Introduction: ORGANIZING WIFEY'S SHOES

By MY SECRET PLACE
About: In my shop I have a name for hammer, saw, and plier. The saw is Tess, the hammer's Joe, and Glumdalclitch is the plier. Yes, I'm brillig, and my slithy toves still gyre and gimble in the wabe. With that, le…

Wifey was bemoaning the mess here shoes were making and wanted me to do something to alleviate her stress. There is something about her and shoes that is not normal. Sometimes I wonder if she is from a parallel universe -- or from Stepford.

Step 1: MATERIALS

Three eight foot 1 x 12 pressboard. Now that was easy enough, right?

Step 2: TOOLS

A simple project like this and I wind up using just bout all the tools in my Little Shop of Jarfold. Working from my plan I cut the parts, added dadoes where the dividers and shelf would go and sanded down the edges. The dadoes took some figuring to make them precise. Adding the depth of them to the various cut parts took concentration. Even with that I made some minor mistakes. Nothing that wasn't reparable.

Step 3: TIP

TIP #1:When you want to quickly and evenly divide a board that has an odd length, measure from one corner and slide the tape measure until you get a length that is easily divisible. This board was 47 and 5/16 and I wanted to divide it in thirds. I was able to move the tape to 48" on the diagonal and simple mark 16" and 32". On another board I got 48 3/4" which divided by 3 was an easy 16 1/4"

TIP #2: I added bamboo skewers to the edge of my work benches so I can hang various tools from them as I work.

Step 4: ASSEMBLY

I glued and screwed everything. The dadoes really held the partitions securely. Had they not, then I would've had to add some side braces to each. I built two units. The raised end pieces on the second shelving unit were added because I subtracted 3/8ths of an inch instead of adding it. I told Wifey it was to keep shoes from sliding off. "Then why doesn't the other unit have them?" I am a big believer in always answering a question: "Because when I built that one the earth was not in retrograde." After 37 years of wedded bliss she did what she usually does: gave me an eye roll and ignored me.

Step 5: HAPPY WIFE, HAPPY LIFE

Wifey was thrilled with the result. And, yes, there is another closet in the house with more shoes than these. Me? I have a pair of black, brown, slip-ons, sneakers and work shoes. Go figure. But I guess the answer to it all was when I told Wifey I should get a trophy for putting up with her ways and she smiled and said, "You DID get a trophy: a Trophy Wifey!" Well, that shut me up quickly.

Step 6: