D.I.Y. - Calming the Flip-Flop Chaos

I live in Florida.  For me, being a person who almost never gets cold, that means flip-flops are pretty much suitable for year-round wear.  This also means that I have amassed a small horde of flip-flops, in several styles and a range of colors.  And while most of my other shoes reside in identical plastic shoe boxes stacked in my closet, flip-flops see too much use for that to be a practical solution for their storage.

So, most of the time, my flip-flops end up piled under two of the three bar stools in my kitchen instead, near the door where we come in and out, rendering those stools unable to be pulled out and used most of the time.

Look familiar?  Yep.

Originally, the plan was to use the small laundry basket to keep them corralled in one spot.  But as they grew in numbers, you can see for yourself how that plan failed.

And then I saw the picture shown here to the right.  It was like the metaphorical light bulb had been switched on, as I thought to myself, "I could do that!  Why didn't I think of this myself?!"

I decided to take this idea and make it my own.

My couch is one of those monstrous, overstuffed, L-shaped sectionals.  The only problem with a couch like this is that its rounded corner leaves a little pocket of wasted space in the area behind the couch.  For some time now, I have filled that often-wasted space with a small catch-all cabinet and the cat's food and water dishes and litter box.  Since the space is between the back of the couch and an unused doorway opening between the kitchen and living room, these items are nicely hidden from common view, but still easily accessed from the kitchen.

The bottom of my closet is already occupied, so that wouldn't have been a place to hang my shoes.  Besides, I tend to kick my shoes off first thing when I come in the door each day, so attempting to move them to the other end of the house would have resulted in empty hangers and the same pile of shoes under the kitchen bar stools.  That wouldn't work.  I decided, instead, to use the doorway between the kitchen and living room.  I could install the bar just high enough to keep easy access for the cat to still get to his food and water and litter box, but still low enough to be able to reach over it myself to access the cabinet and so that the litter box can be changed each week.

I went to the store, intending to buy a bar and some hangers.  I decided that a short tension rod would suit my needs, but if you wanted to try it across a longer span or with more pairs of shoes, you'd probably need one that installed more permanently with screws or cup mounts.  One look at the wire hangers in the store was enough to tell me that they were thicker than I anticipated, and that my patience would surely not hold out for me to cut and bend them all into a usable shape.  Luckily, the store had a perfect alternative just below the wire hangers: kid-sized plastic hangers, roughly 10 for $1.00.  So I bought several packages and went home to get to work.  So far, I'm incredibly pleased with the results!

Have a look.

All neatly hung on their hangers and out of the way.

Looking through the doorway into the living room.