Shoes and Boots - how do you store yours?

I'm trying to declutter my house at the moment. I've not got very far yet: this thread gives my efforts and successes to date...Anyhow the hallway is high on the list, and amongst the clutter in there I keep most of my boots and shoes. Not the posh ones (if I've got any left, I think the dog ate my last pair!) but a pair or three of wellies, Outdoor shoes and work boots. I'm trying to encourage my husband to change his footwear when he comes in, but to no success so far....

source (not my shoes!)

I'm thinking I need a place to store them that the dog can't reach so easily. Although grown up now, she still has a habit of presenting me with a well chewed piece of my footwear on occasion.
How do you store yours? What works what doesn't work? At present I don't have room for a mud room, so this is the main entrance for my house, although in my four dimensional extension, I hope to have a 'clean' entry and a 'working' entry, so may separate things in future.
I guess ideas for storage of footwear used less often is also useful so all suggestions welcome!

One of our houses had a really great system built into the bottom of every closet.

It was basically a slanted board with a strip (like quarter round) nailed on to catch the heels of the shoes.

When we moved I bought a shelf system for VHS movies that worked perfectly.

Now all I wear are flip-flops and slide-in sandals so I made a system using cardboard boxes with cardboard inserts to go between the different flip-flops.

ooh decluttering is on my list for this week as well. Godspeed, Nancy!

We had a shoe box made, similar to the cabinet we always had in our homes in Japan. This stays near the door. My daughter I believe keeps her shoes in a drawer. We have spider issues, shoes absolutely cannot be kept out in the open without problems.

Editing again to add: Nancy, you mention less used shoes. My garden stuff is kept out in the yard in a cabinet, and the things I really don't use often (hiking boots, winter slippers, fancy shoes, etc) are kept in one of those sealing space bags up in the top of my closet. I really just use the same 4 pairs of shoes.

Our out-of-season shoes live in the bottom of the bedroom closet, and our in-season shoes live around the front door where we put them on and take them off. We had this bench with cubbies built to facilitate a level of neatness.

All the ways I store my foot gear are wrong.  I have some shoes on a shoe rack near the front door. I have a few near the back door placed so I can trip on them and go down the basement steps.  I have shoes in 2 closets on racks, and there is a pile of shoes in the LR.

And, Nancy, I am well aware my wife had you post this to get me to clean up my mess.

We have our lesser-worn boots in a bin in the closet.  Our other shoes/boots/etc. live under my desk and under the red cubby contraption we nailed to the wall next to the front door.  Not a perfect system, but they're staying out from underfoot most of the time, and we don't have pets, so no worries about them getting eaten.

I like the idea of a bench with storage underneath. I have something similar set up now with a bench that came from our current zinc topped dining room table. It's very nice but when in use for table seating, Nug the Adventure Dog (15 lb. rat terrier) thought it was an invitation to climb up onto the table at will. So off it went to the entryway as a place to sit to take shoes off and put them back on. There's plenty of storage beneath the bench for an assortment of shoes. As for converting others to going shoeless in the house, planting little reminders in the brain or showing YouTube videos about how truly disgusting it is (no offense to the shoes-on-in-the-house crowd, I was part of that club most of my life). Once the message begins to take, make options available.

It isn't that wearing shoes in the house is bad. It really doesn't matter. It is the OUTDOOR shoes that need to park it at the entryway. Putting a nice, visible pair of indoor shoes near the bench is an invitation to convert. I was surprised, appalled and disgusted at the types of things that make it into our houses from the bottoms of our footwear. That includes poo of various types, spit, toxic substances, infectious disease agents, lead dust, etc. Some very bad stuff. And it's best to keep a microfiber floor mop nearby  with a bottle of natural cleaner containing tea tree oil or another antimicrobial.

Lots of people will simply convert to wearing socks around the house, but if you're like me and that becomes uncomfortable after awhile, house slippers or some of the new slip-on shoes like Kiziks or Sketchers are making now are a good alternative. It takes a while to remember to change, especially before going outside wearing your indoor footwear, but it eventually happens.

Thanks for bringing this up!

j

After a similar journey with shoes by the door, I heartily agree with Jim G. regarding the plain bench for shoe storage. So many attractive “hall trees” with cubbies and hooks nearly seduced me into a full blown building project. But after studying the situation (observation) and hearing the despair at a dear friend’s house, I realized three important things: those cubbies don’t look good empty, they are difficult to clean and they always get over stuffed with shoes that people stop wearing! Not to mention the problem with aesthetics: who wants to look at the shoes that don’t quite fit into the boxes.
The bench looks great with shoes underneath or the shoes can be quickly whisked away when neatening up for guests. Cleaning is easy; just move the bench out and sweep/mop. The narrow back-less bench fits easily into that tiny wall space next to the door in the OP photo and can run along the wall with a custom length. A beautiful, simple bench solved the problem for me.
Good luck Nancy and thanks for the thread.