recommend putting in about 10 minutes of extra effort to jazz up your boxes so they look as pretty as these ones from Handmade Charlotte. You can use wrapping paper, contact paper or even leftover wallpaper to dress up your boxes.

2. Earring Organizer

Pretty things deserve pretty boxes to go into, don’t you agree? Instead of dumping all your earrings together in a box and then hunting to match pairs, use a shoe box like they’ve done at Smart n Snazzy and give your precious pieces a place worthy of them.

3. Cable Organizer

In this post, we saw how you can use cardboard tubes to organize your cables. Dark Room and Dearly shows us another way to do this, which may be easier if you don’t have the patience to stuff your cable inside the tubes. A little bit of cutting and pasting and you can easily make the dividers, making maximum use of the space.

4. Markers Caddy

If you’ve got a bunch of cardboard tubes and a shoe box, you’re all set to make this caddy to control your exploding collection of markers! Aunt Peaches shows us how easy it is: simply cut the tubes to the height of your box and place them inside. You can also use this to segregate different kinds of art materials, like pencils, markers or scissors.

5. Wall Shelves

If you want to get things off your floor and surfaces, the best idea is to make use of wall space. If you don’t have access to shelves or someone to install them for you, no problem! Crème de la Craft shows us that it’s really easy to do this with shoe boxes. Plus they’re really easy to paint according to your decor theme.

6. Charging Station

Do all the members of your family constantly fight over the charge point near the sofa? Is there constant confusion about which cable belongs to whom? The How to Home has an easy solution for this – with a shoe box and an extension cable! You could of course, do without the box, but then you’d have to deal with the eyesore of tangled wires!

7. Ribbon Organizer

Honestly WTF has a solution that will delight the hearts of avid crafters! Keep your ribbons fresh and crisp with a custom made ribbon organizer. This is so unbelievably easy to make with a shoe box, and you can even make it part of your decor. Pro tip: arrange the ribbons in the order of the rainbow, to make it more appealing.

8. Seed Storage

Gardening is a fun hobby, and a productive one too, considering you get to eat the results of your harvest! However, gardening also requires a fair bit of planning. And I’m not talking only about planning for the right season to plant; it’s also about keeping your seeds organized. And this idea from A Piece of Rainbow is the perfect way to do it without too much effort!

9. Two Tier Sewing Supplies Organizer

Isn’t it annoying when you can’t find the right thread and needle to mend a missing button? Avoid situations like these by corralling all your sewing supplies in a DIY kit. You can make this more interesting by checking out this project by Mimis Crafty World which also features a double decker sewing kit – fancy!

10. Sticker Organizer

If you’re a planner girl or boy, you’ll know the importance of stickers, especially of storing them right! If’ you or your kids are drowning in your sticker collection and can’t find what you need at the right time, use this idea from Kinder Craze to keep everything organized and neatly labelled.

11. Bangle Storage and Organizer

It’s called a bangle organizer, but this idea from Alternate Creations can be used to organize rings and bracelets as well! To think that this one can be made with just a shoe box and some pencils! You can make it fancier by using dowels instead of pencils and painting the box.

12. Recipe Card Organizer

Most of us save our recipes online these days, but there are still many among us who have recipe cards or recipe binders, especially for some special heirloom recipes. Keep those precious memories intact by organizing them carefully in a pretty recipe card box, like this one from Sweet Tea and Saving Grace.

13. Picnic Basket

The pandemic may have cut down the number of picnics we have, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to go out and enjoy again. In the meantime, check out this project from 100 Directions, which shows you how you can carry your picnic supplies to the spot in a stylish yet practical picnic carrier – made out of a humble shoe box!

14. Necklace Storage Display

I love wearing long necklaces, but I generally don’t, for the simple reason that they’re all in a box and tangled up with each other! However, I’ve realized that hanging them solves this problem, and also helps me find what I want faster. Home Awaits makes use of a shoe box lid to create a hanging necklace organizer, which will also work with bracelets.

15. Duct Tape Vanity Tray

In this post on how to zero budget ways to makeover your home, we saw how important it is to use trays to contain things on surfaces. You don’t need to order an expensive tray – a shoe box lid and some tape will do! Check out this snakeskin style tray from Honey We’re Home which looks gorgeous. You can use contact paper or leftover wrapping paper too, for a custom vanity tray of your own.

16. Toy Car Storage

Cardboard tubes are an excellent way to organize toy cars, but you need a place to hold all the tubes. Voila – a shoe box solves that problem! Since it has a lid, the cars are protected as well, and you can easily transport the entire collection from one place to another. Check out how they’ve done it over at Third Stop on the Right.

17. Spool Organizer

If you love sewing or know someone who does, be sure to make them this easy peasy spool organizer from Fashion is Fiction! All you need is a shoe box and some nails. This way, all your spools are separate, and can be easily removed and placed back. No more tangling of threads or damage of spools!

18. Ornament Storage

It’s all fun and games when we’re decorating for a festival, but when it comes to taking them down, we’re all a little lazy! You need to be careful while taking down decorations and storing them, so they’re available for use the next time you need them. A Casarella shows us how a shoe box is the perfect way to do this, especially if you use dividers to keep the ornaments from banging into each other.

19. Drawer Dividers

Having large drawers is a blessing when it comes to storage, but all that open space can be overwhelming and end up being a nightmare for organizing. You can create drawer dividers out of cereal boxes, or you can use shoe boxes as they’ve done at Real Simple. Just cut the boxes to the sizes you need and you’re all set!

20. Jewelry Display Station

Have you noticed that this list of ways to organize with shoe boxes features quite a bit of jewelry organization? It’s here again, with a cute project from Craft a Doodle Doo, which is a multi jewelry display stand that would look lovely in your closet. If you have a small, eclectic collection, this is the perfect way to display them so everything is easily visible and accessible.

You can check out other posts in the Recycling Series here.

This post is a part of the Blogchatter Half Marathon.