Closet Shelf Organization

I have a tall set of shelves in my walk in closet that I've tried many, many times to organize.  Here's how things typically go...shelves are a mess, I straighten them but don't love the result, gradually they become less and less organized, and then I repeat the steps.  This time I wanted to make them organized in a way that made sense to me, and in a way that would be easy to maintain.

 I have always kept handbags, shoes, and swim suits/cover ups on these particular shelves, although they really aren't set up to store that type of thing.  I'm they type of OCD person who wants things perfect, but if I can't get them that way, I just pretend it doesn't exist until I can't take it anymore.  The shelves in my closet are pretty deep from front to back and I hadn't ever figured out an ideal way to do things, therefore I always end up with this after a few months...

Completely horrifying, I know.  Fact of the matter is, when I open my closet door and walk in, the door blocks these shelves, so it is pretty easy for me to ignore the problem.  Until the shoes start falling off the shelves, and block the door from opening anyway. :)

I set off to the Dollar Tree store and to Target the other day (with my kids in tow, which turned out to not be my best decision of the day) on a mission to find a new solution to the shoe and swim suit problem in my closet.  The Dollar Tree was a great choice.  They had tons of fun, bright colored storage bins, and of course you can't beat the "Everything's $1" price tags.  $3 later I had the perfect bins for my closet.  Next, we went to Target to find small, white, tension rods.  I bought 28"-48" rods for $2.98 (on sale...a whopping 5% discount folks!!), and ended up grabbing eight of them because I wasn't sure how many I'd need.

After I got home, I threw all the shoes on the floor and went to work.  The top shelf I only used one rod, I put it up high and to the very back, and I hung all of my heels from it.  In front of there I just lined up all my boots and wedges that were either too tall to hang or didn't have heels to hang from.  

On the next shelf, I had to get a little more creative.  I used two tension rods about four inches apart up towards the back, and then another set several inches below the top set.  On these, I put my flats.  There as enough space below the second set to put another row of shoes directly under, and almost enough to put another in front of that.  My shoes aren't small, I wear a size 10, so they take up a lot of space.  I added a tension rod at the same level as the shelf, but about three inches in front of it, and rested the toes of another row of shoes on that.  

Next I divided all of my swim suits, cover ups, and flip flops and put them each in their own storage bin.  I used another tension rod to extend my shelf a bit so that I could fit all three bins together.  I stuck my running shoes on there as well, since I didn't have room for them up above. 

Below the bottom shelf is where I keep all of my tall boots.  I cut up a pool noodle (thanks Pinterest!) and used the pieces to hold the boots up straight.

 This project was a pretty simple one, but I think will make a huge difference for me.  I feel like I finally have a set up that will be easy to maintain and where everything is easy to access and find.  Now maybe my husband will stop saying things like "I feel like there has to be a better use for that shelf area back there." :)

Before/After