Sneaker Storage

Let's hope your collection doesn't resemble this mess too much. I try to keep my kicks in a bit better order than the ones above, but my sneaks are starting to take over. Whilst visiting with Miss Lipstick Lady on the weekend, the topic of sneaker storage came up. We were discussing the use of the type of industrial shelving you can get from Bunnings or IKEA shelving (such as the inexpensive GORM system below):
Sneaker storage is becoming a serious problem for me at the moment because my room is slowly being overtaken by shoes and shoe boxes. I've already moved a bunch to my attic and put the ones I don't wear in stacked boxes.

Personally, I like to be able to see my kicks when I'm getting dressed, which is hard to do if you keep them in the boxes. But the problem I have in leaving my kicks out of their boxes is that, like everything else if you don't use it, it'll get dusty. I tend to go through phases of favourites, so some will get a work out for a week and then I'll switch.

I find that basic shoe racks below (available from Howard's Storage World etc) just don't cut it. I buy 1-3 pairs of kicks a month and I'd need so many of these they'd never fit in my room.
The option most people seem to take is to leave the shoes in the boxes, either on shelves if you're organised; or like me - anywhere they'll fit.
But the problem with leaving them in their original boxes is that you can't see what they are from the outside (unless you have the boxes label). And I have a lot of boxes that look exactly the same (mostly Nike Air Max 90s). One option is to take a Polaroid of each and stick it to the box. It's a method a lot of us ladies use for storing our high heels.
There's a great Australian company called PinkLily that sells these clear shoe boxes for $5 each (you can get a Hugepack of 30 boxes for $99). This solves the problem of having to leave your precious kicks out amongst the dust. Plus these boxes stack. They also have several different sizes - including man size. These things are endorsed by Kerri-Anne Kennerly so they must be pretty rad.
Then today my friend Mookie over at Moxvox posted a completely different solution for shoe storage. If you consider your sneaks to be more about art than function, why not hang them on your wall and show them off? Designed by Fernando A Robert specifically for sneak freaks, these racks are made of brushed and hold one pair each. Each rack costs US$29.95.
There's also a thread on Sneaker Freaker all about sneaker storage. I've been sifting through the zillions of pages for ideas about how to deal with my own sneaker overload. I think I might go for the Pinklily option - and stack those badboys where they'll fit for now. At least I'll be able to see what's in which box at a glance, without worrying about the condition of my babies.

Photographs copyright of individual photographers.