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Tina P.
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| Posted: Nov 10 2006 at 4:26pm | IP Logged
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Perhaps it's because we just moved in this past summer, but we are having a shoe and sock dilemma of gargantuan proportions. We can find one, but not the other. Or sometimes both disappear practically until the child grows out of them. Even *I've* had a pair disappear (haven't seen them since England  ). We've lost just leagues of boots ( ), shoes, and socks since we've been in this house. My son just came to me with a pair of shoes to go out and play in, but didn't have socks. By the time we found him socks and he put them on, he lost his shoes!  I wanted to play with him, but by the time we find his shoes, his little sister will awaken from her nap and I'll need to start dinner. I don't get enough time to play with my kids, can you tell?
Does anyone have any tried-and-true method of keeping shoes and socks where they belong and all together? How about sorting socks among siblings? When we were in our last house, there was one laundry basket reserved for pairs of socks. The kids had a free-for-all sock basket. I didn't like it, kids ended up with thigh-high socks or ones with heels in the arch of their foot, but we didn't have enough drawer space to store their things. Now we have the space, but thigns mysteriously disappear. Seems like especially their church shoes disappear Sunday morning.
I would truly appreciate any suggestions or advice to quell this sneaky monster.
God bless,
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Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
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Rachel May
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| Posted: Nov 10 2006 at 6:03pm | IP Logged
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We keep shoes in a cubby by the door near where we park the van. It's not perfect (we have 4 exterior doors ), but it does help. Sunday shoes I keep in a box on the shelf in the closet. Sorry I can't help with socks. We don't have a lot of luck there either.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Nov 10 2006 at 6:14pm | IP Logged
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We had the same problem for a long time. It seems to be settling down after I made a few changes.
First of all: they each have specific shoes for specific situations.
1. Mud boots for outside play
2. Church shoes
3. regular everyday shoes (for going to the store, etc)
Secondly:shoes are removed immediately upon hitting the front porch.
If they are outside mud boots they go into big bucket by the front door.
If they are church shoes they hand them to me to put up on a high shelf.
If they are regular everyday shoes, they go into the shoe pockets hanging on their doors.
The shoe pockets also hold socks, one pair per pocket. That way I can easily see when they are running out because the pockets are clear. It works really well.
The baby is the exception to this rule. His socks and shoes go into a basket in the changing table.
I am planning on getting another set of shoe pockets to hang in the hall for hats and gloves.
Hope this helps!
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Nov 10 2006 at 7:09pm | IP Logged
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We enter through our garage. We put up a large shelf from Home Depot and bought about 20 dishpans for about $1 each. I also bought some clear "shoebox sized" boxes. We squeezed in as many shelves as possible. Each child has 2 bins with their name on it. One for mud or snow boots and one for tennis shoes or sandals. Everyone has a smaller shoebox for their gloves and hat (I put these ones away in the summer). No one is allowed to wear shoes in the house, and every once in a while we have to add a deterrant for dropping shoes off in front of the door instead of taking them off.
We also have two rows of hooks for snowpants and winter coats in this same corner of the garage.
Church shoes are rarely dirty and are kept in the bedrooms.
Sweatshirts and medium weight jackets are in the laundry room (we enter that room from the garage) on hooks. In the summer, these hooks store swim suits and towels.
The worst thing about this plan is that the shoes and jackets are *cold* in the winter because the garage is not heated. But it beats the absolute *mess* we had before doing this.
Its not pretty, but mostly, it works.
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Erin
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Shoes have to be taken off as soon as we get home and put away in their rooms or into a box at the bottom of the stairs to be taken up later. does take work though to ensure this happens,
Socks, I fold together when they come of the line, if we miss a mate it goes into a bag and I try and match every wash from the bag. Socks go in their drawers.
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ALmom
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We use the shoe shelf method as well - a shoe cubby like the ones they have at McDs playlands is by our most frequently used in and out door. All shoes go there as soon as they enter the kitchen (this also spares the house from the mud the boys usually get into).
As far as socks go - we buy the same kind so there is no matching really required. My boys all have white crew (if I had it to do over again, I'd by all black for everyone, doesn't show the Alabama red clay as bad). Now, we buy a slightly different brand for each child so that we can distinguish which size at a glance. (one has gray at the toe, another has blue stitiching at the toe, this kind of thing). Then when something comes through the wash as an odd sock, it is set aside in the clean laundry basket until another odd one turns up to pair with it. However, since we don't have to find one precise, individual sock, there are always mathces somewhere. Also when a sock gets worn out, I cut it up for bathroom scrubbing - and suddenly the odd ball, has a match  .
Janet
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KC in TX
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| Posted: Nov 13 2006 at 10:38pm | IP Logged
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Shoes come off the minute you enter the house and socks go into the shoes. The shoes are placed on what I call the "shoe rack". Each morning when we have to leave the house, I give them all fresh pairs of socks. In our new house, I'm trying something new. I'm placing a little basket near the shoe rack for dirty socks. Socks have tended to get scattered in our rush to get out of the house. I also plan on having socks near the shoes so we're not scrambling for socks every morning. My kids dislike wearing socks in the house so we don't find stray socks anywhere.
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kristina
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| Posted: Nov 13 2006 at 11:23pm | IP Logged
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Tina,
If there is one part of having a large family that overwhelms my husband, it is the shoes! If we all "walk out of" our shoes and leave them about, there would be 14 shoes tripping us all! He did what he could to solve the shoe dilemma.
Out of season shoes stay in an old dresser in the basement. They are stored with the laces tied together when possible.
Along the wall of our basement stairs we have a rack with 20 slots, similar to this shoe rack from Target. We keep the boys church shoes in this. The key is getting the boys to promptly put their shoes away promptly upon arriving home from Holy Mass.
By the basement door we have a narrow shoe cabinet from Ikea in a similar stain to our light maple kitchen cabinets (visitors always think it is a pantry). In this we have my husband's sneakers, my casual shoes and workout sneakers, the boys hikers and their sneakers. I cannot find it on the site to show you, but it is similar to this.
Since she is the only girl, our daughter's shoes are in a hanging bag in her closet. Only play sneakers get comingled in the wall storage with her brothers'.
As far as the socks go, I am probably not one who should even post. When they come out unmatched, the orphan goes in a bin that is kept in the laundry closet. Every few weeks we dump the bin and have a sock matching party.
Someday when our four boys have man size feet, I will buy a whole bunch of the same socks and call it done.
Blessings,
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kathleenmom
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| Posted: Nov 13 2006 at 11:51pm | IP Logged
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We have tamed the sock monster in my house and the idea was someone else's so I can't take credit for it. I bought 2 mesh lingerie bags with a tab for hanging for each member of the household. I wrote names on the zipper at top in Sharpie. Each child's hangs off of the back of their bathroom door. When they take their socks off, they go in the zippered bag. They toss it in the hamper zipped up when they are nearly out of socks. I wash the bags and dry them right in the bags and then they are all there, mates and all ready to be folded right out of the bag. I bought two bags so there would be a backup one available when the other was being laundered....otherwise I ended up with an unsightly mess of dirty socks behind the bathroom door.
Hope that helps!
Kathleen
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Nov 14 2006 at 10:23am | IP Logged
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Wow! I love your sock idea, Kathleen. And as for all the rest of you, your shoe ideas are terrific. A few pairs of shoes (or should I say LACK of pairs of shoes) still puzzle me. I haven't found a pair of my slides since ENGLAND. That was almost a year ago now. I know I didn't throw them or give them away. I might have left them in the hotel as we were on our way out of England (like I did a favorite sweatshirt ), but I doubt it. Those were some of my favorites.
We still have three odd-bits boxes that were in our office/storeroom/playroom in England. Here's hoping!
We've been talking about converting our two car garage into a laundry and playroom. We already have tons of cupboards in there.  We'll have a door to the outside either on the driveway side or to the backyard (right now there's not a door in which one can walk into the garage). Directly beside that door, I intend to place some kind of shoe cupboard.
Thank you all for all of your wise advice.
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Ruth
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We have a basket for play shoes on our front porch, and a cubby in our foyer closet for dress up shoes. We keep the muddy work boots in the garage. It seems to work well.
I hope this helps. God bless. Ruth
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Lisbet
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I think I may brave it and post pics of my laundry system on my blog...it's not perfect, but, it works. Stay tuned...
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Cheryl
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| Posted: Nov 14 2006 at 12:41pm | IP Logged
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We have a mudroom that's not set up yet. Our coats are in a pile on the bench (or on the floor). Our shoes and socks aren't really a problem though. (I have only 3 dc wearing shoes right now.) We have 2 cheap shoe shelves from (maybe) Home Depot. One is for my dh's shoes. The other one I share with the dc. Out of season sandals/boots go in the basement. My dc don't have church shoes yet. This is something I'd like to change this year. So we have sneakers and (hand-me-down) rain boots right now. Soon the snow boots will come out and I plan to get some boot trays. We have a basket of small girls socks and a basket of medium boys socks in the mudroom. They put them on before we go out. When we come home shoes are supposed to go on the rack, but right now I'm satisified if they are in the mudroom.
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: Nov 15 2006 at 7:28am | IP Logged
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Tina, I love the shoe cupboard idea. Underneath our basement stairs we have shelf units, for boots and high top shoes, and pegboards with long hooks to hold sandals and regular tennis shoes. We have a separate shelf unit for dress shoes. Everyone takes their shoes off, at point of entry, and each person is required to put their footwear in the appropriate storage space as soon as they take them off.
One very helpful tip for dress shoes. We keep an "instant shine" shoe buffer in the kitchen drawer, closest to the door we all exit when going to Holy Mass...everyone does a quick once over with the buffer before leaving the house for Mass. We reserve more thorough shoe shining for once a season (with regular buffing, that's all that's usually needed).
I love the sock bag ideas! We used to pin socks, but too often the pins got tangled up in the socks.
Great thread!
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Topic: Please help tame the shoe & sock monster!
