The other day, I decided to take pictures of my family’s shoe storage for an insta post but I got a bit carried away (as I often do) and it turned into a full shoe inventory check up. I’ve always assumed that the other members of my family had the most shoes but when I started doing the numbers, the humbling truth hit me: I was first place in the shoe collecting competition and owned double the amount of shoes as my husband (who got second place). How many you ask?
Here is the break down:
- ABIGAIL – 26
- SIMON – 13
- JANE – 11
- WALTER – 11
60 pairs total for a family of four. I have no idea what is ‘normal’ for the average American and really, I know I shouldn’t care. But being the curious person I am, I had to google it. It was hard to nail down a solid answer but I did run across this answer a couple of times: the average American man owns 12 pairs and the average American woman owns 27 pairs. Looks like my husband and I are over average (hair toss)… but back to not caring what the national average is. It is easy to get caught up in the numbers and in comparing ourselves to others, but I truly don’t think there is a magic number that is right for everyone. Some people are shoe connoisseurs and might have upwards of 100 pairs of shoes. If they can afford it and have the space to store them, I don’t see an issue with that! What I want for myself and everyone reading this is that we are intentional about the things we own instead of keeping every shoe we have ever bought ‘just in case’.
What bugged me about my situation is that even though I have worked hard to create lots of shoe storage in our small Cape Cod home, it still wasn’t enough to house our shoe collection. Because our storage was overflowing, I had 2 pairs of heels hiding in my closet and my son has a basket of shoes in his (granted, some of these are for when he gets older so I am fine with that). Also, the shoes in our front closet couldn’t be contained within the racks and shelves- a sign of too many. The biggest sign of all that I needed to declutter is that there were shoes of mine that I simply never wore. I would try them on, walk around a bit, and then choose another pair. I told myself that I was keeping a variety of heels for future events like weddings but the truth is that when those weddings came to be, I was going out and buying new shoes that went well with my outfit and the setting (the latest example being that I needed chunky heels for a grassy location… and yes I did already own some chunky heels thank you very much, but they didn’t go with my dress! I know I am not alone in this dilemma).
The decluttering sesh was on! I gathered all of my shoes and put them together with their buddies (heels with other heels, sandals with flip flops, etc). First, I said goodbye to my favorite dressy sandals because they were literally hanging together by a thread and would rather not risk wearing them one more time only to have a broken shoe to deal with (bottom left in the picture below). I plan to replace these if I can find them because they are comfy and perfect for dressing up a summer outfit. Next, I went through and removed the shoes I loved and have worn within the last year and put them in my keep pile. I was left with 4 pairs of heels, 1 pair of sandals that were cute but not conducive to my size 11 feet, and 1 clunky pair of flip flops.
Now came the hard part. I kept finding myself saying the phrase that is the enemy in the decluttering world: ‘but what if I need them one day?’. Let’s take my highest heels as an example. I bought them for a fancy wedding and have never worn them since. Because of that, they are in great shape (another excuse I make for why I should keep them). They are unlike my other heels in that they are fancier, another point going for them. But there is just this one teeny tiny problem- I strap them on and walk across my small living room and already, the answer is deafening. They fucking hurt. I look at my husband who is watching from the couch and his expression makes me want to keep them because apparently I look damn hot in them. Shit! I contemplate while strutting about and finally come to my mature ‘almost 40’ conclusion- the shoes have to go. Before birthing 3 children, I would have kept them and suffered through wearing them and then nursed my blistered, sore feet back to health the following days, but those years are behind me. My body has been through enough (do I need to mention the 3 pregnancies and birth experiences again as well as carrying babies around for years?). I probably will have a formal wedding to go to in the future and maybe I will buy another pair of fancy heels, but you can be damn sure they won’t be as high of heels as these and they will be much more comfortable.
The next goodbye was my rain boots. I always thought I had to own a pair of rain boots but it turns out I rarely wear these, instead grabbing my go-to Sperry duck boots. One thing that helps me when I am decluttering is imagining someone else owning and loving and actually wearing whatever it is I am letting go. How silly that I have let these rain boots take up a big chunk of space in my closet for years and have rarely actually used them. No longer!
Here are the 6 pairs I parted ways with:
As I put my 20 pairs of shoes back into their cubbies and on their shelf, I felt utterly gleeful. No more stacking and smushing and trying to find space where there wasn’t any. The shoes had plenty of room and then some. I can’t tell you the last time I had a few free spots in our shoe storage and the feeling was practically orgasmic. I also didn’t have any overflow creeping into the tiny ass closet my husband and I share. Yay! Although it was harder than I expected to declutter my shoes, I felt great once I was finished.
Was about to publish this post when it hit me- my bowling shoes! Forgot all about them so my grand total is now 21!
MAKE THE DAMN BED 