DIY Shoe Storage

After challenging myself to decorate/design my back foyer on a shoestring budget, I had to get creative.

I had originally purchased a shoe cabinet for this area and it had gotten so dirty. This is a high traffic area in our house. We have 2 dogs, a child, me and a man who works a dirty job on the railroad. Not only does it need to hold all of our shoes, but it needs to be something that could take a beating.

I was actually cleaning out the garage in preparation for our community garage sale when I came across a milk crate. I brought it inside and sat it in the foyer to visualize it. Then, I slid a Dollar Tree bin inside of it and it fit! Problem was, I only had one milk crate. I knew I could find some milk crates easily because they are literally everywhere and people want to get rid of them. Scott got ahold of his cousin who got us three more, for free. Thanks, Leslie!

I stacked them into the entry and they fit perfectly. Yay! No more shoes just laying there by the door. They can now be organized! But the milk crates were still wobbly so I had the idea of zip tying them together so that they won’t tumble over. It worked like a charm!

Then I found an old piece of wood in the garage from a previous (failed) DIY that fit perfectly on top of the milk crates. So not only is it a shoe storage, but it’s also an entry table! Yay for multi-purpose and functional furniture.

YOU WILL NEED:

4 milk crates
Zip ties
Scissors
Drill gun with 9/64 drill bit

DIRECTIONS:

Lay out two milk crates side by side together and drill a hole through both of them

Slide your zip tie through the holes and pull the zip tie to make it tight

Repeat this step securing the milk crates together

Slide your zip tie through the existing big holes along the milk crates for added stability

Here’s the four milk crates zip tied together. I wanted to add a wood shelf to the top of the milk crates so it looked better and could be used as more storage. You can customize this just depending on how wide or tall you’d like.

I cut a 2×10 to the preferred size and placed it on top of the milk crates for an entry table. You can screw this in using screws and washers, if needed.