Monday, April 26, 2010

The Taming of the Shoe

So I woke up yesterday to this: shoes 002

It would seem as if the Woodsman was not enamored with the large number of shoes we had stored in the baskets below the entry table, and he laid all the shoes in the house out to make a point.  Most of those are mine.  But to be fair, there were a few of the boys’ shoes not represented,  AND many of mine were stored in the garage just outside the door.

Nonetheless, I was tasked with culling the shoes.  No small feat (pun intended… besides, I wear an 11.  HA!).  These are my shoes:

shoes 013

I’m going to argue (successfully) that the slippers are NOT shoes.  But subtracting those from the count, I still have 28 pairs there.  Now, I’m no Imelda Marcos, but that’s still a lot of shoes.  I did manage to chuck 6 pairs, which brings me down to a total of 22 pairs of shoes.  There’s a nice variety there, don’t you think?  Though I had to toss my black flip flops last year, and I was in need of new ones, so I found a  pair of those (plus a “bogo half” pair of pointy-toed kitten-heeled slippers).  SSsshhhh, don’t tell the Woodsman!

Though to his credit, there are a lot of shoes in the “immediate use” area, and I’ll be getting some containers to store the shoes I use less often, and perhaps a large container for out of season shoes.  The Danskos I love, but I’ll be wearing them much less now that it’s warmer!

9 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! (is your maiden name Marcos?) Seriously, I own 3 pair of shoes and of those 3, one I've worn a few times, another quite a bit more than that and the last is my "everyday" pair. They're ALL birks.

    And yet.... if I emptied the basket by my front door, the floor would look much the same with 3 daughters and a son living at home! (Chief never puts his shoes there!) So now you "only" have 22 pair. (I'm with you on the slippers, though!)

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  2. Well, yeah, it's more than I need, that's for sure. But I've had most of them forever. One pair is from my sister's wedding. The flip-flops... well, I needed the orange ones to have something cheap at the gym, and the white and gold ones I got on clearance at the Bass Outlet for 90% off, so they were like $3 each pair, and they are great in Mexico. The rest of them are more "professional" and went better with different pants or dresses for work. But they're still in good shape, so I keep them. I need(ed) closed toed dress shoes to walk in the snow, and more springy shoes for the warmer weather. Then I have the utilitarian shoes... the gym shoes for the gym (one pair is too small), the sport sandals to walk in streams or hike in the summer, the sorrels were purchased to have some lightweight shoes to travel with. I learned my lesson RE wearing pretty shoes in the airport. It's not all vanity. Though it partly is, I admit. :) I'm not wearing them all like I was now that I'm "only" a student. But I will. Oh, I will.

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  3. Oh Honey, you ain't seen nothing yet! Seriously, that shoe collection is weak. Weak I say. My husband would be thrilled if I only had 30 pairs of shoes. :) Though I do admit to paring down (ha ha, good pun, eh?) after both of the kids due to the foot growth. I actually probably have about 50 pairs of shoes though. And I don't count slippers. They aren't shoes.

    PS. I love the title of this post. So very clever!

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  4. HA! YAY! Carla to the rescue! I was hoping you'd chime in! I KNOW my paltry collection is nothing next to yours. I certainly don't have any pretty, pretty shoes, and no high end brands. Franco Sarto and Ettienne Aigner are very nice, so are the Danskos,but they aren't Manolos! :) Most of them are black or brown, higher and lower. I think it's a good "a little better than basic" collection for an office rat. :)

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  5. Well I sold all my Manolos and Choos. They didn't fit anymore and I had no need for them so I never replaced them. I do have a couple of pairs of Stuart Weitzman, but that's about as pricey as they go. And most of them are cheap flip flops and sandals. I love the website: www.6pm.com and www.shoebuy.com It's a sickness!

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  6. I'm with Carla and lost a lot of my shoes to foot growth after Willow was born.

    I'm laughing hard at the picture though. I'd say he's making a good point. There is a lot there, but you need more than one pair of shoes.

    I'm going to chuckle at this picture for most of the night...

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  7. This is too funny...I can so pic him doing that too.
    Makes me want to go count how many pairs I have...I think I have close to 20 pairs of flip flops alone. I do need to weed out a lot of ones I don't wear...but I am holding onto those ones I would only wear with dresses, etc..in case I end up with another job where I will need to wear them again.

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  8. Dez, you must count!! I know you are a flip flop fanatic, which is something in this climate (present year excluded).

    yeah, now he's grumbling about purses. I told him he should have married a man. I also asked him how many guns and deer heads he needed, and why he couldn't live with just one of each. *crickets chirp* Yeah, that's what I thought, my love. (BTW, the rifles, et al., are securely stored in a fire proof gun safe... for those inquiring minds).

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  9. And I should add that most of the shoes in the picture were in the garage on a shoe rack (we take our shoes off at the door, and use the garage door the most... so it makes sense for us. But it's not like I have shoes all over the floor. I just have shoes!

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