When 30 pairs of shoes are too much… #Organizing

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RachelZoe shoes
Picture credit: mizztissa.com

What is the exact number of shoes one should have?  Is it 5 pairs? 10? 30? 100? Thousands…o.k. none of us are Imelda Marcos (if you don’t know who that is, just think of any one of the Kardashians and you would be safe).
I was working with one of my favourite clients last week and we were tackling her clothes and shoes (once again).  We have done some pretty good culling last year.  She even did more culling over the winter – with her clothes… her shoes… not so much.

saduradetail

The second question has to be how many pairs of ONE colour of shoe do we need?  Five black flats, 2 black heels, six black walking shoes, two black pumps…yes, that is what she had… still has with the exception of one pair that she gave up.

The problem is that all the shoes that she owns are very good quality. They are the Mephisto, Clarks, Town Shoes of the world (no Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahnik ).  These shoes are not cheap so her need to keep them is that much stronger because they were expensive.  That, however, does not justify keeping all of them.

Why did she have so many shoes that were remarkably similar in style and colour?  Well, for one she hadn’t put them all in one area. So with numerous pairs in different locations (even different cities), she was not able to clearly see that she had A LOT OF BLACK CASUAL SHOES.

I was happy to see that she had placed them in hanging shoe cubbies, off the floor, where you could easily see them. The problem was that she bought a  new shoe cubby with even more slots. The other drawback was that they were harder to see. Though you did see that they were black shoes, you could not distinguish which was which unless you took them out.  This is where the danger lies…one more step = less likely to do something.  Because the slots were facing sideways and not forward, she will have to pull shoes in and out of slots to clearly see them. Doing this will take more time when you are choosing and will, therefore, be less likely to be used.

#TODAY’S ORGANIZING LESSON: keep all shoes in one area, keep a running tally of where your shoes are, get rid of the ones you are not using (consign them if you must so you won’t feel like you are wasting money), and keep them in easy to use, easy to see shoe holders. Limit the amount of shoes that you have by ONLY using the allotted slots.  If you have more, then you need to cull. DON’T just put them in another room, in another box…in ANOTHER CITY!

shoeholders
Great Example for my favourite organizing company: NeatFreak!
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Margarita Ibbott is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She blogs about travel in Canada, the United States and Europe giving practical advice through restaurant, hotel and attraction reviews. She writes for DownshiftingPRO.com and other online media outlets.

3 thoughts on “When 30 pairs of shoes are too much… #Organizing”

  1. Hi Margarita,
    I totally agree with you about the limits. I love that expression “a set amount of time, space and resources” I can relate to attempts at working with clients and so often they cannot find the matching pair so cannot make a plan with the single shoe. Definitely, putting all shoes together in one spot is going to simplify things down the road.

  2. I have a small shoe rack and because it holds a set number of pairs, I have to live by the one-in-one-out rule. And because all my shoes can easily be seen, it’s not hard for me to figure out what I have and what needs to be replaced.

    • From your mouth to ALL OF MY CLIENT’S EARS. I have to say, I love limits. I work best when I have only a set amount of time, set amount of space or set amount of resources. It makes me pick and choose the best (and the shoes that I use the most). Thanks for dropping by!

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