My shoes are on open shelves in my closet, so I can see everything at a glance, but I understand your desire for closed storage for your shoes. What about storing them in the drawers of a lowboy (low dresser)? Closed storage that's easy to access and any unused drawers can store other items. I have a lowboy that sits at the foot of our bed, and it's a great place to sit and put on my shoes in the morning, and spread out several pairs while deciding what I want to wear.

My lowboy came from CB2:
https://images.cb2.com/is/imag.....resser.jpg

Beautifully done.

Emily K -- I'm too late to this thread, but was going to ask if you have a lot of dresses to store? The rod space in my closet is all double-hung (above and below) and that leaves me very short on space to hang longer items such as dresses.

I don't have a ton of dresses -- perhaps because closet considerations influence my purchases.

I admire your patience with shoe storage! Like Janet, if I had your wrapped-in-boxes system, within a week I would find myself with a stack of empty boxes and shoes all over the floor.

Got it. That makes sense. The space looks like it needs a door, which is why I asked.

If I had so little hanging space, I think I'd use thinner hangers. The wood ones are beautiful, though.