Shoes may provide quite a problem when it comes to movement. They’re big, available in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are frequently filthy to boot (pun intended) (pun intended). Still, your shoes have to travel with you to your new house, and they’re not going to walk there alone. Packing shoes for your relocation requires a little of imagination and a bit of time, but it’s not much more hard than packing up the other stuff in your wardrobe. These methods will remove the uncertainty out of packing shoes, enabling you to get the chore done swiftly so you can concentrate on other unwanted objects in your house.

1. Get rid of the ones you don’t wear

Chances are you have lots of shoes in your closet that you haven’t worn in years. Putting them in a box seems unnecessary. Instead of packing shoes that are simply going to be thrown aside in your new house, use your relocation as an occasion to get rid of them.

2. Stuff each shoe with a pair of socks

To assist shoes keep their form throughout your relocation, take a rolled up pair of socks and shove it down near the toe. It’s possible that you’ll need an extra pair of socks for your heel, depending on the form and design of your shoes. Not only will this assist protect your shoes from being damaged in transportation, this hack serves double duty by getting your socks packed too. Have you already put your socks in a suitcase before reading this? If you don’t have shoe trees, you may use plastic wrap or clean packing paper to fill your shoes.

3. Separate the finer pairs and pack them away in boxes.

During a relocation, you may not worry too much about a pair of old shoes becoming scuffed or ruined, but you could be more careful with your pricey heels or your freshly polished loafers. Protect your favorites by boxing them up separately, with packing paper twisted around them to keep them in place. If you didn’t preserve the packaging the shoes arrived in, that’s no issue. You may buy simple cardboard shoe boxes in multi-packs or utilize tiny plastic containers.

4. Tie sneakers together by the laces

For shoes like sneakers, which are likely simply going to be tossed in a box or other form of container together, preserve pairs together by tying their laces together. This way, you won’t be searching through the pile attempting to locate a shoe’s match when you find yourself in need of a pair before you’ve completely unpacked.

5. Pack a couple key pairs in their own package

Shoes are frequently not one of the first items unpacked, as as long as you’ve got your go-tos you’re not likely going to have a need for the others straight away. Still, you should make sure that you have easy access to two or three crucial pairs that you can readily reach for throughout the unpacking process. You’ll probably wear sneakers for the move itself, so set aside a pair of easy on/off shoes for when you need to make a quick trip out to the car, a pair of shoes you can style with at least a week’s worth of work outfits, and a pair of shoes available just in case you decide to break for a nice dinner or other type of outing.

6. Pack out of season shoes individually

Speaking of shoes being on the latter end of the unpacking timeline, there’s no sense to spend time unpacking out of season shoes when there is so much more to accomplish. If you’re relocating in the summer, sort out stuff like winter boots and comfortable slippers. If you’re relocating in the winter, put aside a separate box for sandals and flip flops. Mark the box clearly, and don’t worry if you don’t end up getting around to it in the first few weeks of your relocation.

7. Make sure you only utilize pristine packaging material.

While newspaper may be an efficient replacement for packing paper when it comes to other goods in your house, the same is not true for packing shoes. Printed newspaper, old packing paper, or even colored tissue paper may all leave stains that might be difficult or impossible to remove later on. For peace of mind, only use un-used packing paper to wrap and fasten your shoes. In a pinch, you can use some clean paper towels.

8. Use tea bags to keep shoes fresh

Let shoes breathe for a full day before packaging them to eliminate any leftover scents. For shoes that have a noticeable foul smell, you may try placing them in the freezer, which will destroy any latent germs existing in them. And when it comes to keeping shoes fresh during the relocation itself, put unused tea bags in them. If you’re stuffing them with socks, there’s no need to do anything special to hide that fact.

9. Pack thick shoes on the bottom

Whether you’re using boxes, plastic containers, or even laundry baskets to carry your shoes, make sure you’re placing the heaviest and bulkiest shoes on the bottom. By distributing the load more uniformly, this will be less dangerous and simpler to transport. You may ruin the lighter pairs of shoes by stacking heavier ones on top of them.

10. Replace plastic bags with bubble wrap.

Resist the desire to wrap your shoes up in plastic bags, which may easily rupture. Instead, use plastic wrap, which is a much sturdier and gives substantially more protection. You’ll want to put it around any sharp heels and buckles, and it also comes in helpful for making sure filthy shoes don’t rub off on other pairs. Make sure the shoes are completely dry before wrapping them in plastic to prevent the growth of mold.