While making sure you have a place to hang your garments is the top priority (logically) for most closet designers, having a place to put shoes is the top priority for most clients.

These treasured wardrobe staples are often the most near and dear to clients hearts and they want a dedicated space to assure they can store them and access them easily.

Here are the top five options for shoe storage:

Shoe Fences:

These decorative items are the equivalent of a nice frame around a photograph. Their functional purpose is that they go across the front of angled shoe shelves to keep them from sliding off the shelves. You can get them in different metal finishes so they match the rest of your closet (like chrome or oil rubbed bronze).

Cubbies:

Cubbies are probably the most requested thing in a closet design. They seem to lend themselves to easy organization and display because there is specific, allocated space. The size of the opening can be for shoes or for boots. The downside is that there isn’t much else you can use this storage space for except shoes because it’s such a specific solution.

Shoe Carousels:

These high end devices go into the corner of a walk in closet and they spin. This means you can “twirl” your shoes around to decide which pair you’d like to wear. It’s a fun way to display your shoe collection, with the exception of your flip flops.

The Carrie Bradshaw Effect:

This shoe storage solution came into consciousness with the original “Sex and City” movie during the final scenes of the beautiful closet Big had designed for Carrie. It consists of specific horizontal rods that span the width of a section. There are two. The back of the shoe heel goes on the back rod and the front of the shoe rests on the front rod. These look really great but function much better for heels than for flat shoes.

Open Shelving:

This seemingly boring solution is actually the most functional and easiest to access when putting on and taking off shoes. It’s basically flat shelving that is adjustable. So if you have lots of boots, you space the shelves further apart. If you have lots of flat shoes, they can go closer together. And they can be adjusted at at time, so if your shoe collection changes, so can your shoe storage solution.