When we buy a pair of shoes (or seven!), the packaging is usually tossed aside as quickly as the wrapping paper on a birthday present. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, right? 

Well, some resourceful Coveteurs are embracing form-meets-function and incorporating the boxes that encase their Miu Miu and Manolos into their closet’s aesthetic: Behold, the Polaroid Shoe Closet. Not only do the Polaroid snaps have that ‘90s nostalgia we’ve been loving, but keeping the shoes in their boxes (or raiding The Container Store for more personalized storage) also protects shoes from, say, the dog eating ‘em. And for those addicts who face the needle/haystack debacle when looking for a certain pair in their six shoe-rooms, the photo-cataloguing helps avoid the hassle (read: first-world problem) of checking in every single box.

Take Suzanne Rogers’ pantheon of a closet, for example—we’re talking the kind of palatial wardrobe that requires Google-map functionality to navigate. From the neatly stacked Tropicana-orange boxes to the cellar where she stores her off-season Kirkwoods and YSL Tributes, her Polaroided possessions are both a practical storage solution and deliberate design choice. 

“I keep only one or two seasons in my present closet, the rest is put away [in storage],” says Rogers. “I label all boxes with a photo and try to color coordinate everything; I am a neat freak.” 

In celebrity stylist Tara Swennen's guest bedroom-turned-walk-in closet, her shelves of photo-adorned Jimmy Choo boxes make up a statement wall amid racks of designer duds. Although only some of the shoes inside are actually JC, it didn’t stop us from turning as green and prickly with envy as the cacti on her side tables.

“My shoebox filing system comes from the help of another Coveteur: Sara Riff from Jimmy Choo,” says the supermom and sartorial mastermind behind Kristen Stewart’s look. “She's a good friend of mine who agreed to pass along any unused boxes of hers to match my pink room. She's been such a doll; she's given me some shoes to fill them as well!”

NET-A-PORTER’s U.S. editor Tracy Taylor plays shoe tetris with her sepia-labeled boxes, wedged helter-skelter wherever they fit and yet somehow managing to look totally Pinnable (just check our Closet board). But it isn’t just the ladies who reign supreme at photo-organizing—Drake’s video director/sneaker fiend Jake Davis also labels and color-codes his prolific kick collection (one more pair of Air Jordans and that shelf looks like it might give out).   

And of course, retailers are hopping on the Polaroiding bandwagon—shoe designer Charlotte Olympia (a Susie Bubble favorite) now outfits every pair she sells with a printed photo, equipped with a self-adhesive back for those of us too lazy to break out the old Fuji Film (remember the Instax Mini?). Or, if you can hold out ‘til 2014, Polaroid is coming out with an iPhone-esque Instagram camera. Let's face it, those heels would probably look even better in Lo-Fi or Valencia. 

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