I can remember a time when I didn’t have more than a few pairs. Heck, none at all was my preference and usually acceptable growing up on the beach in Southern California. I did just fine with flip flops, a pair of slip on Vans and my 1979 pink hi-top Chuck’s (Converse tennis shoes).
I’m not sure how it started, it didn’t happen all at once or even over night and it went un-noticed for years. Then one day last summer, I was going through my closet looking for that cute pair of strappy, red, sandals I knew I had somewhere. There I was sitting in front of my clothes closet, surrounded by roughly thirty pairs of shoes and WHAM, it hit me – I am a Shoe-Aholic!
Now I know you’re thinking: 30 pairs? that’s nothing and certainly not addiction level. Well, like I said, I was sitting in this pile in front of my “clothes” closet, not my “shoe” closet, yea, I have a shoe closet.
On that day last summer, I decided to do something drastic in hopes of curbing my addiction to shoes. I decided to (OMG) donate some of them….. Thus began The Great Shoe Purge of 2015. It still hurts a little to think about.
I pulled out every pair of shoes I owned, tried them on; some for the last time (sigh); matched them up with outfits I actually wear and decided which I would keep and which I would put into a big black Heafty lawn and garden bag. It had to be a black bag or I would have been too tempted to take some pairs back out of the donation pile, and it had to be the big lawn and garden bag, because I had a LOT of shoes. Not Imelda Marcos quantities, but a lot.
There were: shoes I’d never worn, shoes that pinched my toes, shoes that gave me blisters, shoes that were sky high and shoes with no heel at all. All super cute, all purchased with the best intentions, but I wasn’t kidding anyone, these babies weren’t getting worn. Into the bag they went.
By the end of the day I had 2 of those Heafty bags full. I’d gotten to the point of making excuses not to count certain types of shoes just so I could keep them (flip flops aren’t real shoes right?), that’s when I knew I just couldn’t go any further.
My son decided to count the shoes in the bags since he had to carry them out to the car and counting delayed the carrying. The Grand Total was 134 pairs of shoes. You should have heard him: What would you need 134 pairs of shoes for?? Well, obviously I don’t need them or you wouldn’t be carrying them down to the car right now would you? (the 1980’s “Duh” was added in my head). They were CUTE! Rather than sympathy for my loss, all I got was an eye roll and shake of my then 15year old’s head as he harrumphed past me with the bags.
It’s now just about a year later, I haven’t been completely cured of my shoe addiction, though I’ve tamed it down. I’ve only been seduced into falling off the wagon for roughly 9 pairs this year….
Hello my name is Suzanne, and I’m a Shoe-Aholic, I have 88 pairs of shoes including 4 pairs of flip flops and a pair of 1979, pink, hi-top Chucks (you can get some too, just click the link to Amazon).
Please follow and like us:
