This SUPER space saving and surprisingly sturdy DIY shoe rack is part of our New Year de-cluttering effort, starting with our closet shoe storage.
The design idea behind this easy DIY shoe rack is:
How to utilize the depth of a standard closet for the most efficient easy shoe storage.
Because we do not need to see BOTH shoes on a shoe storage rack, they can be placed one behind the other. Our DIY cardboard shoe rack is designed to hold 2 shoes, one behind the other.
This durable DIY shoe rack is entirely made of cardboard. When you move, just recycle it and make a new one for your new place. It is great for people who move a lot and people who live in small space homes or college dorms.
I can honestly say that this cardboard closet shoe storage rack has made such a huge difference! I really enjoy using it, and the look isn’t too bad for something made from… cardboard! Here’s our fun and easy tutorial…
Step 1: creating the basic unit of our DIY shoe rack:
You probably know that I am inspired by modular geometric designs from this post – DIY concrete geometric planters.
We are utilizing the modular geometric quality of the equal sided triangle again! Each module here is a triangular tube, the length and size of the module depends on your shoe size! (My shoe size is US 7, so the modules I made are 7″ on the sides, and 24″ long each.)
Cut a piece of cardboard to the size you need, mine is about 21″x24″. Score it into 3 equal sides.
Use a piece of duct tape and tape the piece into a triangular tube like shown above.
Step 2: create more units: one for each pair of shoes.
I made 13 modules total. Glue or tape each row onto thick cardboard so they stay together.
Step 3: connect the units to create the shoe storage rack
Glue each row of shoe storage units onto a piece of cardboard as shown below. Stack the rows up. Our closet shoe storage rack has alternating stacking rows of 4,5, and 4.
Slide each pair of shoes in a triangular opening, one in front of the other. I also put an extra piece of thick cardboard on top of the shoe storage rack to put some odd sized boots.
Now we have a cool and compact DIY shoe rack that holds more shoes in a small area than most shoe storage rack you can buy! Plus it fits inside our closet perfectly.
I love the possibilities of cardboard as a creative material! Like this set of furniture made with cardboard and duct tape! 
And this useful seed organization box made from 2 shoe boxes- 
Happy organizing! See you next week!
Uwe
February 4, 2015 at 9:06 amHello Ananda ,
this is a very cool idea !
I made a shoe rack from a pallet.
You can see it here: http://mydiyol.blog.de/2014/01/30/palettenschuhregal-17665301/
That was the beginning of my blogs, so even a small picture.
many Greetings
Uwe
ananda
February 6, 2015 at 8:59 amthat’s such a great way to use pallet! thank you uwe as always!! =)
Abria @ Bee Splendid
February 4, 2015 at 9:10 amThis is a really cool idea. The options for decorating that rack are endless — tape, paint, adhesive drawer-lining paper, etc. That’s such a neat idea, especially for people who move around a lot, or students.
ananda
February 6, 2015 at 9:00 amthank you abria! =)
Jeanine
February 4, 2015 at 11:23 amWhat a neat idea! We have so many shoes and such this would be a great idea! I’d have to make a few but I love it!
Lauren
February 4, 2015 at 1:34 pmThis is such a great idea. We have so much cardboard sitting around, too!
Angie
February 4, 2015 at 3:16 pmThis is brilliant! I’m always looking for better organization methods. Thank you!
Yaitza
February 4, 2015 at 3:39 pmlol I had to laugh when I saw the photo of the laptop desk at the beach… lol love the show rack idea as well.. thanks for sharing
Kakers
February 4, 2015 at 5:49 pmSo gonna make my roommates do this for me!
Chelsie
February 4, 2015 at 6:54 pmWhat a cool idea! We definitely could use some better storage options for our shoes!
Chelley @ AisForAdelaide
February 4, 2015 at 8:46 pmThat’s such a fun idea! I love reusing materials!
Karissa
February 4, 2015 at 9:54 pmGreat shoe rack. My daughter needs one. She has a shoe obsession.
Andi
February 4, 2015 at 9:57 pmI can’t believe those are cardboard! They are totally cool! Love the beach chair but I am thinking they will disintegrate if the water hits it!
Cara (@StylishGeek)
February 4, 2015 at 10:40 pmThat is such a cool #DIY post! I love it! I need to see if my kid and I can do this together. We need to organize our shoes! LOL!
Mandi
February 4, 2015 at 10:47 pmThis is pretty rad! I have a ton of cardboard that I’ve been trying to find a use for.
Brenda
February 4, 2015 at 10:49 pmThis is awesome! What a killer DIY idea!
Shannon Peterson
February 5, 2015 at 8:54 amtotally pinning this to do it in my insanely messy closet!! Thank you so much!
ananda
February 6, 2015 at 9:02 amthank you shanon!! =)
Debi (thedeb83)
February 5, 2015 at 12:20 pmI need to run home and make this immediately. Our shoe situation is getting out of control!
ananda
February 6, 2015 at 9:02 amyay! have fun with it debi! =)
Iris
February 5, 2015 at 12:47 pmHow neat! And simple enough for us less crafty inclined people. 🙂
Rebekah
February 5, 2015 at 1:12 pmWhat an amazing way to organize and reuse cardboard! Thank you for sharing!
Rosie
February 5, 2015 at 4:02 pmWhat a fab idea.
Rosie
http://www.rosedogandco.blogspot.com.au
Myrabev
February 6, 2015 at 12:58 amThis is so awesome I am so amazed
Icar
February 6, 2015 at 12:49 pmThis is a cool idea! So easy to make and very easy on the budget! Actually we were looking for a shoe rack since the year started but cannot find the right one.
Karla
February 7, 2015 at 5:14 amawesome!! thx for sharing
Carly Brydon
February 7, 2015 at 8:03 pmThis is so creative, I love it!
mavi
February 8, 2015 at 10:33 amvery nice, I’ll make this
Camesha | Mama Motivator
February 8, 2015 at 5:20 pmAs many boxes the UPS man drops at my house, I can definitely make use of them. I love the shoe rack and the desk!
paulina
February 9, 2015 at 1:47 pmthat’s actually modern and cool!
ashley nicholas
February 11, 2015 at 7:32 pmWhat a great idea! I would’ve never thought to use cardboard!
Sorin
February 13, 2015 at 9:19 amReally interesting idea! thanks for sharing and love the way you take photos! artistic
Arpita
March 3, 2015 at 2:11 amThis is absolutely brilliant, but I wish I’d seen it earlier. Two days ago I threw out a super large ikea box.. now I will have to wait to accumulate more boxes to get started on this one 🙁
ananda
March 3, 2015 at 9:46 pmthank you arpita! i too always wish i had cardboard as soon as we recycle some ! =)
Jess
May 6, 2015 at 2:13 pmLove this shoe rack, thanks for the instructions! I’m in the process of making it now and thought I’d give people a heads up about a problem I ran into. After an hour or so the duct tape on the first triangles I made started pulling up and I had to go back over parts of it with ‘packaging tape’. You may want to keep some packaging tape on hand when making this.
Kimberly
August 8, 2015 at 4:04 pmJust moved and have ALOT of moving boxes. Definitely need more space for my shoes even with an over the door shoe rack I still have spillage. This is going to be a weekend project. Thank you!
Jasmine Patrick
June 25, 2016 at 1:13 pmWhat a great idea, love it, now just have to chase up some cardboard!!!!!
Brandi
June 10, 2018 at 6:20 amSo cool! I have a huge issue keeping things organized, I have a Ton of shoes, jeans, shirts, and I know I can save space if i just find the right ideas that fit my closet