April - and grand - tally

Friends, I'm finally wrapping up these shoe posts.  I've been putting it off forever, but I have to tally up the shoes from April, document shoe-maggedon, and, um, also perhaps tell you about the two new pairs I've acquired!  So for today, just the April tally.
  In the month of April, I wore/examined 12 pairs of shoes from my collection, at an estimated total cost of $296, or average cost of $24.66.  Of those, I am keeping 11. 1 was discarded.

So, from June 1-April 12 is 316 days.

I have shown you 200 pairs of my shoes. I am keeping 169 (!) (on the fence about 11 of those, though I think I gave my mom one of those 11, I need to go back and check), trashing 4, donating 27.

So keeping 169 and getting rid of 31 is a cull rate of 16% (My initial goal, before I knew I owned 200 pairs, was 20%, which means shoe-maggedon was necessary).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $5,665.50 on shoes, or an average cost of $28.33 per shoe, or roughly $333/year on my little hobby.


So - SHOE-MAGGEDON!  My friend TSM came over on April 8th and we sorted through the entire stack of shoes.  We allotted 4 hours for the exercise, and you know what:  It wasn't enough time! 


How many pairs of shoes do you think I own now?  If I was down to 169 pairs pre-TSM's influence, how many do you think I now own?  How many more do you think I discarded?

March tally

Oh, I am weary of shoes!  Weary, weary, weary.  But the end is nigh!  

In the month of March, I wore/examined 31 pairs of shoes from my collection, at an estimated total cost of $894.75, or average cost of $28.86.  Of those, I am keeping 27, though I am seriously on the fence with 2 of them. 4 were discarded, plus I discarded another 2 from previous months.  I did buy three pairs this month. 

So, I've been blogging shoes for 304 days.

I have shown you 188 pairs of my shoes. I am keeping 158 (!) (on the fence about 11 of those, though I think I gave my mom one of those 11, I need to go back and check), trashing 4, donating 26.

So keeping 158 and getting rid of 30 is a cull rate of 16% (My goal remains 20%, which means I have stacks to get rid of, and my fence sitting isn't helping me any).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $5,369.50 on shoes, or an average cost of $28.56 per shoe, or roughly $316/year on my little hobby.

So when I first started this and counted my shoes, I got up to 167. It's actually looking much, much closer to 200!  Which means even if I cull 20%, or 40 pairs, I'd still have 160 in this house!

So, looking back at the initial shoe count, let's see what I've covered and what still remains. 

Shoe wardrobe - done
Stack of boxes next to shoe wardrobe, plus scattered on floor:  ~4 more to go
Stack of boxes next to my dresser, plus jumbled under dresser - done
Stack of boxes between radiator and window - done, but I have to check, there might be one
Closet hanging shoe bag - done
Top shelf of closet - done
Shoe underbed thing - done
Shoe overdoor thing in Elizabeth's room - DONE and EMPTIED!  Yay!
Closet hanging shoe bag in E's room - ~2, maybe 3 more
Other shoes on the floor of my closet - unknown, maybe ~3-5 pairs

So I'm estimating about 10-14 shoes left!  If there are 12, that's 200.  Gulp!  (dammit, I am barely holding on resisting buying that pair of $30 boots.....)

But, in 8 days, TSM is coming over and we are lining up ALL the pairs of shoes and looking at the entire collection.  I'm a little nervous! 

In any case, the end is in sight!!

January/February tally

Holey moley. I am officially SICK TO DEATH of my ridiculous shoe collection. SICK. TO. DEATH.

AND, I went around to all my various stash places and I think it's possible there's another full month to go! I definitely counted at least 25 more. TSM says she's coming over April 8th for the grand shoe set up (wanna come? we'll need the help!). Is it possible for me to get through them all before the 8th? I think so. I shall soldier on.

In the month of January/February, I wore/examined 30 pairs of shoes from my collection, at an estimated total cost of $1077, or average cost of $35.90. The boots killed my average this month. Of those, I am keeping 25, though I am seriously on the fence with 3 of them. 5 pairs are being discarded, with one of those pairs already in the trash.

So, I've been blogging shoes for 273 days.

I have shown you 157 pairs of my shoes. I am keeping 133 (!) (on the fence about 9 of those, though I think I gave my mom one of those 9, I need to go back and check), trashing 4, donating 20.

So keeping 133 and getting rid of 24 is a cull rate of 13%. (Damn, my cull rate dropped - my goal remains 20%, which means I have stacks to get rid of, and my fence sitting isn't helping me any).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $4,474.75 on shoes, or an average cost of $28.50 per shoe, or roughly $265/year on my little hobby.

So when I first started this and counted my shoes, I got up to 167. Turns out I was off by at least 10%! It's looking more like 180, total (do you know what 180 means? It means if I were a school teacher, I could wear a different pair of shoes for every single day school was in session for an entire academic year! Good gravy!). That is a freakishly large number of shoes. And even if I cull 20%, I'd still have at least 144 shoes! Crazy. Cray-zee. At this point, quite honestly, I'm forgetting what I've already written about and what still needs to be documented. You know what I want to do? I want to stop photographing these and just pretend I do not have all these excess shoes. But that doesn't help with the clutter. I'm going to get through this, and I'm going to have a clearer, more focused idea of what shoes I own.

Sigh. Onward!

2010 shoes

So, guess what? I totally forgot about a pair I bought in 2010, but by deductive reasoning, them checking my stash of receipts, I was able to pinpoint I had indeed bought a pair of shoes in February 2010. I've edited below, and numbers that were edited are marked with an *.

So in addition to cataloging my shoe collection, I'm simultaneously exposing my buying habits. I bought 22* pairs of shoes in 2010. I've shown you 19 pairs - still have three* to reveal.

In 2010, including the two pairs I haven't yet documented, I spent $617.50* on shoes, or $28.07* per pair, or roughly $50/month. Yikes. Wow. I had no idea. Seriously, if someone asked me how many shoes I bought a year I'd say maybe 10-12. Twice that is a surprise. I don't know how this year really compares with other years, because I can usually pinpoint my purchases to within a season or a span of 1-2 years, but I don't have perfect memory. Friends have asked me how I remember the dates I bought shoes, and it's because I've changed jobs or just been in different life stages over the past ten years or so. So I remember I bought shoes before or after I met Rich, before or after the wedding, with colleagues from my long-term non profit job, from my communications job, from maternity leave, from freelancing etc. But it's not a perfect memory. I'd say I've probably bought more these past few years because I've had more opportunity, but even when working I had a fair amount of shopping time. So who knows.

The good news is I am a bargain shopper, and for less than the price of a pair of fancy designer shoes, I've been able to buy 22* pretty darn good pairs! Where I keep them all is more of the problem, though.

I've already semi-reviewed my purchases, and I don't have many purchase regrets.

So what's on tap for 2011? Well, I'm going to get some wear out of the three* from 2010 I haven't yet worn. I have to take my now-beloved gray ankle boots to the cobbler, though, because I've worn them so much they already need new heel taps! Love them.

I do have a few shoes I'd like to purchase. I really need hiking boots, and missed out on buying some for super cheap in the Lands End winter sale - deliberated too long and they sold out of my size. Hiking boots can then double as snow boots, but if I see some cheap snow boots on sale I'm going to grab them, although we probably won't get much more snow (I hope not at least - on average we only get one >6 inch snow storm a year, though of course anything is possible). I am still longing for gray shooties, but that's another post. I've been cyber stalking a pair I think I love, but they're $165, and that's too rich for my blood. I've been cyber stalking two other pairs of shoes - these in teal/gray and red/taupe - but again too pricey for me. I really, really covet the teal ones.

More realistically, this challenge showed me just how beat up most of my dressy black sandals are, so I'll be on the lookout for a good buy. My athletic shoes are pretty worn, too, so again I've keep a lookout.

And that's about it. I think you'll all agree I don't really need any other kinds of shoes. Maybe I should institute a one in/one out rule from here on out. That would be a good rule - because if I buy black dressy sandals, I certainly have some to toss. Hmm.

So I've purchased two pairs already in 2011. One pair I'll write about soon follows the one in/one out rule. The other pair I'm really not sure about, so they might go back. We'll see what you all think. I'd like to limit my purchases to no more than 10-12 (and this of course assumes I am gainfully employed soon!). We'll see what 2011 brings!

*edited numbers from original post to account for a forgotten pair

December tally

Oh for Pete's sake. Are you all as sick of looking at my shoes as I am of thinking about them? Every month I start off strong, resolving to post every day and just finish this already for the love of god. And yet, every month I just lose my motivation. I told someone that even though I have probably another 40 pairs of so to go, I am just not inspired by any of them, which means I should probably just dump all of them. But that's not entirely true. A lot of it has to do with winter blahs. It's really much, much easier to stay in my pajamas all day and not even think about shoes or going outside. And then the photographing, the uploading...it's just too much for my winter blahs to think about. Of the 40 or so remaining, probably 10 are summery shoes I never got around to, 10 are really cool but totally rockin' professional shoes I have no reason to wear, and the rest are crap that should be deleted from my life. OK, well, I shall soldier on because the only thing worse than finishing this project is failing at finishing this project. I photographed a bunch of shoes for January, and have released my standard of having to wear them out of the house, so maybe this will go a bit faster. I'll pop those all up quickly, then start - and FINISH - February strong.

First, I have to report it's January 28th and I've already purchased two pairs of shoes this year. Eeep. I'm going to admit that I considered going cold turkey on ALL shopping for clothes and shoes for myself in 2011, but I just couldn't do it. Well, I was going to modify that resolution into only allowing second-hand purchases, but even that was too tough. So, let's recap December, which is hard because I think I made a math error in November's recap so I have to figure that out first, but here we go anyway.

In the month of December, I wore/examined 8 pairs of shoes from my collection, at a total cost of $143.50, or average cost of $17.94. Of those, I am keeping all 8, though later I am going to write about how I'm getting rid of one pair.

So, I've been blogging shoes for 214 days.

I have shown you 127 pairs of my shoes. I am keeping 108 (!) (on the fence about 6 of those, though I think I gave my mom one of those 6, I need to go back and check), trashing 3, donating 16.

So keeping 108 and getting rid of 19 is a cull rate of 15%. (My goal remains 20%, which means I have stacks to get rid of, and December didn't help me any).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $3,397.75 on shoes, or an average cost of $26.75 per shoe.

Wow, so that means I'm keeping 108 pairs of shoes. I've got to get with it so I can wrap this up by February.

My friend TSM made a really good suggestion a while back - she said once I had decided what I was keeping, I should then lay them all out, sort by category/color, and then re-evaluate. I want to do that though I'm not sure where I can set the full collection up! TSM even volunteered to come over and help, so I'll take her up on that. Actually, this is my interpretation of what she said, which was actually more along the lines of you seem to have lot of shoes that you don't wear but that 'make you smile' and maybe you should cull some of them. Which is also not exactly what she typed but what she sensibly meant.

I've been reading and watching Peter Walsh lately - he's a 'declutter expert' who talks about the types of clutter people have. I definitely have memory clutter - imbuing objects with memories. However, he's lost all credibility with me because I was watching his clutter show on the new Oprah Network and he told a woman with over 100 pairs of shoes that no one needed more than 10 pairs. Obviously, the man is delusional. No one needs over 100, I'll grant you that. But ten is purely punitive and, if putting together stylish, interesting outfits is something that interests you whatsoever, a ten-pair limit forces you to be radically unstylish. OK, anyway. Onward!

November tally

OMG, I am never going to finish going through all my shoes. It's a burden, I tell you. I think maybe I was happier just living with my stacks and under-worn shoes. But once I get the tax deduction and clear out more space I think I will be happier. The process of getting there is not fun, though.

OK, anyway. For those actually reading along, it's actually mid-December and I am backdating because I am shameless (obviously). But now am finally through/caught up with November.

In the month of November, I wore/examined 15 pairs of shoes from my collection, at a total cost of $327, or average cost of $21.80. Of those, I am keeping 8, on the fence about 1, and donating 6.

So, I've been blogging shoes for 183 days.

I have shown you 119 pairs of my shoes. I am keeping 100 (!) (on the fence about 6 of those, though i think i gave my mom one of those 6, I need to go back and check), trashing 3, donating 16.

So keeping 100 and getting rid of 19 is a cull rate of 16%. (My goal remains 20%, which means I have stacks to get rid of!).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $3253.75 on shoes, or an average cost of $27.34 per shoe.

Wow, so that means I'm keeping 100 pairs of shoes. And I still have another, um, 40+ pairs to get through. That still hardly seems possible. So I soldier on!

October tally

OK, well, I was going to do discards for the rest oft he month, but it's Nov 4th and I just want to catch up at this point. So, my October tally of my increasingly ridiculous shoe challenge.

In the month of October, I wore 21 pairs of shoes from my collection, at a total cost of $692, or average cost of $32.95.

So, I've been blogging shoes for 153 days.

I have shown you 104 of my shoes. I am keeping 91 (on the fence about 5 of those), trashing 3, donating 10.

So keeping 91 and getting rid of 13 is a cull rate of 12.5%. (My goal remains 20%, which means I have stacks to get rid of!).

And, I estimate that over the past 17 years or so I've spent $2926.75 on shoes, or an average cost of $28.14 per shoe. Hmm, somehow I need to subtract out the discards for these price totals, right? Not sure what to do about that, but shoes i no longer own shouldn't be counted, right?

I've started a more elaborate tagging system of labels because I was totally losing track. But still need to go back and re-tag many many more posts.

It'll be 2011 before I finish cataloging my shoes. Plus I still think there is a box of older shoes in the attic (black slouch boots!) that I cannot find. So stay tuned.

September tally

Not to worry friends! The shoe blogging will continue, and I'm going back to every day. I've got three pairs lined up for the discard pile, and have already worn two pairs this month that had never been worn before, so there's more to come. Somehow, though, I've just decided to do an extra 20 posts in October. Just for the fun of it. Hmmm. NaBloPoMo will be a piece of cake compared to this.

Plus I kind of said I was going to start real decluttering. Yikes. Pending unemployment has me stressed out.

So, I kinda on and off blogged/wore different shoes in September - 13 pairs, $413 total, average price $31.77.

I bought two pairs in September, and have worn both. (There are days I worry I am showing an alarming tendency to just acquiring shoes for the pleasure of owning them, not for wearing. Yet another step toward meeting my destiny of becoming a crazy hoarder!). Though, one purchase allowed me an extra discard.

Overall, I've been blogging shoes for 122 days (and yet no merchants are banging down my doors offering free samples yet! What's up with that?).

I've worn 83 pairs (almost half of my estimated total!).

I am keeping 68, trashing 1, donating 9, and on the fence about 5. (I need to go back and look at the fence ones as I think I later got rid of one of them. Also, I have got to get to the cobbler.)

That's 73 kept and 10 out of the house, so a cull rate of 12%. (I kind of have a goal here, and it's about 20%).

I estimate, over the past 15 + years, I've spent $2234.75 on these shoes, or an average cost of $26.92.

It's not escaped my attention that I've purchased 16 pairs of shoes this year, which is more shoes purchased in 9 months than most of my comment-ers own in total. (let's not even talk about the &^%*& pending unemployment thing, ok?)