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me too.

Is this it?

Here is a link that might be useful: shoe rack

graywings - thanks and yes, this is the rack. sorry for sending you on a wild search ... please comment with your ideas

Looks like a charity donation to me.

They only hold shoes for certain sized feet: my SO's shoes are too big, and mine are barely long enough.

I was looking for a suggestion on how to use it - alternative use. Maybe to store wrapping paper - but that seems like too large of an item. So any other ideas?

Why do you need to keep this rack?

It is a specialty item, in that it was designed to store one thing--shoes. You can spend time and money and effort altering it to store something else, but will it be worth it? Will you get a really good storage device, or will it be a makeshift thing that doesn't work really well?

I'd look around your house for things that you need to store. If there's nothing that immediately comes to mind that the rack would be good for, then you don't need the rack.

You might be able to store large books on the top rack, but do you have a place to put the rack where you can access the books? I suppose you could also store some boxes or bins on the rack as in the link below. Do you have boxes or will you have to buy them? What do you have in your house that will fit in the boxes/bins and could be stored on this rack?

One of the key things about organizing is knowing when to keep something and when to let it go. I know you want ideas to use the rack, but the fact that several people think you should donate it (or give it to a friend or sell it on Craigslist) should make you stop and think about why you feel the need to keep something that you admit doesn't do the job it is supposed to do.

Here is a link that might be useful: bins on a rack

You could turn it into a trellis outside, maybe.

But I'd ditch it, to be honest. Either donate it, sell it, or flat out toss it.

I suppose this question would go better on the 'trash to treasure' forum. I have all the intention to reuse the shelves (I have two sets of them). One idea for now is to cut the unit in 2 or 4 separate sets - to get sets of rods that I can then screw in the wall to get a hanging rod. The fact that it expands means that I could use these new items in various places around the house.

I don't see it as my job to try to 'make something work'. If it does not work... off it goes. Keeping it around for YEARS is a waste of space.

Since that did not work for its intended purpose, I would have donated it right away. Actually, I would not have even bought it unless I was SURE it would work.

I have 2 of these and i've stacked them on top of each other, using double face tape on the 'feet' of the top one to keep from moving. They hold my size 5 1/2-6 shoes w/o a problem. ;o)

Here is a link that might be useful: these

I'd probably donate also. You could probably go to Lowes or someplace and have pieces of board cut to fit and then gorilla glue them on to make shelves. I think that may be spending more money than it it worth.

These racks also remind me of the storage bins used to hold kids toys. You could probably buy baskets for it. Once again, I don't think it would be worth it.

Not sure how they would hold up if turned on side. Something like that could potentially be used to store poster boards or cookie sheets.

Here is a link that might be useful: kids storage bins

For shoes, if I wanted to glue shelves on there, I'd probably use foam-core board. Much cheaper!

Jollyrd, you're probably correct--the Trash To Treasure people would probably come up with a variety of uses for the shoe racks. Around here, we're pretty much "If it doesn't work, get rid of it" type people. Because part of organizing is recognizing when to let things go. People here can be pretty ruthless.

So if you have a need for hanging rods in various places around your house, cutting up the shoe racks is a great idea. It's ingenious; I never would have thought of it.

On the other hand, if you are going to have to create a need for these hanging rods, then it is still clutter and should leave your house.

I have metal shoes racks, that come apart (two separate racks) and expand. I took a couple of years before I realized that the reason I couldn't slide shoes under the bottom rack was because it was upside down. Once I figured it out, I added another row of storage to my closet. YEA!
You could shorten the bars and use it for gift rack storage, but as others have said, you could invest more in repurposing than buying the intended item. Well, that's how it typically works for me anyway.

You might try turning it around where it slants down toward the wall. I had the same issue and went to the Walmart site and read the reviews and that's what was suggested.

We had the problem with kid's shoes. I sewed and velcro fabric AROUND the "shelf" so nothing can fall, and I can remove to wash or shakeout as needed.

I had a shoe rack like that; I did end up giving it to charity.

Do you have kids that play sports or anything? It looks like it might be the right size for something like a sports equipment rack, it would probably be a great size for basketballs or something.

Wow! So many said to donate or toss them out. Unbelievable. I'm turning mine into shelving. Why throw away perfectly good stuff - no imagination goes right along with no money in the bank!