A cheap yet very effective boot tray

You all know that the "entryways" (or lack thereof) in our house frustrate and flummox me.

I think that one part of the solution to the kitchen entry will have to be removing this tiered shoe rack pictured above. It makes for a very cramped experience getting out the door (I am always dragging coats or bags against it as I try to squeeze past). And shoes on the lower levels of the rack wind up with dirt and hemlock needles inside them from the soles above, so you go to put on your shoes and get a problem to take care of instead.

But if we're not going to store many shoes near the door then we need ample, convenient, and easy to use storage space elsewhere.

I decided to tackle shoe storage in my girl's room first. We went from this:



To this:



(At first, I thought that we maybe didn't need a trash can in her room anymore, after all there are no more dirty diapers/wipes to throw away, but she objected -- which frankly is kind of sensible, you never outgrow Kleenex after all -- so the trash can now lives on the opposite side of the room.)

The boot tray is simply a half-sheet baking pan, I got it right here for less than $10.

At first I was thinking that I would spray paint it to make it look a bit less like a baking sheet. But let's face facts, it would take me at least 6 months to get around to that project, if ever. So I simply put some sticky felt circles on the bottom of the tray to protect the floor and called it done, and you know what?

I think it's just fine.

The dimensions of this tray are 18" x 13", while a typical boot tray is somewhat larger, particularly width-wise: 30" x 13", for example. Only a couple of pairs of adult shoes would fit on a tray this size, but if you need something bigger there are full-sheet pans at  16" x 26", (still at a substantially lower price than official boot trays), and many other sizes besides.

The rule now is only one pair of shoes by the door, all the others stay on the boot tray. I hold myself to this rule too, as I can fit all my shoes in my closet (barely!). My man has a dispensation. For now....
 

Also, for the record, that's another item crossed off my 101 Things list.

53. Remove trash can from room and add boot tray