Tonight I went on Ebay to mark a package as shipped because I just sold my crazy pink stilettos.  There must have been a palpable dearth of pink shoes in the apartment with the stilettos gone, because in short order, I succumbed to these really neat pink and purple shoes by Isaac Mizrahi. I confess, I suspect I bought them in part because I so enjoyed reading his book “How to Have Style” last spring.  It’s a light, funny read and provided a welcome distraction while visiting family

I don’t buy leather shoes new, but I am okay with buying them second hand (high five for recycling!).  The listing said they were made in Italy and originally cost $265; that’s definitely a world apart from the many pairs of cheap made in China plastic crap shoes I have in my closet.   I am hoping it means they will be more comfortable, even with that heel.  (That heel!  Why am I still buying heels?!  I live in my hiking boots!)  I will just have to learn to run for the bus in these.

Listen!

P.s., how do ya like my vintage gold-spraypainted construction boots?   I found them at a garage sale, and snazzed them up for a halloween costume a few years back.  They’re one of the many pairs that I finally parted with during the recent pare-down.

The other day I was struck by the urge to do a shoe inventory.  I pulled all of my shoes out and arranged them on the area rug in our living room, determined that I could make them all fit.  When I realized they wouldn’t (there are more outside the edges of the photo, and this doesn’t even include the shoes I have at work!) I kinda freaked out just a teeny bit.  I counted them all up and came to 66 pairs of shoes.  Now, this includes all of my practical shoes too…running shoes, winter boots, hiking boots, slippers, rubber boots, ski boots, etc.  And in my defence, a good number of these shoes are second-hand…I can count 13 pairs in this photo.  But still…66 pairs of shoes is just too much.

I knew what I needed to do, but clearly paring down my collection would require some moral support.  I called a shoe-loving friend who lives nearby, and she came over…with three pairs of heels she found for me at a clothing swap!  Lol.  This brought my shoe collection to 69 pairs of shoes.  C’mon Stef, you’re supposed to be helping me pare down here!  (Seriously though, that was awesome, thanks for thinking of me.)

We went through my shoes row by row, and picked out the ones that just HAD to go.  I think we got rid of about 10 pairs, which my friend took away to the second hand store when she left, lest I have any second thoughts.  Very smart!  Also, I had an extra pair of hiking boots that I wasn’t using and they were in good shape.  Turns out my friend has the same size feet as me and needed a pair of hiking boots, so I was able to pass them on to a new home.  Totally great.

My shoe collection was down to 59 pairs and I felt really refreshed!  But somehow, a few more pairs crept into my closet in the weeks following, bringing the number back up to 65.  So I’m almost where I started (and still having space issues) but at least those horrendous 90s prom shoes are gone!

Confession time: I own Crocs.  They’re my guilty pleasure.  I love to wear them with a big thick pair of hiking socks.  Total comfy foot bliss.  And to up the tackiness factor of these clunky fugsters, I have a couple of those little Croc charms in them.

I know they’re not terribly fashionable (understatement of the year).  But I think of my Crocs as a radical counter-point to all the horrendously uncomfortable but super hot stilettos I have in my closet.  Besides, I don’t wear them out of the house too often, and generally only when they’ll just be peeping out from under a pair of big comfy pants while I run some errands.

A super fashionable friend of mine was over visiting recently and was totally horrified to discover that I owned a pair of Crocs.  She insisted that I get rid of them and upgrade to a cuter pair.  I can’t bring myself to throw out a perfectly comfy pair of Crocs, especially with gardening season right around the corner, but I was looking on the Crocs website and found 5 pairs that I think are super cute (below).  They’re the alice, malindi, and olivia styles.  I’m a bit hesitant to order a new style online when I’m not quite sure of the fit, so I’m going to try to find some in town here to try on first before deciding.

Anyway, as much as I wanted to give them a loving home (especially the second pair – made with eco-friendly materials!) I really do have to pare down my collection.  I haven’t taken a count lately, but I’m guessing I’m up at 65 or 70 pairs by now…it’s just too much.  I have shoes stacked in the closet, tucked under the bed, filling an old bookshelf, piled on shoe racks and mats, and randomly scattered in every room in the apartment.  Madness!

I think before I let myself bring home any more shoes, I should go through every pair I have and see what I can let go.  I’ve already sent a couple of pairs to the thrift store.  It’s no easy task, parting with shoes, but I mean c’mon…I still have my highschool prom shoes!  Even if they weren’t now a size and a half too small, they’re super fug 90s white wedge sandals, yikes.  So yeah, definitely time to take a shoe inventory and get ruthless.

I got these “Dallas” inspired fugsters at my local Value Village second hand shop for about 4 bucks. They have a low, yet impossibly wobbly heel, and are oh so ugly in a way that I somehow find endearing. Naturally, I couldn’t resist.

As you can imagine, I have never worn these shoes. Not once. And I keep thinking that I will find a way to wear them, ironically of course. But let’s be honest – they’ll probably continue to sit in my closet.

So in the coming weeks, barring some kind of shoe-related amnesia, these unfortunate soles are going to find their way back to the second hand shop. *slow wave goodbye*

But it got me thinking…WOW, I am absolutely overstuffed with “stuff”.  And this includes having WAY too many shoes.  I recently counted them up, racing through the apartment with fervour, and was totally floored to discover that I had 52 pairs of shoes!!!

Now, this includes functional shoes, like runners and hiking boots.  And a lot of my fun shoes are second hand.  But still…does anyone really need 52 pairs of shoes?  A lot Most of them I have never even worn!  And storage space is really becoming a problem.

As you can imagine, this “stuff” overload is causing quite a bit of cognitive dissonance for me, the shoe-addicted environmentalist.  So I’ve decided to cap my shoe collection at 50 pairs, get rid of the ones don’t fit right or that I don’t truly love, and start wearing the ones I keep.  And that means that if I want to get any new ones, I will have to part with another pair.  Well, it’s a start anyway.