Unexpected Uses for an Over-The-Door Shoe Organizer

As it turns out, storing shoes is just one of many ways to use an over-the-door shoe organizer (the kind with pockets, not metal racks). Depending on your home organization needs, you might find that adding a few more to the back of your closet, pantry, and garage doors can be the solution to a more functional space. We scoured the internet and asked around for the best ways to use an over-the-door shoe organizer, and these are some of our favorite unexpected purposes.

The Best Ways To Use an Over-the-Door Shoe Organizer

Pantry Storage

Make the most of a small pantry with an over-the-door shoe rack for extra storage and organization. The clear pockets are great for holding smaller items such as canned goods, packaged nuts, spice containers, and unopened sauce bottles. Or you can fill them with single-serve snacks, fruit, water bottles, juice boxes, and other items that are easy to grab on your way out the door.

Art Supplies

Art supplies are notoriously tricky to keep organized — especially if you have little ones. To make cleanup easier and keep supplies tidy between uses, add a shoe organizer to your closet door to sort pens, markers, crayons, scissors, tape, and other essentials in the plastic pockets. You can also label the pockets so it’s easy to put everything back in its place when you’re cleaning up.

Gift Wrapping Essentials

Similar to art supplies, gift wrap loves to bust out of whatever storage solution it’s corralled in. Rather than tossing everything in a bin and calling it a day, add a shoe organizer to the door of your hall closet or mudroom and use it to organize your gift-wrapping essentials. From gift tags to tissue paper to spools of ribbon, the pockets are the perfect size to keep everything organized until your next gift-wrapping session. Tip: Standard-size wrapping paper rolls typically fit in three vertical rows. Simply cut out the bottom of the middle and top pockets to keep them in place.

Cleaning Products

Cleaning supplies stored under a kitchen sink might seem convenient, but they can create a cluttered mess that makes it hard to see what you actually have — and an over-the-door shoe rack might be the best solution for your backstock. Whether it’s spray bottles, disinfecting wipes, or duster refills, you can store all sorts of cleaning essentials in an organizer’s pockets.

Office Supplies

If you have a lot of office supplies — think extra staples, notepads, pens, printer ink cartridges, etc. — and need a handy solution to see everything, use an over-the-door shoe organizer to store everything neatly. As with art supplies, you can even use a label maker to clearly mark where everything goes so that it all stays organized at the end of the workweek.

DIY Advent Calendar

Over-the-door shoe organizers have all sorts of uses that go beyond storage. For a fun DIY project, transform a canvas shoe holder into an advent calendar (just make sure it has 24 pockets). You can cut numbers out of felt and sew them on, or use a Cricut Joy Machine to cut vinyl and iron it onto the material. Then, fill each slot with a small gift to open on the days leading up to Christmas.

Sewing Notions

Sewing notions are usually small and hard to keep organized. If your sewing box is always in a state of chaos, swap it out for an over-the-door shoe organizer that can house everything from extra thread to scissors and snips, packets of needles and pins, and more. If you have any extra pockets, you can store your fabric scraps in them to keep an eye on what you have left over.

Hair Accessories

Drawers can make it hard to see all of your hair accessories and tools. Instead, you can use an over-the-door shoe organizer to keep items such as hair ties, pins, clips, headbands, brushes, and even hot tools visible for when you need them.

Hanging Herb Garden

An over-the-door hanging herb garden might be one of the most unconventional uses for a shoe rack, but we think it’s pure genius. This hack works best on exterior doors such as sheds or garage side doors that get adequate sunlight and allow for water runoff when keeping your herbs nourished and hydrated. To ensure proper drainage, poke a few holes in the bottom of each pocket in your organizer.

Winter Accessories Storage

Add an over-the-door shoe rack to your coat closet and use it to store winter accessories. The smaller pockets are great for scarves, beanies, gloves, ear muffs, and other essentials (including extra hand warmers).

Medicine Storage

You can also store medicine, supplements, and first-aid supplies in an over-the-door shoe rack. From pill bottles to bandages, the small pockets are the perfect size for keeping everything in order, so you can easily find what you need.