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!