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mommabird_gw

shoes shoes shoes...

mommabird
15 years ago

Someone posted a few weeks ago asking for ideas on how to organize shoes. This made me think of a story from one of Phillip Gulley's books, where the fictional pastor's church is raising money for shoes for Chocktow Indian children on a reservation. One of the elderly lady characters in the book marvels that she has SIX pairs of shoes, and those poor children don't have any shoes...

This story has stuck with me. I would love to get down to SIX pairs of shoes! BK (before kids) I was a shoe hound, had probably 50 pairs. Now I'd say I'm down to 15 (was down to 10 but have crept back up this summer), not including "specialty" shoes like hiking and snow boots.

I use an over the door shoe holder that I just love- I got it in the "as seen on TV" section at Wallgreens.

How many pairs of shoes do YOU have? And how do you keep them all together?

Comments (10)

  • mvastian
    15 years ago

    12 total.

    1 rubber galoshes
    2 hiking boots
    3 sneakers (1 is in bad shape, I save for one walk in the river Acheron in Epirus and then I´ll throw them out)
    2 winter dress
    2 summer dress
    2 summer casual

    I will not count the slippers/flip flops I wear indoors because we are a no shoes home and we have a lot of them for visitors that we wash after every use and I take my pick and wear from these.

    We have custom built tilt out shoe cabinets close to the front door and keep most of them there. Only my galoshes and old sneakers are in the closed cabinets at the bottom of the bookcases in our bedroom. We keep no shoes in the closets.

    Maria

  • jamie_mt
    15 years ago

    I'm not sure - but I'll list them and see:

    2 pair basic pumps for work (black/navy)
    1 pair black loafers (work/casual summer)
    2 pair black ankle boots (work/asual winter)
    1 pair knee-high snow boots
    2 pair dress flats (silver/brown)
    2 pair "dressy" heels (black/cream)
    1 pair tennis shoes
    1 pair yard loafers
    1 pair flip flops for summer
    1 pair black vinyl knee length heeled platform boots (for Halloween type dress up)

    14 total, looks like. I'm okay with that - the "dressy" heels and flats I hardly ever wear, but I do need to keep them for those rare occasions I need a nice shoe in a specific color for a holiday party or some random event. I never wear the navy pumps, so those could probably go, but it's nice to have the option should I want it, and they're in good shape. I wear the heels out on a pair of pumps and ankle boots every year (due to daily wear, I'm sure), so I generally buy a new pair once per year, toss the old ones. This year I might see if I can just have them re-heeled though...

  • mustangs81
    15 years ago

    OMG, a quick count = 107!

    That is shameful and I pledge here and now to rehabilitate myself. I have been purging them this last year but obviously not diligently enough.

  • justgotabme
    15 years ago

    I really have no clue. Even though I've come to the conclusion that heals, of any kind aren't for me anymore, I still have way more than I need. I'm not at home so I can't count, but I'll guess a couple dozen.
    Our daughter has taken over being the one with the most shoes in our family. She buys a pair of shoes and then looks for an outfit to go with them.
    Almost forgot. I have shelves built into our closet to store my shoes. When I get home I'll post a picture that I saved onto my hubby's laptop of a walk in closet with pull out shoe storage. Similar to a pull out pantry. Really neat way to store lots of shoes. Could even be worked into a standard closet.

  • talley_sue_nyc
    15 years ago

    I have about 6 pairs, a couple of years ago. Then I went to a concerted effort to buy summer dress shoes. And winter dress shoes. Bcs I found that I couldn't wear skirts or dresses bcs I didn't have the right shoes. And the ones I had really weren't in good condition or didn't fit.

    But did I actually get rid of the bad ones? Not all of 'em. I'll use this post to make myself take a look at them.

    And I keep 3 pairs (maybe 4) at the office.

    I try to just have basic shoes anymore. So I probably own 20. If you count the spare pair I bought for when the LandsEnd sandals I like so much finally wear out, and the flip-flops for going out in the rain, and the shoes I should probably toss, and the worn-out sneakers I keep for painting, or wearing home from the office in the rain.

  • harriethomeowner
    15 years ago

    I have maybe 6 pairs that I wear regularly, plus a few extras (the "these are wearing out but I'm afraid to get rid of them because they're comfortable" ones). DH has about the same number.

    We keep some of our shoes in a bench by the door. The theory was that we would take shoes off when we came in and then store them in the bench, which has doors in front, but what tends to happen is the most-used shoes are strewn around on the floor in front of the bench. The rest of our shoes (mostly dress shoes) are in a hanging cloth shoe holder in the closet in our bedroom. There are also a few pairs of grubby sneakers in the garage, for working in the yard, and some house-only shoes (sandals in summer, slippers in winter) that we're usually wearing when we're at home.

  • justgotabme
    15 years ago

    Here's the pull out shoe storage I was talking about above.
    {{!gwi}}

  • mustangs81
    15 years ago

    That is an awesome pullout! Thanks for sharing.

  • Jane_the_Renovator
    15 years ago

    11 pairs.

    Work shoes--two pairs
    Sneakers
    Flip-flops/slippers
    Clogs
    Sandals
    Dress pumps
    Snow boots
    Work boots
    Gym sneakers

    VERY small closet. One pair of work shoes is always at work. Snow boots are in seasonal storage. Work boots are with the tools. Gym sneakers are in my gym bag at work.

    I used to have a lot of shoes. Moving, years of renovation, and those VERY small closets whittled the total down.

  • mommabird
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    OMG Mustangs I am laughing so hard - 107 pairs!!! My house would be busting if I had that many!

    I love that pull-out. Unfortunatly it's as big as my entire closet so I don't have any room!

    To keep myself honest I'll go through what I do have:
    1 black pumps
    1 black flats
    2 black loafers
    2 brown flats
    1 gold sandals
    1 gold flats
    1 bronze sandals
    1 hiking boots
    2 running shoes
    1 snow boots